Issues Depicted In The Book Thief By Mark Zuzak

Issues Depicted in The Book Thief In the novel The Book Thief, written by Mark Zuzak, the author constructs together an intricate story that explores many real-life events during World War II. The story is told through the eyes of Death the narrator, taking the readers on a journey of events following the life of Liesel Meminger. Throughout the text, several themes were shown to connect with non-fictional events happening in Germany during the Nazi Regime. Exploring characters in the book gives the readers a better understanding of how the novel depicts reality through the struggles each character faces. Therefore, the novel contains themes of poverty, misuse of power, and abandonment which connect to today’s society as people experience life.

Following the life of Liesel Meminger and her foster family who lives on Himmel Street, a relatively poor neighbourhood with people struggling to make ends meet. Her mother, Rosa Hubermann, who washes and delivers laundry for the richer families in town, starts to struggle once the war starts. Aside from the Hubbermans, Liesel’s good friend Rudy Steiner and his family were also struggling with the rest of the people residing on Himmel Street. This can be understood in the text from the following statements, “The Steiners were scratching things together to get by/ Like many other people on the Himmel Street side of town, they needed to trade” (Zuzak 149). Through these events in the novel, we can see poverty played a key role in shaping each character and became the motivation for

At the beginning of the book, she felt abandoned by her mother, and her brother, who she held dear had passed away. This is shown when Liesel questions why she was left at her foster parent’s doorsteps, “If her mother loved her, why leave her on someone else’s doorstep” (Zuzak 32). However, this was not the last time she had felt this way, especially when Hans Hubermann was drafted for war, and when Max Vandenburg had gone. Liesel expressed her heart being tired, as people in her life had been leaving. Furthermore, the night when the sirens had not gone off, she was again left alone. Therefore, the novel expresses many instances where characters experience abandonment. This is easily connected to readers as family members and people close to them