the book thief movie essay

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The Book Thief Book Vs Movie Essay

The Book Thief Essay Mark Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, was better than the film, as it dives deeper into the various perspectives and personalities of the characters. It builds up the character of Max, and the minor characters (such as the Holtzapfel family) build up the story. By reading this story, you learn about the themes of mortality and the power of words which aren’t as present in the film. Max, in the film, appears to be nothing more than another helpless and weak Jew. He is in hiding, he has to depend on others, he gets sick and he feels like a burden.

He is portrayed as such in the book as well, but the book also includes another side to him – the side that is strong and has love to fight for. You learn that from a young age, Max has always had a fighting spirit. When he was around 13, he was known as “the Jewish fist fighter,” a fist fighter who was determined to conquer. No matter what, he would never give in; not to his opponents, and especially not to death. “When death captures me,’ the boy vowed, she will feel my fist on his face,” (Zusak 189) When he becomes ill and bedridden, he does just this.

He fights off death. Even when facing the horrors of the Holocaust, he continues to fight. “In those days, they said the Jews preferred to simply stand and take things. [… ] Obviously, every Jew is not the same. ” (118) Max was not the same. He didn’t just accept what came to him. In the dark basement, hiding in fear, he would imagine himself going one on one against Hitler, fighting those who tried to bring him down. Simply by resisting and enduring, he was fighting against the Fuhrer.

Surviving the Holocaust was conquering Hitler and, essentially, death. And what was his reason for fighting so hard? Love. The movie hints at almost a romantic love, but that’s not the kind of love Max and Liesel share. It’s a familial one – they’ve become family. They provide the comfort in each other because they can relate and share their hardships; they’ve both lost loved ones from the war and suffer nightmares as a result. Max teaches Liesel to have an open mind and becomes her brother when she lost hers.

Liesel makes Max feel like he has a family again, she keeps him accompanied in the cold basement and keeps him connected to the world outside . Liesel fights for Max as much as Max fights for Liesel. They share such a close bond that it keeps Max motivated to continue fighting. “Often I wish this would all be over, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands. ” (313) In the movie, their relationship appears too rushed and too forced because of the screen time limit, so you don’t get to see the extent of their love for one another.

You don’t get to see Liesel desperately trying to find thirteen items to give to Max in hopes he’ll get better; you don’t get to see Max searching for Liesel in the crowd as he walks through the streets on his way to a concentration camp, and you don’t get to see them hug and cry when they do spot one another, when they are relieved yet scared . In the end, when they are reunited, you don’t see how happy they were, that they were so overwhelmed that they fell to the ground in tears. Because the movie only included the main characters, they left out many of the minor characters who make the book what it is .

Every individual character adds depth, adds dimension and adds realism to the Himmel Street neighbourhood as if they were your own neighbours. It isn’t just the street Liesel lives on; it becomes its own community that exists beyond her story. When you get these characters’ different perspectives, it gives you an insight into the mind of the Germans, the Jews, and even death himself . When you read about their thoughts and decisions, in a way, it also humanizes them. Frau Holtzapfel and her sons do not make an appearance in the movie.

While they play a minor part in the book, the contribution of these characters makes the ending much more impactful. It gives you a small glimpse into the life of a normal German family torn apart by the war. The Holtzapfels: Two sons – one who died at war and another who died from survivor’s guilt – and a mother who has now just lost both her sons in under 6 months. “According to the book thief, Frau Holtzapfel hugged the body for nearly an hour. ” (505) The Hubermanns are another family torn by the German war.

Hans Junior was not included in the movie, but without him, you don’t get to see the dynamics of this family. “The young man was a Nazi; his father was not. ” (104) It demonstrates that not everybody has the same views, and politics can change relationships between anybody. Another character, or narrator, per se, that the movie doesn’t feature as often is death. He is the source of an unbiased view on humans because his reason for loving them doesn’t stem from the bias of being human. He, as an observer, loves humans simply because of the way they are.

In the movie, it becomes biased when you forget that he is narrating, as you instead experience the story through Liesel’s perspective. In the book, you are constantly reminded that he is there. It’s better because death and reader, quite frankly, share similar views. They both attempt to learn about the stories of each character, to try and understand and decipher them through their ugliness and through their glory . You learn to love the characters not for their political views, but for just being human.

And unlike a traditional third-person narrator, death has emotions – he feels sadness, he feels joy, and he gets tired of his job just like any ordinary person. His job even makes him break down every now and then, especially when faced with the death of innocent children like Rudy. “He steps on my heart. He makes me cry. ” (531) He doesn’t want people to die, but he can’t spare anyone. He does not have control over how people die, he is just what happens when you do. “I am a result. ” (6) That is what differentiates death from a regular human, and that is why he still tries to understand them.

When you learn more about death and about the way he observes and studies people, it gives more meaning to the phrase, “I am haunted by humans. ” (550) Because he studies them, you study them, and you learn to love the characters as much as him. “Here is a fun fact: You are going to die. ” (3) Death is not only a narrator; he is a theme in the book as well. Without him being apparent in the movie, you lose the meaning behind that theme. Unlike in the movie, death constantly reminds you to be aware of the characters’ mortality. In the very first scene of the book, somebody dies.

It’s because death is just a normal part of being human. It’s not something to fear and it’s not something to celebrate either; death is just an event that will occur and we’ll all have to face that reality at some point in our lives. Death is just a part of you. “You want to know what I truly look like? I’ll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue. ” (307) It’s something to mourn over, but you eventually come to terms with it and remember the people for who they were and not for what happened to them. In the end, this message helps Liesel cope and grow, and the readers learn from this as well.

Because we are aware of the deaths to come, it doesn’t become a tragedy like in the movie . It was something that was sad, but you remembered the story for the characters and not for the sorrow you felt. Watching the movie erases this message of the “power of words”, whereas reading the book is an example of its own meaningful message. It talks about more than just Liesel’s story; it portrays a deeper message — that words have power. They have the power to spread hate or to spread love. When Liesel was illiterate, she claimed to have loved the Fuhrer.

This changes when Liesel learns to read; she asks to read Mein Kampf, a book about Nazi propaganda, and Max notes how “that would be like the lamb handing a knife to the butcher. ” (221) She instead learns about the Nazism elsewhere and realizes that Hitler’s words may have very well killed her own parents, her own brother, and even possibly Max . “Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing. ” (521) Max writes over the pages in the propaganda book and instead creates The Word Shaker, a story about a little girl who is able to stand up against the Hitler’s brainwashing and instead spreads love with her words.

It empowers Liesel; it shows her that words can also be used to help others. In the raid shelter, when everyone is cowering under the floorboards, she reads to them. She even continues to read to Frau Holtzapfel when she is lonely. The Fuhrer’s words spread fear, but Liesel’s bring peace – love. Liesel writes in the journal (given to her by Ilsa Hermann), “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right. ” (528) Liesel learns that words can manipulate the situation for control or for comfort, and she chooses to write for comfort and for her love of others.

When you read the book, you carry this message even when it’s over. When you watch the movie, the message ends when the film ends. The movie was not as compelling as the book due to its lack of character development . It fails to expand on the strength of the character of Max, and it doesn’t include the perspectives of the minor characters who help shape the story . By watching The Book Thief instead of reading it, you lose the important ideas of mortality and of the power of words. “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right. ” (528)

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THE BOOK THIEF

Suggesting a Cross-Curricular Approach Coordinating ELA and History Classes

SUBJECTS — World/Germany, WW-II, ELA (theme, personification, symbol, & irony);

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Families in Crisis;

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility, Caring.

AGE : 13+; MPAA Rating — PG-13 for some violence and intense depiction of thematic material;

Drama; 2013, 121 minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com .

HAVE STUDENTS READ THE BOOK! The best selling novel on which the movie is based is truly a wonder and is loved by millions, teenage and adult. The movie retains the remarkable human characters who are the foundation of the story, the setting, and many of the events described in the book. However, no movie can capture the depth of this novel and much has necessarily been lost in the adaptation of 550 pages of text to a two-hour film.

This Learning Guide contains materials for teaching the novel as well as the movie. The more students know about pre-WWII Germany, the Holocaust, the Blitz, and the Allies’ devastating response, the more they will appreciate Markus Zusak’s worldwide best-seller. Thus, TWM suggests cooperation between ELA and history instructors. However, the Guide also provides the basic historical background that can be used by ELA teachers when there is no opportunity to coordinate with a history instructor.

This Guide includes reports of actual events on which a few episodes in the story are based. These increase the veracity of both the novel and the film.

