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Humanity In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

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“Your greatest test is when you are able to bless someone while you are going through your own storm” -Rafael Garcia. The author conveys a sense of compassion by creating a family out of a group of unsuspecting people. By grouping together a newly book loving orphan, a Jewish man, an artist, and a short-tempered woman; Markus Zusak gave the reader a different outlook on a variety of people coming together.
He showed this by the time period of the holocaust, others setting aside their differences and sympathy. Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, shares the idea that humanity can unite in a time of turmoil. The holocaust shows the concept of assisting others in times of crisis. For instance, during the summer of 1942, the Gies couple allows …show more content…

They said to his mother they would bring him home. “One night as I was sleeping, 2 Ukrainian guards came in and called me. I thought they were going to shoot me. Instead, they took me to the infirmary. In the infirmary, I was put in bandages up to my neck. It looked like I had been injured at work. I was taken to a horse and buggy and brought to a little village nearby. The two men, the doctor and the professor, were there waiting for me. They took off my bandages and gave me clothes. They gave me a ticket and put me on the train. I do not know how they did it. I had been in that slave labor camp 9 months. The other people never came home.” The two Ukrainian guards were forced to work with Nazi Germany. Instead, they agreed with two Jews to help Sher escape. Likewise, in The Book Thief, during the bonfire, Liesel had previously given Tommy Muller a hiding. However, when Tommy hurts his ankle, she helps him get to safety. “Sitting down, he held his ankle and found Liesel Meminger’s face… “And”... “I’m sorry-for, you know”.”(Zusak 113) Both Liesel and the two Ukrainian and Jewish men helped Tommy and Joseph in a time of danger. They did it because they believed that is what the right thing to

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They lived in a pigeon coup on the roof, where none could get in. The Natzis started taking 7,000 Jews to concentration camps. Then every week after that they would take more. On the night of Yanek's bar mitzvah then needed to celebrate quickly because in the morning the Natzi’s would take 7,000 Jews from their homes. In the morning, it was a nightmare.

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In the story The Book Thief, the reader learns how sometimes behind darkness, hatred, and violence, there is love, passion, and connections. The author reveals this theme throughout the story by showing the evil side of people and also showing the careful side of people. For example, we see Liesel and Rudy actions of violence, theft, and hatred throughout the book. For example, we find Liesel and Rudy raiding an apple farm, Liesel getting into fights, thievery of Rudy stealing things from other people, and of course, Liesel thievery of books. But deep down inside, they are amazing people.

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“At that time it wasn’t anymore families. It was everybody to take care for himself.” Vladek Spiegelman would know first hand that friendships and family relationships were tested when lives were at stake, as a holocaust survivor he lived through many incidents where his life and the lives of others were on the line but yet only a few friends and family were willing to help. The others were opposed to helping them. In Art Spiegelman’s book Maus: My father Bleeds History he tells his father’s life from just before the war and his journey throughout Poland.

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Aristotle wrote, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light (Aristotle)”. The Holocaust was one of the darkest times humanity has ever seen. A machination brewed by an extraordinarily perverse man that resulted in the deaths of millions, and robbed millions more of their faith and hope. Families were torn apart, towns were destroyed, and humanity lost, all to satisfy one man’s extreme racism and psychotic agenda. If however, one only chooses to focus on the darkness, they might overlook the light, specifically in the two stories of boys who survived against all odds and shared their tales years after defying death.

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The Book Thief takes place in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler. When Hitler invaded Poland, France and Britain declared war on Germany, formally starting World War II. The Holocaust occurred during World War II in Nazi Germany; it was the deliberate murder of over six million Jews, and millions of others were traumatized by unrelenting treatment in concentration camps. There are numerous types of people in the world; one group presents ferocious qualities, and another group presents exemplary qualities; however, there are also people that balance both qualities. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Zusak demonstrates the theme of beauty and brutality in human nature through the characters of Liesel Meminger, Hans Hubermann, and Rosa Hubermann.

