Liesel Meminger, book stealer. Rudy Steiner, risk taker. Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Jew protectors. The list goes on. Many characters in The Book Thief exhibit examples of courage and daringness. It takes guts to steal books, to defy leaders, to take in the criminally wanted. In the dark times such as 1939-1945, such acts of courage are mandatory in a way, perhaps. The author of The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, finds many ways to display development and courage in his characters’ personalities.
The first example of this theme would be Liesel. She did not start out stealing books regularly in the beginning of this novel. The first book at the criminal hands of Liesel Meminger was lying not far from her young brother’s grave. The second, salvaged
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This young boy exhibits many examples of courage, even if they do go hand in hand with pure stupidity. For starters, Rudy repeatedly asks Liesel for a kiss. That is no doubt a daring act for a young boy such as himself. He also defies his Hitler Youth Division leaders, even with the consequences of more drills and general humiliation before his peers. Not to mention, in the beginning of The Book Thief, soon after we meet Rudy Steiner, we discover his obsession with Olympian Jesse Owens. We find that Rudy idolized the man so much that he covered himself in charcoal and ran around a track, much to his father’s dismay. Alex Steiner was merely concerned for his son’s safety, as any examples of differentiating from social norms, even appearances, posed a threat during that time period. Rudy also stole things relatively often, even if he wasn’t as prolific with his stealing as Liesel was. He and Liesel went to steal apples with Arthur Berg’s gang of apple thieves a number of times. Rudy also attempted to steal a rather large potato from a supermarket, though he failed. Zusak uses all of Rudy’s attempts at thievery to give us an idea of just how poor and desperate Rudy Steiner