The Book Thief Essay

Olivia Clark

Burger

English 10 Honors

5 May 2023

Passion Project

With the use of music I evaluated relationships shown in the book The Book Thief.

The song “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” by Queen describes Rudy and Liesel’s friendship. Rudy and Liesel become friends shortly after Liesel moved in with her foster parents. She impressed him with her soccer abilities and Rudy became drawn to her. Their childish love is shown when they steal food together, race each other, and call each other offensive nicknames. Throughout the book Rudy tries to impress Liesel and tries to get her to kiss him. In the song it says “turn on my charm, that’s because I’m a good old-fashioned lover boy.” Rudy is trying to charm Liesel in childish ways such as buying

Rosa Hubermann is constantly yelling profanities and insults at neighbors, Liesel, and her own husband. The reader perceives Rosa as a rude character and an awful mother and wife. But, throughout the book the reader sees that Rosa profanity is simply a love language, and her husband and foster daughter will say it back to her. It is odd to think that the insults make the family closer. The reader sees the love Rosa has for her daughter, and the love she has for her husband. The song “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Frank Sinatra shows Rosa’s and her husband, Hans’ relationship. As an older man Hans is sent off to clean up warsites as punishment after he helped a Jewish man that was heading for a concentration camp. Liesel and Rosa are very worried when he leaves that he will not make it back. Most nights when Hans was away Rosa would hold his accordion and sit with it and pray until she fell asleep. In the song it says “Within my heart, I know I will never start to smile again until I smile at you.” This song shows the pure love between Rosa and Hans. While they may disagree on many things and constantly make fun of one another, the reader is reminded of their love throughout the book. They are reminded of Rosa’s kindness when she did not question hiding a Jewish man in their house and instead helped him straight away. Once Hans goes to war the family shifts and seems more quiet and drab than

Throughout the book Death talks about picking up bodies from wars, concentration camps, and other various tragedies. The song “The World We Knew” by Frank Sinatra describes Death’s relationship with humankind. While reading the book the reader almost forgets that it’s not narrated in 3rd person. But every so often Death inserts themself in the chapter and reminds the reader that they are still there. This is shown when in the middle of a chapter Death says something such as “The Files of Recollection, Oh, yes, I definitely remember him. The sky was murky and deep like quicksand. There was a young man parceled up in barbed wire, like a giant crown of thorns. I untangled him and carried him out.” While reading the book the reader is torn between whether Death is making fun of humans or if Death feels troubled by their line of work. They mock how humans try to hold on and escape Death, but Death always catches up. But, the last thing said in the book is a quote from Death that reads “A Last Note From Your Narrator, I am haunted by humans.” This connects to “The World We Knew” because the song has an ominous feeling throughout. In the song it says “Over and over, I keep going over the world we knew.” This reminds me of how Death views war. In the book Death says “As usual, I collected humans, I was tired. And the year wasn’t even halfway over yet.” Death is seeing a repeating cycle of destruction conducted by humans. Death