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Hope In The Book Thief

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Albert Einstein once said, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” And so 6 million Jews did, even when only 15% of them lived. So are the Syrian refugees: 4.6 million of them fleeing the bloody civil war. Whether it be through losing one’s father, the highly efficient concentration camp, or crossing a highly defended border, hope can get you through anything. One good example of the power of hope is demonstrated in Night. Take a look at the big picture: millions of Jews are locked in this killing machine, and all they have to do to leave is to give up their faith and salute Hitler, and that’s not guaranteed, either. But they don’t. They keep their faith and die with it. They …show more content…

Liesel, a ten-year-old foster child abandoned by her mother, and Max, a German Jew living life hidden under her foster family’s basement, develop a relationship more powerful than the Holocaust itself. Max arrives at Liesel’s house one nondescript night and asks two questions to Liesel’s foster father, Hans: “‘Hans Hubermann?’” And “‘Do you still play the accordion?’”(173), but his real question is “‘Will you still help me?’’(185) Liesel and Max talk together, and Max makes two booklets made with pages of his Mein Kampf book and some paint. They’re called “The Standover Man” and “The Word Shaker,” and they represent Max’s life. Even when Max becomes very ill to the point of dying, Liesel hopes and gives him a collection of oddities, the best of which are an injured toy soldier, a slab of grief, and a cloud, which Liesel described. During an air raid, Liesel reads a book in the raid shelter, and Max looked outside after years inside. When the Hubermanns come back and ask, he explains, “There were stars… They burned my eyes.”(378) Max is captured by the Nazis after leaving the Hubermanns’ house, but survives and revisits Liesel, who lives through a bombing of her neighborhood that kills everyone else. Their relationship shows how strong hope and friendship can

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