Benefits of the Movie Possible Problems Parenting Points Selected Awards & Cast Helpful Background

Using the Movie in the Classroom Discussion Questions Social-Emotional Learning Moral-Ethical Emphasis

Assignments and Projects Bridges to Reading Links to the Internet Bibliography

MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS

TWM offers the following movie worksheets to keep students’ minds on the film and to focus their attention on the lessons to be learned from the movie.

Film Study Worksheet for ELA Classes ;

Film Study Worksheet for Social Studies Classes for a Work of Historical Fiction

Worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects .

Teachers can modify the movie worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project .

DESCRIPTION

The Book Thief is the tale of a young orphan named Liesel and the people who love her in a small German town just before and during WWII. The story shows that the power of love overcomes tragedy and hardship. Set among civilians living in Nazi Germany, The Book Thief demonstrates that even among a vicious and feared enemy there are valuable people of character. The story leads the reader/viewer to a new understanding of the abrupt and indiscriminate death caused by aerial bombardment of civilian communities.

SELECTED AWARDS & CAST

Selected Awards:

This film received several awards nominations for the best musical score.

Featured Actors:

Sophie Nélisse as Liesel Meminger; Geoffrey Rush as Hans Hubermann; Emily Watson as Rosa Hubermann; Nico Liersch as Rudy Steiner; Roger Allam as Narrator / Death (voice); Heike Makatschn as Liesel’s Mother; Kirsten Block as Frau Heinrich.

Brian Percival.

BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE

When shown after the book has been read, the movie allows teachers to confirm lessons taught using the novel and to demonstrate how a book and its adaptation to film can be independent works of art. For classes in which reading levels do not permit students to experience the novel, the movie is an excellent example of cinematic literature from which lessons about a character-driven story, plot, irony, and theme can be crafted.

Students will gain new understanding of the power of love and the horrors of war. In ELA classes students will be exposed to the important themes set out in the story, be able to analyze a character-driven story, derive its themes, and explore the use of irony. Both novel and movie offer good occasions for discussion and writing assignments. For history classes the story will provide a vivid added dimension to events in Germany before and during WWII, especially of the Allies’ aerial bombardment of Germany.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

Parenting points.

Your child should be aware of the history of WWII set out in the Introductory Section of this Learning Guide. Before watching the film tell him or her that in this story, the narrator is a personification of death. After watching the film, read the selected quotations from the author about some of the real events that are reflected in the story.

HELPFUL BACKGROUND

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE STORY TOLD IN THE NOVEL AND THE STORY TOLD IN THE FILM

“I see the book and film as two completely different things. Like brothers, they might look the same at times, and sound it. They might even have the same blood in their veins. But they go their own ways.” Markus Zusak in the Sydney Morning Herald.

• The movie does not adequately develop and de-emphasizes the character of the narrator, Death.
• In the novel, Max insists upon sleeping in the basement, after his first sleep of several nights. In the movie, it is fear of discovery that sent him downstairs. In the book, the Hubermanns bring Max back up to sleep in Liesel’s room because of the cold in the cellar. This does not occur in the movie.
• The entire food-stealing subplot is not in the movie. The subsidiary characters and the emotional development of the characters of Liesel and Rudy that occur because of the food stealing are absent from the film.
• In the movie, Liesel calms the people in the air-raid shelter by telling them a story reminiscent of Max that allows the audience to reflect on Max’ situation and her reaction to it. In the novel, she reads from a book, an action which is more in sync with the themes of the importance of reading.
• In the novel, Rudy’s father is sent to war as a punishment for not permitting Rudy to attend an elite Nazi school. One of the Zusak family stories that inspired the book was that Marcus Zusak’s grandfather was drafted into the German army as retribution for not allowing his son, Marcus’s father, to be sent to a special Nazi school. The novel includes this story, but in the movie, Rudy’s father is drafted before Rudy is offered the opportunity to go to the school. The only part of this incident that remains in the film is the offer to Rudy to attend the school and his family’s refusal to allow him to go. In the novel, both Hans and Mr. Steiner are drafted as punishment for not cooperating with the Nazi regime.
• In the book, Hans tries to give bread to a starving Jewish man and is whipped for his actions. As a result of this impulsive action, it is not deemed safe for Max to remain hidden in the basement. In the movie, the confrontation with the Nazi authorities that sets up Max leaving the Hubermann’s home occurs when a man is taken away by the Gestapo which has been examining birth certificates looking for people born Jewish who are still at large in the country. Hans protests that he has known the man all his life, and the Gestapo officer pushes Hans to the ground and takes his name. In both novel and film, Liesel and Rudy scatter bread for a column of starving Jews. They are chased by a soldier.
• The subplots of the hatred between Rosa and Mrs. Holtzapfel, the return home of Half-staff’s son, his suicide, and Liesel reading to Mrs. Holtzapfel are not included in the film. Again, this is important information relating to the development of Liesel’s character and themes of the book that were excised from the film, undoubtedly due to time constraints.
• In the novel, the use of walls in the basement for Liesel to learn to read is haphazard and not organized. In the movie, Hans paints section for words of each letter of the alphabet.
• The aspect of Max’s character as a fighter and the origins of his friendship with the man who saved him are not developed in the movie.
• The adult children of the Hubermanns are not in the film. Again, this excludes some interesting background and character development that are included in the novel.
• In the film, the circumstances in which the mayor and his wife stopped using Rosa to wash their laundry are changed, and Liesel doesn’t yell at the mayor’s wife and insult her.

USING THE MOVIE IN THE CLASSROOM

Before Reading the Book or Watching the Movie:

Coordination of classes.

The history teacher should take the lead in providing the historical background necessary to fully understand the story. The topics are set out below. If no history teacher is available to pair with, ELA teachers can provide the essential background from the information set out below. This information can also be provided through student reports.

Background to Help Students Get the Most from the Novel and the Film

Show the locations of Germany, Munich, England, and London. Molching, the fictional town in which the movie is set, is along a major route to the notorious German concentration camp of Dachau.

The First World War

WWI, in which England, France, and Russia fought Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey was one of the deadliest wars in history. The war was at a stalemate until 1917 when the U.S. intervened on behalf of the English and French. Jews fought for their various countries on both sides of the conflict.

The Nazification of German Society

The Nazi party and Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Over time the Nazis thoroughly dominated Germany with all institutions of society being Nazified or disbanded. All dissenters, such as democrats, socialists, communists, and the religious were ruthlessly suppressed. Books which contained writings that did not conform to the Nazi ideology of Aryan superiority were burned. Paintings and other works of art that the Nazis disliked were destroyed.

The Nazi party used propaganda, including Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), to acquire and maintain control over German society.

Hitler Youth and United German Girls

All children were required to belong to the Hitler Youth (for boys) and the United German Girls; the boys were prepared to be soldiers and girls were prepared to be homemakers and mothers. In 1933 Hitler stated that:

My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes…That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication…That is how I will create the New Order.

The Holocaust

In Nazi Germany, Jews, political opponents of the Nazis, socialists, communists, the very religious, the handicapped, and Gypsies were hunted down and placed into concentration camps. The goal of the Nazis was to “purify” Germany of people who were their opponents and of people who didn’t conform to the ideal of an Aryan. In addition, non-Jews from Nazi occupied countries, such as Poland, Russia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Holland, and France were killed in the concentration camps. It is estimated that 6,000,000 Jews died in the concentration camps and another 5,000,000 non-Jews died there as well. In addition, the Germans killed millions in the countries that they conquered without bothering to take them to concentration camps.

The concentration camp at Dachau, which was close to Munich, held clergy, communists and other political opponents of the Nazis, German royals and aristocrats, resistance fighters, scientists, writers and, of course, Jews. The conditions at Dachau were notoriously brutal. In addition, inmates at Dachau were subject to inhumane medical experiments which often caused their deaths. Dachau was also a major slave labor center. Other concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, were established for the purpose of simply killing people.

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht means, in German, “the night of crystal.” On November 9 – 10, 1938 the Nazis coordinated attacks against Jewish synagogues and business throughout Germany, Austria, and German occupied areas of Czechoslovakia. The name comes from the shards of glass from the broken windows of buildings owned by Jews. That night Nazi rioters destroyed 267 synagogues and 7500 businesses. Ninety-one people were killed, and there were numerous rapes. The authorities looked on and, in fact, cooperated. 30,000 young Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated for no reason. Fire fighters would not douse the flames on Jewish-owned buildings but only sought to prevent the flames from spreading to structures owned by non-Jews.

Jesse Owens

Hitler had planned to use the 1936 Summer Olympics which were held in Berlin to show the superiority of Aryan athletes. It didn’t turn out that way, in large part because of Jesse Owens, an African-American. Owens won four gold medals: in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, the long jump, and the 4×100 meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the games. Jesse Owens ran track for Ohio State University and held the world record in the long jump for 25 years.

