Himmel Street In The Book Thief

The motif of Himmel Street in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak portrays the idea that Himmel Street changes for Liesel from a place she fears, to the place she starts to love and call home, to where she suffers great loss. In the beginning of this novel, as Liesel arrives Himmel Street, she feels alone and scared. Liesel clings to a gate next to her, “a gang of tears trudged from her eyes as she held on and refused to go inside. People started to gather on the street until Rosa Hubermann swore at them, after which they reversed back, whence they came” (Zusak 28). Liesel’s actions show that she feels scared and she is very uncomfortable with her surroundings. She also started to think about how her mother left her. When Liesel arrives in Molching, “she had at least some inkling that she was being saved, but that was not comfort. If her mother loved her, why leave her on someone else’s doorstep? Why? Why?” (32) This indicates that Liesel feels abandoned, alone, and she wonders why her mother would do this to her.

I expressed this idea by drawing each of these sections in order like a timeline. First, I drew the Hubermanns house looking dark and weird to show that Liesel feared the place when she first arrived. To the right, I used bright and warm colors for the house to show the comfort Liesel gets from her father. I also included a drawing of Han’s hugging Liesel representing their loving relationship. At the end of the poster, I brushed up some messy black and gray paint to show the bombing and symbolize the tragic loss for Liesel. For the background, I added a thin layer of gray paint to illustrate the darkness and sadness caused by the sorrowful events that have happened on Himmel Street. The different sections on the drawing depict the life changes Liesel went