Examples Of Hardships In The Book Thief

People do not know the numerous hardships a young German girl can encounter throughout her childhood. Throughout the novel Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, a young German girl named Liesel, encounters several hardships. She is separated from her father, her brother dies, and finally she is separated from her mother and given to foster parents who only want her for money. She struggles with being different from other children when she is sent to school where she reads in front of the class, even though she does not know how to read and embarasses herself. She then takes it upon herself to learn to read and write. Liesel then has a difficult secret to keep involving the arrival of Max, a German Jew. The hardships of a young German girl are

A German Jew, Max Vandenburg who had been in hiding had arrived at the Hubermanns house. Max had arrived at the Hubermanns house because Max’s father had saved Han’s life during war and Hans offered that if Max’s family ever needed anything, he would help. One day, Hans tells Liesel “if you tell anyone about the man up there, we will all be in big trouble” (Zusak 203). Hans explained to Liesel that if someone found out about Max, at the very least, he and Mama will be taken away and will never come back. Hans told Liesel that if she tells anybody about Max he will take her books away and burn them and that Liesel would be taken away from him. Lisel began to sob and promised not to tell anybody. When Liesel was sitting on the floor of the Mayor’s library “the book quivered in her lap, the secret sat in her mouth” (Zusak 245). Sitting on the floor, only one thought filled Liesel’s mind, ‘There’s a Jew in my basement’. Although Liesel trusted the Mayor’s wife and told her about one of her book stealings from the fire, Liesel knew she could not tell the Mayor’s wife or everything she cared about would be taken away from her. Instead, Liesel told the Mayor’s wife, she had to get home. Lisel faced keeping a difficult secret, but she knew she could not tell a soul or she would face the