German Bombing of England and Allied Bombing of Germany

World War II saw the first sustained aerial bombing of cities as a strategy of war. In those days, there were no precision-guided bombs as there are now. Aerial bombing was very inaccurate and many bombs missed their targets. In the summer of 1940, the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, started bombing military and industrial sites in England. In September 1940 the Luftwaffe shifted its tactics and bombed civilian areas of British cities, particularly London. The goals were to degrade British industry and military preparedness and to demoralize the population in preparation for a German invasion of England. The bombing of civilian areas lasted for eight months, until the following May, when Hitler gave up on the idea of invading England and turned his attention to Russia. The British called the bombing campaign “the Blitz.” The Blitz only stiffened British resolve to fight.

The German bombing of London was intense. During the first 57 days of the Blitz, London was bombed day and night. In all, 40,000 – 43,000 civilians in London and other British cities were killed by the Luftwaffe between September 1940 and May 1941. Another approximately 46,000 were injured. 1.4 million were made homeless. Later in the war, the British and the Americans repaid the favor with aerial bombing that killed more than 300,000 German civilians, destroying entire neighborhoods. Again, the stated reasons were to degrade war industries, disrupt military preparedness, and demoralize the population. There is no evidence that the air campaign demoralized the German population. While today the indiscriminate killing of civilians from the air would clearly be considered a war crime, no German official was prosecuted for his participation in the Blitz. Some historians contend that this was because the U.S. and British air forces had themselves killed so many civilians from the air.

By the end of the war, the Germans had lost the ability to send bombers to England. However, they fought back with V-2 rockets, the first guided missiles. The V-2s killed about six thousand British civilians and wounded another seventeen thousand. V-2s were more accurate than bombing from airplanes but did not have anything like the accuracy of modern cruise missiles which can hit a specific building. Casualties would have been much worse except for a British disinformation campaign that convinced the Germans that the V-2 rockets were over-shooting London targets by 10 to 20 miles. The Germans fell for it and this limited the V-2’s effectiveness. After the war Germans who worked on the V-2 program, including Wernher von Braun, were recruited by the Allies and the Russians and became leaders of the competing American and Soviet space programs. See The Right Stuff. They were not prosecuted for war crimes.

Special Note for Classes That Watch the Movie But Don’t Read the Book:

Teachers: The movie could have done a better job of introducing the narrator. To correct for this, simply tell students that the story has an unusual narrator: i.e. Death. He starts and ends the film.

After Reading the Novel or Watching the Movie:

The author has stated that the book includes incidents contained in stories told to the author by his parents. Several are set out below. The fact that scenes in the novel and the movie relate to real-life events, that the author’s father had a friend who was mistreated by the Hitler Youth leaders, and that his mother lived with foster parents during the war enhance the story’s veracity. Read or relate the following statements by the author to the class.

When I was growing up in suburban Sydney, I was told stories of cities on fire and Jews being marched to concentration camps. Both my parents grew up in Europe during World War II, and although they were extremely young at the time, in hindsight, they were able to understand many things. Two stories my mother told me about growing up in Munich always stuck with me. One was about a burning sky when the city was bombed. The other was about a boy being whipped on the street for giving a starving Jewish man a piece of bread. The man sank to his knees and thanked the boy, but the bread was stripped away and both the taker of the bread and the giver were punished.

You don’t really think of humor when you think of that time, but there were a lot of funny stories as well. I knew about my dad “jigging” as we say in Australia the Hitler Youth meetings, because he had a friend who suffered at the hands of the leaders. So they just said, “We’re not going. We’re going to go to the river instead and get dirty enough to fool our parents.” Another story I knew was about Hitler’s birthday, and my mother’s foster father refused to fly the Nazi flag. His wife said to him, “You’re going to fly the flag or else they’re going to come for us.” These are the stories I knew, and I thought, “I haven’t seen that on all the documentaries. I’m going to use these because this hasn’t necessarily been done a lot.” Interview with Markus Zusak, Author of The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger Mother/Daughter Book Club; Posted on February 24, 2010, 3:33 p.m.

The author also stated that “… [M]y dad stopped going to Hitler Youth, the same way Rudy did. He was also hand-picked to join a selective school for Nazis and his father was sent to war for refusing to hand him over.” Ten Questions with Markus Zusak Politics and Prose Bookstore;

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The following discussion questions relate to theme. click here for additional discussion questions on theme and for questions regarding some of the literary-cinematic devices found in the novel or the movie, such as irony, personification, and symbol.

1. Identify a theme from the story that taught you something or confirmed or expanded your understanding of something that you already knew.

Suggested Response:

Students will formulate the themes in their own way. The substance is what is important. Students may also see additional themes in the film. The following suggestions are not in order of importance. They may overlap.

A. The enemy population in war includes many good people and it is a tragedy when they die; thus all civilian casualties are a great loss and a great injustice, as are many military casualties. (As to military casualties, see All Quiet on the Western Front.)

B. Human nature has a strong element of duality. As Death said, “I am always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.” p. 491.

C. Love is the basis of all that is good and great in the human character: it heals, nurtures and allows the best in others and self to flourish.

D. Love is the strongest and most important emotion, having the power to overcome great loss; in other words, the human spirit is strong and can survive many terrible losses through the power of love. [Themes C and D are, of course, related.]

E. Words are extremely powerful because they motivate people to act and affect how people see others.

F. The good in human nature triumphs over everything, including evil and the inevitability and randomness of death.

G. Meeting your responsibilities (as Hans did in hiding Max) is essential for good moral character and self-respect.

2. Who are the killers in this story? What is the significance of this fact?

There are two sets. It’s the American or British airmen who dropped the bombs that destroyed Heaven Street and killed Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and the others. While the Nazis threatened the inhabitants of Heaven Street and in the background were doing their atrocities in the Holocaust, it was the Allies who killed the people who Liesel loved. The significance of this fact is that in an all-out war, like WWII, hundreds of thousands civilians are killed, including people like the characters in this story.

3. What does this story tell us about death? (Death in this question does not include the character of the narrator in this story.)

Death, especially death in war, is random and senseless. Students might also note that death is a process (verb) and a result (noun).

4. Some commentators say that the strongest literary element in this story is characterization and that plot is secondary. Describe why they say this and why you agree or disagree.

This is clearly a character-driven story. The characterizations are strong. The climax, the Allied bombing of Himmel Street has nothing to do with the actions of any of the characters or the conflicts described in the story. For the characters and the issues they have been dealing with, the resolution comes, as it were, out of the blue.

5. Today, the bombing of a street like Himmel Street would probably be considered a war crime. Why is that? What is the implication of your answer to the use of atomic weapons?

There is no one correct answer to this question. Good responses will discuss the advancing civilization of the world, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” (MLK). A good discussion will cover the following areas. Some would say that it depends upon the type of war. Civilian casualties should be very restricted in limited wars, such as the recent wars fought by the U.S. and its allies. A strong response will note the availability of cruise missiles which can guide bombs to targets as small as a specific building. Atomic bombs are indiscriminate weapons that destroy entire cities. Could atomic weapons ever be used in a limited war? What if Iran develops a nuclear weapon and bombs Tel Aviv? Would the Israelis or the U.S. be justified in dropping a nuclear bomb on Tehran? What about all the fabulous innocent people living in Tehran?

See TWM’s unit on Mass Casualties and Making Decisions About War which provides an in-depth analysis of the decision to launch a nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Students who have read The Book Thief or who have seen the movie, might be interested in this unit.

Additional discussion questions on some of the literary/cinematic devices relating to the novel or the movie.

6. A commentator wrote that, “Without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable, hard-won hope.” What is that hope?

The hope is that people can survive terrible circumstances and still have lives filled with love, as Liesel did. All the loving people in the novel embody that hope: Hans, Rosa, Rudy, the Mayor’s wife, and especially Liesel. Liesel becomes someone so alive and giving that even Death cannot help but love her and while Death may not be obsessed with them Hans, Rosa, and Rudy are memorable characters that all human readers/moviegoers will come to love. The quote is from Fighting for Their Lives by John Green, New York Times, May 14, 2006

7. Liesel is an admirable character, but there is something she did in this story that she will regret all her life. What was it and how does it relate to a major theme of the story?

Liesel will regret not allowing Rudy to kiss her; in other words, not allowing Rudy to express how much he loved her. And also not being able to tell him how much she loved him. The theme that this relates to is the positive power of love (Item C in the suggested response to question #1 in the Learning Guide). Of course, Liesel’s refusal was innocent and totally appropriate for a girl her age. It was only in light of Rudy’s unexpected and sudden death that it could be seen as an error.

