Mistakes In The Book Thief

Personally, I believe that everyone makes mistakes that can change their lifestyle forever. The Book Thief, which is written by Markus Zusak, is a novel that written from the point of view of Death. Concentrating on the Holocaust, Zusak focuses the novel on a little girl named Liesel and how she moves on through her life. Lamb to the Slaughter, written by Roald Dahl, is a short story where a woman murders her husband with a leg of lamb for a mistake that he made. Shortly after, she used her brains to figure her way out of that mess. The third text, The Sniper, written by Liam O’Flaherty, shows a sniper killing targeted people. Near the end of the book, he realized that he killed his own brother as well. The Book Thief, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, and “The Sniper” are such stories that have been able to teach me that humans make plenty of mistakes but those mistakes, however, cannot be erased.

During the Holocaust, even one one word against Hitler was enough to be killed. At the time, it would be completely unacceptable. When I was reading through The Book Thief, I came across a chapter where Liesel said “I hate the Führer. I hate him” (Zusak 115). In my opinion, this was a grave mistake because making a mistake at the wrong time can be a big issue. Next, The Book Thief also taught me that humans make mistakes by how they act. When Hans, The father of Liesel, painted over the the words Jewish Filth, he knew he was not “supposed to paint over slurs written on a Jewish shop front. Such behaviour was bad” (Zusak 104). I believe that his deed was correct but what good would that do? A new slur was painted within twenty-four hours and if he had risked his life for nothing, that would do nothing to help the Jewish shop owner. Therefore, The Book Thief taught me to watch my actions and be careful. The mistakes made by others should not be repeated by