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The great
mountain in her life is her environment. Before the age of 4, Liesel ran from the
Nazis with her mother and brother, while her long vanished father, was labeled a
communist. Even after being adopted by a foster family with good German genes,
the environment is still against her mind. Nazi Germany is not the right place to ask
questions regarding government protocol and its punishments. Nor is it a place for a
little girl to grow up and find her own voice against the brutality which she and her
loved ones have suffered.
Luckily, with such strong character impeccable bravery. At the height of the
Second World War, it took a hefty amount of courage to do the right thing and
oppose the ideology that Hitler propagated. It took an even larger amount of
courage to hide a Jew in your basement during this time. Liesel displayed her valor
when she stole a book from a burning session even after everyone left just so she
could read a book. It took a great deal of nerve to help an old friend out by hiding
him under the basement, feeding him, and approaching a man you've never met to
ask him if he would hide the son of the man who died for him! It took some guts,
and a little anger, to knock some sense into the mayors wife by basically saying I
know your son died because his father made him join the army; but hes been dead
forever and you cant punish yourself for not standing up to the man you're married
to. You can live with some dignity and hold your head high. And it took even more
guts to break into the mayor's house to steal a book after the previously mentions
confrontation. It also took strength of will to dive into a freezing river in cold
weather just to grab your bestfriend/loves book. The amount of bravory these
characters contain is something the reader instantly grabs onto, and somewhere in
their thoughts hope that they would do the same in the face of utter oppression.
Foreshadowing is a huge literary device Zusak uses to pull in the reader. Death is
the narrator, and death itself admits it doesn't like beating around the bush.
Foreshadowing is a bit of an understatement, Death spoils everything. For instance,
in the middle of the book he straight up tells the reader that Rudy, Liesels best
friend and crush, will die. Another moment in the book(FUCK YOU I THOUGHT SHE
WAS GANNA MARRY RUDY YA DICK! and then he wont mention shit about her real
husband. I BET THAT WEDDING NIGHT WAS FUCKING FUN! WHY DONT YOU SPOIL
THAT FOR ME YOU DEAD ASS PIECE OF SHIT OMNIPRESENT FUCK!
anger writing over Mein Kampf (*this title means my struggle. Funny, because How
much could Hitler have struggled in comparison to the Jews he persecuted)
Max(jew in a basement) painted the pages of Mein Kampt and wrote about his own
life and struggles. Leaving his family on a moments notice, being the only one out
of his mother, aunts uncles and cusons to be taken to a safe location, fighting since
he was little for being jewish and getting into fist fights and becomming an
underground prize fighter. Growing up with out a father
The title of The Book Thief is fairly straight forward, there is a little girl in the
middle of Nazi Germany that steals books. The irony of the title is soon revealed
when the reader learns Liesel is illiterate. She steals her first book not to be read,
but as a momentum from her younger brothers abrupt death and burial. The Book
Thief also refences how hitler [is] destroying people with words, and now Liesel is
stealing them back.
Destroying nazi germany from the inside. Because they are near the heart
of the nazi party?!
The Book thief spans over 1939 to 1942, primarily in Mulching, German, a fictional
town just outside of Munich.
The reader is immediately greeted by the storys narrator, the grim reaper. Instead
of your traditional death, Markus Zusaks grim reaper is tired of his job, and scared
of humans and our destructive ways. When Zusak was asked why he choose to
narrate The Book Thief he says, I thought I'm writing a book about war, and
there's that old adage that war and death are best friends, but once you start
with that idea, then I thought, well, what if it's not quite like that?(562)