8. The following two questions should be asked together:

A. What is the reason for Liesel’s brother, Hans, Rosa, and Rudy to die and for Liesel and Max to live?

There is no reason. Death is random.

B. This story suggests how to respond to the random dreadfulness of death. What does it tell us?

The only way to respond to the random dreadfulness of death is through a commitment to life and with love for the living.

9. In reality, is death-haunted by human beings? Why is the personification of death, the narrator of this story haunted by humans?

Death (the verb) is a process. Death the noun is a result. (p. 6). In reality, death has no feelings. However, as a literary device, as a narrator, “Death” must care about humans. Otherwise, the story would be flat and boring. But most importantly, Death is haunted by human beings because a theme of the book is that despite dreadfulness and inevitability of death, the human spirit triumphs over all; and in fact, as human beings, we need to believe that and we should believe it.

10. Several characters in the story suffer from survivor’s guilt in this story. What is survivor’s guilt and how do the characters deal with it.

Survivor’s guilt can occur when a person survives a traumatic event and others do not. Survivors will sometimes feel guilty as if they have done something wrong, when, in fact, they were just lucky or smart. Hans suffers from survivor’s guilt because he was the only person in his unit to survive an engagement. Hans, a man who understands the importance of love, takes his guilt and uses it to learn to play the accordion and to help Max. The son of Ms. Hostapfel commits suicide. Max feels guilty that he was happy to be alive when he left his family, most of whom undoubtedly were murdered by the Nazis. We are not really told how he deals with that but Death comments that he felt it all his life.

11. The novel contains the following passage at page 65:

Some crunched numbers. — Since 1933, ninety percent of Germans showed unflinching support for Adolf Hitler. That leaves ten percent who didn’t. Hans Hubermann belonged to the ten percent.

Consider this passage in relation to the one below from a novel called The Magus by John Fowles.

The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed. I suppose one could say that Hitler didn’t betray his self. . . . But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good. (The Magus, p. 132)

As a member of a society, what do these passages mean to you? Do you think that Hans did enough to resist Hitler?

There is evil in every society. These passages tell us that we cannot stand idly by and allow our society to do terrible things. We must do what we can to enhance the good and restrain the evil. There is no good response to the question of whether Hans did enough to resist Hitler. A few Germans did resist the Nazis and paid for their actions with their lives. See The White Rose.

Personification of the All-Seeing Narrator

12. What was the benefit to the story that the narrator was a personification of death?

There are many; here are some examples. Students will probably come up with their own. (a) Using Death as a narrator allows the author/filmmakers and the reader/viewer to look at the lives and deaths of the characters from a vantage point that is something other than just being human. Since one of the important themes of the story is a celebration of the human spirit and of the human capacity for love and survival even through horrific circumstances, having Death be in awe of that spirit, haunted by humans as he says in the last words of the book and the film, allows the author to celebrate the human condition without appearing overly proud. In addition, the events of the story are so terrible that Death, as a non-human (a “result” as he says) can discuss them dispassionately, whereas a human observer would not be able to do this. Death’s lack of human feeling allows the reader/viewer to supply the emotion and in doing so, the reader/viewer can feel the emotion more exquisitely. (b) Having Death as a narrator is also a clear foreshadowing that important characters will die and allows explicit foreshadowing in the novel and the film. (c) Using Death as the narrator provides the opportunity for one of the chief ironies of the story, i.e., that death, which will eventually conquer all people and deprive them of their humanity, is obsessed with humanity especially by the character and strength of a little girl. (d) Using Death as a narrator immediately elevates the story to one that involves important questions of the human condition. (e) Having Death as the Narrator allows for numerous interesting ideas to be presented. Two examples are set out below:

One small fact: you are going to die. Despite every effort, no one lives forever. Sorry to be such a spoiler. My advice is when the time comes, don’t panic. It doesn’t seem to help.

It’s always been the same. The excitement and rush to war. I met so many young men over the years who have thought they were running at their enemy, when the truth was, they were running to me.

13. Death has different reactions to the souls of the people that it takes in the story. What do those reactions have in common?

Death’s reaction is very human and life-affirming. This is the essence of personification and one of the central ironies of the story.

14. In this story, death is personified, that is, it is given human characteristics despite the fact that it is not human; it’s a process (as a verb) or a result (as a noun). What is your reaction to that character?

There is no one correct answer. Some may say that they feared him. Others may say that he was wise. Some may say that he was cynical. Others may refer to his sense of humor. Still others may say that he was ludicrous.

15. Is the personification of Death as presented in this story a helpful concept?

There is no one correct answer. A good discussion will include the idea that it is not helpful in life because it doesn’t matter to Liesel or to us that death is haunted by humans. Death is cold, hard and the taking of our humanity. Another good point is that it is an overly romantic concept. Others may say that it gives them a sense of comfort even though it is a fantasy. [Teachers can further ask, “Why is that?” The answer is that we are human beings and we are afraid of death. The idea that death takes account of our actions is part of the idea that the universe takes account of our actions and that is comforting; since we are all going to die.]

16. Why are Liesel and her wonderful book spared?

Chance, only chance.

17. Identify two symbols in this story.

Each of these symbols can be described in different ways. They include:

• Heaven Street: This is the name of the street on which the major characters live. It is the street where Liesel found love and happiness, where she learned to read, and where she started writing. With all the other problems that Heaven Street had, at least it gave her that and that was her source of happiness, i.e., it was heaven.
• Books, Words, Reading: There are a number of ways to describe this. Books and the ability to read are the means to salvation, literally, Liesel is saved because she went to the basement the night of the bombing to write her memoirs. Liesel is able to calm the people in the bomb shelter by using words: telling them a story or reading from a book. In the novel she does the same for Frau Holtzapfel. Death, who is haunted by humans, reads Liesel’s memoirs many times, i.e., life asserts itself over death through Liesel’s book, as Markus Zusak does through his book. Max is saved by his use of Mein Kampf to divert suspicion when he is traveling. Hans is saved when he is chosen to write some letters rather than go into the battle in which his platoon is decimated. Writing is a bell-weather for relationships. When Liesel’s mother doesn’t write back, she knows she’s dead. Liesel’s relationship with Frau Hermann, the Mayor’s wife, is based on books and it is Frau Hermann who gives Liesel a home after the bombing. Michael Holtzapfel explains his decision to take his own life in writing. However, books are also the means by which Hitler seduced the German people, as symbolized by the book Mein Kampf. So, it could be said that books, words and reading symbolize power for good or for evil.
• The Accordion: The accordion represents the best of Hans. It was given to him by Erik Vandenberg, the man who saved his life. Playing the accordion is a source of joy and comfort for Hans and for Hans’ audience. Rosa holds it to her breast and sleeps with it when Hans is away. It is a constant reminder and reaffirmation of his promise to Max’ father; complying with that promise, at great risk to himself and his family, ennobles Hans. One of Max’s first words to Hans when he shows up at the Hubermann’s door is, “Do you still play the accordion?” When Hans returns from military duty, somewhat broken after his experiences, it is difficult for him to play.
• Bread: In this story, bread is the staff of life, its archetypical meaning. However, when the Hans (in the novel) and the children (in the movie) give it to starving Jews it is more than that. It is respect and honor; an acknowledgment that they are human beings worthy of respect. This is why in the novel the old man kneels before Hans as, in the Zusak family story, the old man kneeled before the boy who gave him bread.
• The Snow Ball Fight and the Snow Man: These are a symbol for life. We have to do it and in the end it all melts away. Hopefully, we’ll have a great time in the process like the Hubermanns, Liesel and Max.
• The Grave Digger’s Handbook is the first book that Liesel uses to learn to read. Since reading is life for Liesel the name of her first book is an ironic symbol for that fact.
• The pages of Hitler’s Mein Kampf are whitewashed to become the pages of Liesel’s book.

18. List some instances of situational in the story.

Note to teachers: This story has ironic elements but the irony is not nearly so pervasive as the irony in other stories, such as Cyrano de Bergerac . A non-exhaustive list of ironies is set out below.

