What is a friend? A common response to this question seems to be someone who accepts another for who they are. Another less used response to the same question is someone who leave another better than they once were. These two half definitions of friendship come to gather to explain that friend is someone who takes another how they already are and leaves that better than their previous state. True friendship often adds loyalty to ones character resulting in acts of courage. One of the strongest examples of the previous statement in found in the friendship of Liesel Meminger and Max Vandenburg in Markus Zusak’s writing, The Book Thief. Through her friendship with Max, Liesel’s rebellious behavior changes and she becomes more loyal, resulting …show more content…
This may be the reason why death sees in colors as explained by Zusak, “A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them” (Zusak 4). One such scene includes the building of the snowman in the Hubermanns basement. Max accepts Liesel’s child-like sense of entertainment. While Liesel loyally builds a snowman for Max. When the snowball scene turns out wrong, Liesel loyally tried to nurse him back to safety. Liesel had the courage to accept befriend Max and loyal enough to keep it a secret.
Courageously, Liesel went ahead and befriended Max. Liesel made Max feel wanted and his whole attitude changed. Instead of feeling like an unwanted Jew that represented everything wrong with Germany, Liesel made Max feel like a human. In other words, Liesel took Max how he already was and left him better than he was previous to their relationship. Liesel courageously developed loyalty toward Max in a time when she could have seen him as an enemy. For this reason, Liesel best illustrates courage in The Book Thief by befriending