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When the raids continued to happen in Molching Liesel would bring her books to keep herself calm. Until one day papa said “if there are more raids, keep reading in the shelter” (442). That is exactly what Liesel did, even though she was in fear she used her words to help others once again. Ironically reading has not always been an easy task for Liesel Meminger. When she arrived to Himmel Street she could barley read a sentence and now, years later she decided to write her own story.

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Have you ever thought about the impact of your words? Do you understand the use of words? How does the way you speak the words express what you are trying to say? Words are considered to be an mysterious skill of communication in our daily life. They have the power to convey yourself as well as your thoughts and feelings.

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Liesel has realized she must respect the man who was the reason for her and her entire families suffering. She has realized she officially has lost her home, that she is completely isolated from the community. “It was quite a sight seeing an eleven year old girl try not to cry on church steps, saluting fuhrer”(Zusak 115). After losing all of these emotionally wrecking things Liesel learns and understands she needs to keep going forward. She refuses to give up she although times are rough manages to think, it could be worse.

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To love is to risk. Whether that is risking life, belief, health, or reputation, it is still a risk at any rate to give devotion to another. No era in history knows this better than during the Holocaust. Still, the most unexpected of people would die trying to help Jews escape persecution, they would help others who didn't share the same moral foundation as they did, they would share food rations when they barely had enough for themselves, or they would risk their public standing and forever be labeled as a sympathizer just to help a suffering soul regain his balance. Similarly, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief demonstrates a complete comprehension of how humans act against self preservation and individual comfort when challenged with harrowing situations that appeal to their own personal connections.

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The story of The Book Thief demonstrates how differently children can develop depending on their childhood and events in their youth. The characters demonstrate many examples of how events impact children’s growth and how traumatic experiences and events, as well as outside influences, can change the course of a person’s life, especially at a young age. The Book Thief is a novel written by Markus Zusak. It explores themes of loss, perspective, and change through the eyes of death as the narrator provides meaningful insight into what it means to be human as the story follows a young German girl during WWII whose family harbours a Jewish man. The adult world and the perspective of adults destroy the innocence and joy of children due to the hurt

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Through this unconventional format, Spiegelman unravels the Holocaust and presents its history in a way that has never been seen before. In both “The Shawl” and Maus, the Holocaust provides a historical backdrop to powerful, gut-wrenching stories of survival, hope, and horror for stories with vastly different characters, structure, and tone. While handling the same historical event, “The Shawl” and Maus treat its characters very differently, as Orzick focuses on three fictional women of varying ages while Spiegelman writes about his own family, especially his father. In Ozick’s “The Shawl”, readers follow Magda, Stella, and Rosa as they trek to a concentration camp and suffer inside it. Due to the short story format, very little background on the characters is given and even their relation to one another is hard to make out.

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The book demonstrates the impact the Holocaust had on one of humanity's strongest bonds, family.

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The novel “The Book Thief” written by Markus Zusak, is narrated by a being who identifies himself as Death. The author chose this character to be the point of view of his story in order to explain more elements of the world the novel takes place in. By using Death as the narrator, the author is able to give a unique perspective on all of the dying that occurs during this historical time period and in Liesel’s own life. In this novel, Death is not all-knowing. This meaning that he does not know everything that is occurring in this time or events that are occurring anywhere else in the world.

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He even tried to push her away, but the girl was too strong.’” (511) The time of the Holocaust was hell-like for the Jews. Just because of their religion, they were harassed and and abused by the Germans in inhumane ways. However, Liesel was a girl who stood up for humanity and justice.

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To Heal and to Hurt: The Importance of Words in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak “Words do two major things. They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.” This quote by Jim Rohn highlights the two major things words do, indicating they have a power, an important role in everyday lives. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is an outstanding representation of many topics including the most crucial one, the importance of words. It is the late 1930s to early 1940s in Germany during the World War II, and the main character, Death, cannot help himself but to be intrigued by Liesel Meminger’s story, a girl that lives in Munich, Germany on Himmel Street.

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