• Death being haunted by life, “usually, people are haunted by the fear of death;”
• Death has typical affectionate human reactions to each of the people whose souls he gathers; Death, however, is an impersonal process which results in the loss of human life and all that is human;
• Max, the Jew, uses a volume of Mein Kampf as a shield to avoid detections as he travels incognito in Germany;
• It is the pages of Mein Kampf, whitewashed by Max, that are the pages that Liesel uses to write her book;
• Rudy, the blue-eye, blond haired, perfect Aryan type is obsessed by Jesse Owens, a black athlete;
• Liesel who starts out not knowing how to read is saved by writing;
• Liesel is not supposed to be in the basement – she’s supposed to be upstairs in bed; but she lives because she’s in the basement;
• Liesel survives in a basement that was deemed too shallow to be an adequate shelter; Max also survives in that basement but not from an air raid;
• Hans’ life was saved when his friend Erik Vandenberg nominated him to stay back from the engagement and write letters for an officer; however, Hans wasn’t so good at reading and writing himself (obviously Mr. Vandenberg had more in mind than a good person to write letters when he suggested that his friend Hans stay back from the engagement — one would like to think that Mr. Vandenberg knew that Max was a good and loving soul who would do good in the world);
• The Mayor, the leader of the book burners, has a library full of books.
• The beginning of Liesel’s salvation is through The Grave Digger’s Handbook;
• The name of the first book that Liesel reads, the book on which she first learns to read, is The Grave Digger’s Handbook; since, for Liesel, reading is life, it is ironic that the book that Liesel uses to learn how to live is called The Grave Digger’s Handbook.

Other Literary Elements – Miscellaneous Questions [for students reading the book]

19. In the novel, Death is obsessed with color. Why does this make sense?

Death is the absence of color (bleached bones, entropy, etc.), and the way that a personification of death that was fascinated with life would react is that it would be attracted to color.

20. Max told Liesel that, “Memory is the scribe of the soul.” What figure of speech is this. What was Max trying to get at.

This is metaphor, a description enhanced by the comparison of unlike things. It is a beautiful thought. It is hard to say exactly what it means: one possibility is that our souls are made of memories, or that memory is the way that our souls work.

21. There are many instances of foreshadowing in this book. How does this author use foreshadowing?

He uses it to keep interest. The foreshadowing is always vague in many respects, and we want to read on to see how it turns out. Foreshadowing occurs on at least the following pages. 30, 33 & 34,55, 71, 80, 127, 128.

22. The voice of this story has two interesting aspects. One is that it is told from the standpoint of people who were the enemy in WWII, who we bombed, and who we tried to kill. The second is that it is told from the perspective of death. How does this dually foreign point of view add to the story?

The first is that it teaches one of the great themes of the story, which is that even among a hated and feared enemy there are people of character. The events of the story are too fraught with emotion to tell it from form Liesel’s point of view, or that of Hans, Rosa, or Rudy or any human character. The distance of death from human concerns allows the author/filmmakers to tell the story and then let the human reader/audience feel the emotions themselves. Also, having death as a narrator provides wonderful opportunities for thematic comment, imagery, etc.

See Discussion Questions for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction .

FAMILIES IN CRISIS

1. Liesel’s mother was ill and could not take care of her children. What was the best thing she could do for them? Suggested Response: If there were no relatives suitable to place them with, it would be to place them with foster parents. See page 32, first three paragraphs. Teachers should consider reading this passage to the class.

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS (CHARACTER COUNTS)

Responsibility.

(Do what you are supposed to do; Persevere: keep on trying!; Always do your best; Use self-control; Be self-disciplined; Think before you act — consider the consequences; Be accountable for your choices)

1. What is the key act showing responsibility in this story?

It is Hans’ act of hiding Max, even though it put his life and that of his family in danger.

2. Was it right for Hans to put the lives of his wife and his foster daughter in danger just to fulfill his responsibility to Eric Vandenberg’s son?

The key to answering this question is that hiding Max was the right thing to do for other reasons, such as being caring and resisting injustice.

(Be kind; Be compassionate and show you care; Express gratitude; Forgive others; Help people in need)

Numerous questions set out above and in the Learning Guide relate to the ethical precept of caring.

See also Discussion Questions which Explore Ethical Issues Raised by Any Film .

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

For ela classes.

Most of the discussion questions in this Guide can serve as a writing prompt. Additional assignments include:

1. Write a letter from Liesel to the bombardier on the plane that dropped the bombs that destroyed Himmel Street. In the letter, she should tell him what his bombs did to her community. She should discuss whether she can forgive him. She should discuss the German bombing of civilian targets in England.

2. Write a one-paragraph description of the following characters in this movie: Liesel, Hans, Rosa, and Rudy.

3. Write an essay comparing The Book Thief with a story that contains both strong characterizations and a resolution deriving from the conflicts faced by the characters (e.g. Hamlet) or with a story dominated by plot such as (e.g., Romeo and Juliet).

For Social Studies Classes

4. Research and write a paper about the use of aerial bombing from World War II to the drones used in modern warfare. Include a section on the ethics of such bombing.

5. Certain incidents that develop Liesel’s character and give it more maturity and depth were eliminated from the movie; undoubtedly this was done because of time constraints. Write an essay comparing the development of Liesel’s character in the novel and in the movie. [Strong essays will cite the elimination of the food stealing sub-plot, the reading to Mrs. Holtzapfel, and the suicide of Mrs. Half-staff’s son. Strong essays will also describe the complications of the relationship between Liesel and the Mayor’s wife that are included in the novel but not the film.]

6. An episode contained in the novel but deleted from the movie involves Hans’ relationship with his son. Find the references to Hans’ son in the book and describe the development of Hans’ character that is missing from the film.

7. Max asks Liesel, “Make the words yours. If your eyes could speak… what would they say? Find a beautiful scene or object, or an ugly one. Write a paragraph describing what your eyes say about it.

8. After his mother insisted that Max go off with his friend who had false papers for him, Max felt that “awful, light-headed relief . . . that he would live.” In the book, the feeling is described in this way, “the relief struggled inside him like an obscenity. It was something he didn’t want to feel, but nonetheless, he felt it with such gusto it made him want to throw up. How could he? How could he? But he did.” Write the letter that Max would send to Liesel in which he described these feelings to her. Part of the letter should refer to the circumstances which caused him to need to write the letter to Liesel.

See also Additional Assignments for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction and TWM’s guide to Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories or Plays .

CCSS ANCHOR STANDARDS

Multimedia:

Anchor Standard #7 for Reading (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). (The three Anchor Standards read: “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media, including visually and quantitatively as well as in words.”) CCSS pp. 35 & 60. See also Anchor Standard # 2 for ELA Speaking and Listening, CCSS pg. 48.

Anchor Standards #s 1, 2, 7 and 8 for Reading and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 35 & 60.

Anchor Standards #s 1 – 5 and 7- 10 for Writing and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 41 & 63.

Speaking and Listening:

Anchor Standards #s 1 – 3 (for ELA classes). CCSS pg. 48.

Not all assignments reach all Anchor Standards. Teachers are encouraged to review the specific standards to make sure that over the term all standards are met.

BRIDGES TO READING

This is a marvelous book and everyone should read it.

LINKS TO THE INTERNET

• Shmoop pages on The Book Thief ;
• Fighting for Their Lives Review of the Book in the NY Times, by JOHN GREEN; Published: May 14, 2006;
• The Book Thief Study Guide from GradeSaver;
• CONCEPT ANALYSIS ;
• Interview with Markus Zusak ;
• Ten Questions with Markus Zusak Politics and Prose Bookstore;
• Markus Zusak: The Book Thief film’s biggest hurdle was Death by Michelle Paulli theguardian.com, Tuesday 25 February 2014 03.39 EST ;
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak by Marianne Brace, 9/31/06;
• WWII in Europe/The Blitz from The History Place ;
• Wikipedia Article on The Blitz ;
• Markus Zusak: how I let go of The Book Thief Sydney Morning Herald, January 4, 2014;
• Article on the Hitler Youth Movement at the History Learning Site;
• Instructor Materials – The Book Thief WebQuest – Google Sites ;
• Perth International Arts Festival – The Book Thief Teachers Notes ;
• Wikipedia article on Dachau ;
• Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims from the Jewish Virtual Library;
• Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9–10, 1938 ; article from the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum Website; and
• Wikipedia Article on Jesse Owens .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Links to the Internet. We also included some of the concepts and question in the “Questions for Discussion” on pages 3 — of the Readers Guide in the First Knopf trade paperback edition September 2007. Specific Citations:

• The 1933 quote from Hitler about Hitler Youth is found on many Internet pages such as Hitler Youth from the History Place accessed October 5, 2014;
• Casualty figures for the Blitz are also generally accepted and found and many websites, including, for example, on Wikipedia Article on the Blitz , accessed October 5, 2014.
• Casualty figures for the German civilian population are also from several websites including Wikipedia article on Strategic bombing during World War II ;

This Learning Guide was written by James Frieden and was published on October 26, 2014.

All page references without a citation are to pages of the First Knopf trade paperback edition September 2007.

