During the six years of World War II, eight-million deaths occurred in the German military, concentration camps, and towns. The death toll could have been significantly higher if people had not fight back. In Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, the author creates a tremendously valuable motif of rebellion. Rebelling helps support the overall theme that people who fight on behalf of others bring hope and improvement for their society. There are many rebellious actions in this novel, but Liesel disobeys the most out of all the characters, which makes sense given she is the main character. All of the characters rebel against societal expectations and contribute to the central theme of The Book Thief in one way or another, especially Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner, and Hans Hubermann.
Frequently, the narrator, Death, refers to Liesel as the ‘Book Thief’ because she often steals books and uses them in positive ways. While people attend Hitler’s birthday book burning event, Liesel Meminger steals her second piece of literature, “She reached her hand in… She latched onto the closest of books. It was hot” (Zusak 120). Amidst everyone destroying the Jewish-affiliated books in order to support Nazi ideals, Liesel saves one of the books. Her rebellious act shows that no matter how
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The first time is when he answers about Hitler’s birthdate joking with, “April 20, 1889, the Birth of Christ. He even threw in Bethlehem” (295). Later that day, one of the Nazi officers asked Rudy the same question except this time the officer held the boy at knifepoint. Again, Rudy answered incorrectly, consequently suffering a terrible haircut. Another time Rudy shows disobedient behavior is when he publicly claims to want to kill the Führer after Nazis take away his father for war. These rebellious acts of noncooperation demonstrate and build hope that not everyone is brainwashed into believing Hitler is the supreme leader of