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Has the use of Nazis in movies reached the point of being pornographic? While some observers might say that line was crossed long ago, others may find that conclusive proof arrives in Brian Percival's "The Book Thief," based on an international bestseller that The New York Times jibed as "Harry Potter and the Holocaust." Here, of course, the kind of pornography that's meant isn't erotic (there are only coy glimmers of that) but sentimental – historic horror enlisted in the cause of facile fantasy.

If you go to a bookstore looking for Markus Zusak's novel, the movie's source, you're likely be directed to the Young Adult or Teen Fiction sections, which explains a lot about the movie's appeal, and lack thereof. Like a kid-friendly mulch of elements cribbed from "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Slaughterhouse-Five," the film conceivably could play well to an audience of 12-year-olds and their grandparents. Other adults, though, are more apt to find the proceedings an occasion for fits of squirming and eye-rolling.

This is the movie, after all, that's narrated by Death, a device that you can imagine possibly working in a Hollywood film of the '30s or '40s, but hardly since. What's the Grim Reaper doing here, besides nudging along the exposition and dropping ironic bon mots? Obviously, he serves a purpose much akin to that of the movie's impeccably costumed but barely differentiated Nazis: to attempt giving some thematic ballast to a tale so wispy and ungrounded that otherwise it might float away.

The center of that fiction is Liesel ( Sophie Nelisse ), one of those spunky young heroines that keep the Young Adult industry afloat. When Death first introduces her, in 1938, she is on the run with a fugitive mother and a little brother who dies in the first scene. Soon after, Mom vanishes over the horizon and Liesel is taken in by a good-hearted provincial couple, kindly Hans ( Geoffrey Rush ) and crusty-but-lovable Rosa ( Emily Watson ). Was the girl's mom, as is hinted, a communist? Why would this couple, who barely have enough to eat, take in an unknown child to care for? Such are the questions the movie ignores as it gallops along to history's accelerating drumbeat.

Here's another: How is it that Liesel, mocked by her new schoolmates for being illiterate, quickly morphs not just into a reader but one so adept and voracious that she's soon swiping books from the local burgermeister's library? (This valorization of reading is a transparent come-on in many books aimed at young readers.) Whatever its source, her newfound passion is one she shares with Max ( Ben Schnetzer ), a young Jewish guy the kindly couple hide in their basement. And of course, the Nazis hate books, as they demonstrate by burning a heap in the town square.

Our heroine's bookishness, meanwhile, is mainly a source of bemusement to Rudy (Nico Liersh), the flaxen-haired neighbor boy who befriends and dotes on her. In a different, more reality-based movie, their relationship would be a coming-of-age romance. But though the characters here age from 13 to 17 during the story, at the end they look exactly like the barely pubescent kids they were when it started, and the troubling excitements of eros never arise.

That ostensibly strange fact is perhaps explained less by the obvious constraints of filming the same actors in a short production schedule than by the have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too logic that guides so many fantasy narratives. In this realm, people supposedly grow up, yet at the same time remain magically innocent and unchanged. Likewise, history: the mean old Nazis hound Max and march sad-looking Jews down the street, but we never see what happens to those Jews—they remain vaguely wistful images divorced from the cruel reality of their corporeal fates.

While director Percival ("Downton Abbey") elicits estimable performances from his cast, especially Nelisse, Rush and Watson, the visible world he embeds them in looks like a set from an old studio movie or a '50s TV sitcom. Heaven Street, the provincial thoroughfare is called, and its airbrushed quaintness is as dreamily reassuring as John Williams' score, despite (or because of?) the heavily fetishized Nazi flags that seem to festoon every available inch of screen space.

In the end, there's a distinct air of solipsism to this tale. To be sure, bombs fall, death ensues, and Heaven Street briefly appears rather hellish. But Liesel undergoes no discernible transformation, and that seems to be the point: History may be awful, but a young heroine's spunkiness can overcome anything. Thus does actual tragedy get reduced to the role of kitschy backdrop, a transposition of true obscenity.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

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Essays on The Book Thief

Prompt examples for "the book thief" essays, the power of words and literature.

Discuss the significance of words, books, and literature in "The Book Thief." How does Liesel's love for books and Max's writing influence their lives, and what do these elements symbolize in the novel?

Narration by Death

Analyze the unique narrative perspective in the novel, which is narrated by Death. How does Death's perspective provide insight into the human experience during wartime, and what effect does it have on the reader's understanding of the story?

Character Development

Examine the growth and development of characters like Liesel, Hans, Rosa, and Max throughout the novel. How do their experiences and relationships shape their personalities and perspectives?

Survival and Resistance

Discuss the themes of survival and resistance in "The Book Thief." How do characters resist oppression and maintain their humanity during the harsh conditions of Nazi Germany, and what strategies do they employ to survive?

The Impact of War on Innocence

Explore how the novel portrays the loss of innocence in the face of war. How do Liesel, Rudy, and other child characters grapple with the harsh realities of war, and how does their understanding of the world change?

Symbolism of Colors

Analyze the symbolism of colors in the novel, particularly the use of the colors red, white, and black. How do these colors represent different aspects of the characters' experiences and emotions?

The Book Thief Analysis

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The Book Thief: The Power of Literature Through Analysis

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A Look at The Emotional Journey of Liesel as Shown in "The Book Thief"

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Analysis of The Key Scene Depicting Violence in "The Book Thief"

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2005, Markus Zusak

Historical Fiction

Narrated by Death, the story follows Liesel Meminger, a young girl living with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in Nazi Germany during World War II. Liesel settles down into her new home and during her time there, she is exposed to the horrors of the war and politics. Hans, who has developed a close relationship with Liesel, teaches her to read during this time. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel not only begins to steal books that the politicians are seeking to destroy, but also writes her own story.

A theme that stands out from the beginning is literacy and power. While language initially is a struggle for the main character, Liesel, it becomes one that empowers her and allows her to quietly rebel against Hitler's regime. Other major themes include kindness, and cruelty of humans, reading and writing, the duality of the Nazi era, mortality, and love.

The Book Thief features innovative stylistic techniques. The most obvious innovation is narrator Death's use of boldface text to relay certain information. The mood of "The Book Thief" is defiantly a somber time, and fear is in the air in Nazi Germany.

Liesel Meminger, Death, Hans Hubermann (Papa), Rosa Hubermann (Mama), Rudy Steiner, Max Vandenburg, Ilsa Hermann, Werner Meminger, Paula Meminger (Liesel's Mother), Hans Jr (Hans' and Rosa's son)

Published in 2005, The Book Thief became an international bestseller and was translated into 63 languages and sold 16 million copies. It was adapted into the 2013 feature film, The Book Thief. The novel has also win several awards, such as Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Best Books for Young Adults (American Library Association).

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.” “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” “Even death has a heart.” “Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.”

1. Buráková, Z. (2019). Whose trauma is it? A trauma-theoretical reading of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. Holocaust Studies, 25(1-2), 59-73. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17504902.2018.1472874) 2. Koprince, S. (2011). Words from the basement: Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Notes on Contemporary Literature, 41(1). (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA255494819&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00294047&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E7cb76d72) 3. Yarova, A. (2016). Haunted by humans: Inverting the reality of the holocaust in Markus Zusak's' The book thief'. Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature, 24(1), 54-81. (https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.033178079846317) 4. Brady, B. K. (2013). Beyond the basics with Bakhtin: a dialogical look at Markus Zusak's The Book Thief (Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University-Camden Graduate School). (https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/40257/) 5. Gipson, E. M. (2017). A Close Encounter with Death: Narration in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Southern Mississippi). (https://www.proquest.com/openview/eba2b3153629faedca16050fdb2c21ff/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750) 6. Adams, J., & Adams, J. (2011). ‘Into Eternity’s Certain Breadth’: Ambivalent Escape in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. Magic Realism in Holocaust Literature: Troping the Traumatic Real, 144-172. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230307353_6) 7. Stevenson, D. (2006). The Book Thief. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 59(9), 389-390. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/197387/summary) 8. Lee, G. (2015). Literacy in The Book Thief: Complicated Matters of People, Witnessing, Death (Doctoral dissertation). (https://whitelibrary.dspacedirect.org/handle/11210/49)

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Review: The Book Thief 

The Book Thief , written by Markus Zusak, has been regarded by many critics as a future classic. The novel, originally published in 2005, has become an international bestseller, selling over 16 million copies, translated into 63 different languages, and even being adapted into a feature film in 2013. The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel which begins in 1938, at the start of the Second World War, and follows the story of a young girl, Liesel, who becomes orphaned. On her way to Germany her younger brother dies, an event which haunts her throughout the novel, and she steals her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook . When she arrives at her new home in Nazi Germany, she is fostered by Hans and Rosa Hubermann and suddenly has a new mother and father. Hans learns Liesel cannot read, so he teaches her the wonders of written language to try and help her process her brother’s death. Liesel’s love of books leads her to steal books from dangerous places such as Nazi bonfires and the mayor’s house, as her foster parents are too poor to buy more books. Though her parents are very poor, they secretly shelter a Jewish man whose father saved Han’s life, making their situation even more precarious.  

The story is told by Death, who is our guide and narrator. Death becomes a character the reader comes to respect and even feel sorry for by the end of the story. Death is a very human and nuanced character, especially in comparison to many of the antagonist Nazi characters depicted within the book. He is not the Grim Reaper character that is usually seen in stories. For example, Death experiences both joy and sadness in the novel; he even gets depressed at the idea of the amount of unfair Jewish deaths occurring. Death becomes a character we do not blame; instead, he seems like a poor person who has a never-ending, terrible job. Like many humans, Death is trying to justify his work and does this by collecting stories of courageous humans such as Liesel. He retells these stories to ‘prove [to himself] that you, and your human existence, are worth it’ – this seems like a very human need. However, Death is always separate from humans, as he has a kind of omnipotence that he wields, due to the fact that he controls their deaths. Using Death as a narrator sets this story apart as it adds an odd and at times philosophical perspective to the story. Death is in an unlucky position of having human-like emotions but being separate from humanity, which allows him to tell stories in a new, interesting way.  

One of the other striking features of the book is the way in which it shows that so many types of people in Germany became victims of the war. It is a well-balanced story which shows the perspectives of German people during the war, from truly committed Nazis, to those against the whole Nazi regime like Hans Huberman. This is done very well, although it should be noted that Zusak is not an apologist, but rather is able to give the reader a glimpse into the human psyche. The book also does a beautiful job at showing problems in Nazi Germany that go beyond the war. For example, Rudy Steiner is a close friend of Liesel who is obsessed with the Black athlete Jesse Owens. His support of this athlete highlights the widespread racism of the time, as he is constantly bashed for his support of Owens, even though Owens inspires him to be the best athlete in the Hitler Youth. Another character whose worries show the minutiae of everyday German life is Isla Hermann, the mayor’s wife, who, while she is financially secure and popular in society, cannot get out of the depression caused by the loss of her son during the First World War. These examples help to make the characters feel more real and relatable, while highlighting other troubling issues that occurred in Nazi Germany. It is the way in which Zusak combines terrible events – such as the Munich Bombing and the offering of bread from a teenage boy to a starving Jew – with believable characters and scenes of everyday life that makes the book so impressive.  

The Book Thief is written for a young adult audience, another component which makes the book so refreshing. It deals with very serious themes instead of the cookie-cutter romances and fantasies which flooded the young adult market during the early twenty-first century. Such a unique and insightful book set within an important historical setting makes it a read I would recommend to anyone, although I would consider it most appropriate for those over the age of thirteen considering the heavy themes present throughout. 

Written by Sophia Aiello 

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The book thief : 5 differences between the book and film.

by Shanee Edwards

Shanee Edwards

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If you’ve read Markus Zusak’s #1 bestselling book, you already have your Kleenex ready for the movie. How exactly do the filmmaker’s bring Zusak’s emotionally-powerful 550-page book to the screen? By streamlining the story, creating a lush visual backdrop and hiring amazing actors. Read on to see five things the film presents differently than the book.

Screenwriter Michael Petroni adapts Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief to create a film that is triumphant, tragic and visually stunning. Of course movies are never exactly like the book, however this one feels very true to Zusak’s extraordinary vision. With the help of Downton Abbey director Brian Percival, this film will give you an up-close and personal view of the worst, and best, of humanity.

While Death is still the story’s eerie narrator, it’s British actor Roger Allam, known for movies like The Queen and The Iron Lady , who does the voice of the grim reaper with a heart, adding just the right amount of foreboding, darkly twisted irony and occasional humor.

INTERVIEW: The cast and author of The Book Thief >>

Differences:, 1. max hangs up his boxing gloves.

Max (Ben Schnetzer) is still a Jewish man who hides in the Hubermann’s basement, but his dreams of being a boxer have been cut from the story. His relationship with Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) is incredibly dynamic as the two really bond over words, but there are no dreams of him fighting the führer in a boxing ring.

2. Rudy learns Liesel’s secret early

In the movie, the adorable yellow-haired Rudy (Nico Liersch), accidentally discovers the existence of Max when he sees Max’s handwritten name in a book of Liesel’s. Having the boy discover this while Max is still living in the basement adds tension to the story and further demonstrates the emotional burdens the war put onto children. It also bonds the two young souls of Rudy and Liesel, making the ending of the film just gut wrenching.

3. Hubermanns have empty nest

The two adult children of Hans and Rosa Hubermann ( Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson ), have been nixed from the story. In the book, Hans, Jr. argues with his father about his failure to join the Nazi Party and suggests Liesel should be reading Mein Kamph . These periphery characters are not missed in the film, however. Various other Nazi characters build up the tension that eventually forces Hans, Sr. to join the Nazis before being forced to go off to fight for them.

4. The burgermeister and his wife

In the book, the mayor and his wife, Ilsa Hermann (Barbara Auar), discontinue the laundry services of Rosa Hubermann because they want to project an image that they are belt-tightening. It’s handled a bit differently in the film, as the mayor appears to be attempting to control, possibly hoping to protect, his wife’s emotional state-of-mind as he sees the bond that is growing between Ilsa and Liesel.

Also, Liesel doesn’t yell a rant or throw a book at Ilsa when she is told she’ll no longer be delivering the washing. This was probably changed to keep Liesel more likable and help the audience feel relieved when Ilsa comes for Liesel at the end of the movie.

November movie preview: SheKnows picks the flicks  >>

5. Hans’ incident with the Nazi officer

In the book, Hans gives some bread to a Jew as he is being marched through the town. Both Hans and the Jew are whipped by a Nazi officer. In the movie, the scene is less physically violent in that instead of getting a whipping, Hans must tell the officer his name, which the officer writes down, creating fear and paranoia in Hans’ mind. It is this act that causes Hans to have Max leave the basement.

Don’t be a saumensch! Go see The Book Thief when it opens in theaters Nov. 8th.

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox

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The Book Thief

By markus zusak.

• The Book Thief Summary

Narrated by Death , The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger , a nine-year-old German girl who given up by her mother to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the small town of Molching in 1939, shortly before World War II. On their way to Molching, Liesel's younger brother Werner dies, and she is traumatized, experiencing nightmares about him for months. Hans is a gentle man who brings her comfort and helps her learn to read, starting with a book Liesel took from the cemetery where her brother was buried. Liesel befriends a neighborhood boy, Rudy Steiner , who falls in love with her. At a book burning, Liesel realizes that her father was persecuted for being a Communist, and that her mother was likely killed by the Nazis for the same crime. She is seen stealing a book from the burning by the mayor's wife Ilsa Hermann , who later invites Liesel to read in her library.

Keeping a promise he made to the man who saved his life, Hans agrees to hide a Jew named Max Vandenberg in his basement. Liesel and Max become close friends, and Max writes Liesel two stories about their friendship, both of which are reproduced in the novel. When Hans publicly gives bread to an old Jew being sent to a concentration camp, Max must leave, and Hans is drafted into the military at a time when air raids over major German cities were escalating in terms of frequency and fatality. Liesel next sees Max being marched towards the concentration camp at Dachau. Liesel loses hope and begins to disdain the written word, having learnt that Hitler's propaganda is to blame for the war and the Holocaust and the death of her biological family, but Ilsa encourages her to write. Liesel writes the story of her life in the Hubermanns' basement, where she miraculously survives an air raid that kills Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and everyone else on her block. Liesel survives the war, as does Max. She goes on to live a long life and dies at an old age.

The Book Thief Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Book Thief is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What Death mean when he says “one wild card was yet to be played.” And what is the wild card???

Death means that If anyone finds out a Jew is at Liesel's house, her parents could get taken away.Wild Card in this context means: a person or thing whose influence is unpredictable or whose qualities are uncertain.

What idea does Hans have after he discovers Liesel’a new book? Why do you think he does this?

When Hans discovers that Liesel doesn't know how to read, he begins teaching her the alphabet, and together they make their way through the book Liesel stole from the gravedigger.

What is Leisel's age?

In the beginning of the story Liesel is nine-year-old. By the time the story concludes, she is an old woman.

Study Guide for The Book Thief

The Book Thief study guide contains a biography of Markus Zusak, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Book Thief
• Character List

Essays for The Book Thief

The Book Thief essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

• Liesel's Emotional Journey Through the Book Thief
• Zusak's Death Breaks the Mould
• Guilt in The Book Thief
• The Toil of Good and Evil: Multi-Faceted Kindness in The Book Thief
• Stealing the Narrative: The Irony of Reading in The Book Thief

Lesson Plan for The Book Thief

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Book Thief
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Book Thief Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Book Thief

• Introduction
• Recognition

Themes and Analysis

The book thief, by markus zusak.

‘The Book Thief’ is a historical novel based on the events of the Holocaust and Second World War and the suffering and death experienced by people.

About the Book

Written by Juliet Ugo

Former Lecturer. Author of multiple books. Degree from University Of Nigeria, Nsukka.

When analyzing The Book Thief , there are several themes one needs to look at. The majority are themes of the power of words, kindness, and cruelty of humans, reading and writing, the duality of the Nazi era, mortality, and love.

The Book Thief Themes

The power of words.

In The Book Thief , we see that words and, in extension, stories are among the most powerful ways people connect. So many examples show how the words connect people up throughout the story. Through learning the alphabet and how to use it to make words, Liesel and Hans Hubermann began developing their deep bond. Liesel’s descriptions of the weather to Max later in the novel also help establish a bond between them. 

In the book, the greatest gift Max gives Liesel is words in the form of the ‘The Word Shaker,’ the story he writes for her. In the story he wrote, he suggests that words are the most powerful force there is. He said that Adolf Hitler uses just words and not guns or money or some other instrument to take over the world.

The story shows how Liesel has used words to create a refuge for herself amid Nazism and later uses words to calm her neighbors during the air raids by reading from her book. Again, the power of words is seen in the book she left behind, giving her a connection to Death as we saw at the end of the story.

The Kindness and Cruelty of Humans

We see the various degrees of human cruelty and kindness in the novel, from the slight to the most extreme examples.

One of the small acts of kindness we see in the novel includes hiding and caring for Max by the Hubermanns even at great risk to themselves, Rudy giving the teddy bear to the dying pilot, Ilsa Hermann inviting Liesel into her library. Liesel is specially kind to Max, and the two share a strong bond. Because of the political context of the time, with hatred and violence against Jews being rampant, Max finds Liesel’s kindness to be extraordinary. On the contrary, we also see acts of cruelty, like the treatment of Rudy by Viktor Chemmel and Franz Deutscher. Again, the concentration camps linger unseen in the book’s background as the most extreme example of cruelty.

There was a scene that showed both kindness and cruelty at once. There, Hans Hubermann tries to help a weak Jew suffering hunger and deprivation, being marched through town on the way to Dachau. Hans reaches out to him and gives him a piece of bread, a small act of great kindness. Immediately though, one of the Nazi soldiers mercilessly whips Hans and the Jewish man, a great act of cruelty heightened by the fact that it comes in response to Hans’s kindness.

We can not analyze the themes in The Book Thief without talking of mortality as Death is the book’s narrator. The book shows us that mortality is very present in the lives of each character as Death introduces the book to the reader. All through the novel, the deaths of the main characters reaffirm the presence of mortality. Since The Book Thief story takes place during World War II, Death and genocide are almost omnipresent.

Death is presented in a less distant and threatening manner as he narrates and explains the reasons behind each character’s destruction. Again, Death expatiates how he feels that he must take each character’s life, so there is a sense of care instead of fear. At a point Death states, ‘even Death has a heart.’

Reading and Writing

We see language, writing, and reading presented as symbols of expression and freedom all through the novel. Reading and writing provide identity and personal liberation to those characters who have them and provide a framework for Liesel’s coming of age. At the start of the story, shortly after her brother’s funeral, Liesel finds a book in the snow, but she cannot read. Learning under her foster father Hans, she slowly learns to read and write. By the time the novel comes to an end, her character arc has been shaped by her progress in reading, writing and learning a language. 

Writing and reading skills also serve as social markers since wealthy citizens are literate, owning books and even their libraries. On the other hand, the poor and illiterate do not own books or libraries. Rosa Huberman’s harsh and, at times, scathing remarks towards her family and others are an example of the despairing lives of the poorer classes. In contrast, Liesel’s repeated rescues of books from Nazi bonfires show her reclaiming freedom and also refusal to accept being controlled by the all-pervasive state.

The Dualities of Nazi-era Germany

We notice that the characters often have two sides or faces starting from the time Rudy paints himself black in imitation of Jesse Owens.

Superficially, Rudy looks like an ideal Aryan, such that the Nazis try to recruit him into a special training center. However, deep inside him, he is similar to an African-American, which directly contradicts Nazi ideology. Max also does something similar when he travels from Stuttgart to Molching when he pretends to be a non-Jewish or gentile German, calmly reading MKPF, while on the inside, he is a terrified Jew who finds the book despicable. This clearly shows the theme of duality in the book.

The Hubermanns are part of the theme and started living double lives immediately after they started hiding Max.

To their neighbors and friends, they pretend to be law-abiding citizens to their friends and neighbors; they harbor their dangerous secret inside. Hans teaches Liesel about this double face after he slaps her for saying she hates Hitler in public. He told her that she can hate inside the house but once they are outside, she must behave in a certain way. In fact, duality is a theme of life in general for Liesel and Rudy as they both spend a lot of time engaged in typical teenage activities like playing soccer in the street. However, these moments are broken up with events like the parade of Jews through town or the bombings that threaten and ultimately destroy Himmel Street. 

In spite of the fact that war, Death, and loss caused a lot of damage to Liesel and the others, love is seen as an agent of change and freedom. This is because love is the only way of forming a family where real freedom exists. Liesel got the best of her traumas by learning to love and be loved by her foster family and her friends. At the start of the novel, Liesel is traumatized by the Death of her brother and her separation from her only family and the larger issues of war-torn Germany and the destruction wrought by the Nazi party. 

Liesel’s relationship with her foster father Hans helps create healing and growth reflected in the relational dynamic between the Hubermann family and Max. The Hubermanns’ association with Max defies the Nazi regime in a society governed by policies that presume to judge who is really human. Furthermore, the love that Max and Liesel develop through their friendship creates a strong contrast to the fascist hate in the story’s backdrop.

Analysis of Key Moments in Animal Farm

• When Liesel’s brother died. This event marked the start of the story, which led her to foster parents. It also started Liesel’s stealing of books when she picks up The Grave Digger’s Handbook at the site of her brother’s burial.
• Arrival on Himmel. This event sets the stage for the rest of the book as it marks Liesel coming to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann after the loss of her family.
• Early school failure. Liesel didn’t succeed in school when she tried earlier and she became determined to learn how to read.
• Book burning day. The event of burning books on Hitler’s birthday helped Hans discover that Liesel is stealing books. 
• Arrival of Max Vandenburg on Himmel Street. This event changes the Hubermann’s lives when Max arrives on their doorstep in 1940. Hiding him put their lives in immense danger.
• Max writing The Standover Man for Liesel. This event helped to bring Max and Liesel together and they not only read words but also share them.
• Giving bread to the Jew. The event of Han giving bread to a weak Jew is significant because it leads to Max’s departure and Hans being sent away to fight in the war.
• Rudy idolizing a black man despite his perfect Aryan features. Rudy used the Jesse Owens event to exemplify the views of the main characters of the book.
• The Nazi recruiting Rudy. The Nazis noticed Rudy’s physical and mental capacities and therefore recruited him to go to school to become the perfect German. His parents refuse, and Alex Steiner is sent to war.
• Bombing of Himmel Story. This is a major event in the book where Liesel’s street is bombed and she lost most of her friends and family.
• Death of Liesel. This marked the final major event in the book when death came to her soul. 

Style, Tone, and Figurative Language

The style and language of The Book Thief is simple because it was primarily meant for young adults. He used a lot of foreshadowing to give the reader a sense of what is coming up in the story.

In the book, the narrator of the story, Death, uses foreshadowing in many different events to keep the reader focused on how the characters meet their ends. In Death’s side notes, foreshadowing is constantly scattered throughout the book in boldface text. A good example is when Death alludes to the death of Rudy, who is Liesel’s best friend. …He didn’t deserve to die the way he did.” 

The tone of The Book Thief is serious most of the time and mocking or hopeful the rest of the times. When you have death talking about humans in the time of war, the tone will be serious and somber. Death spends a lot of time mocking, or making fun of, humans. For instance, when Death talks about humans and destruction in the quote above, he is making fun of how people like to see things get destroyed.

In the book, we see so many figurative languages used in The Book Thief . These are vivid and stimulating word choices that author’s use to add color and meaning to their work. In the book we have many of the likes of simile, metaphor, contrast, hyperbole, personification, etc. Even the narrator, death, is personified. Here are examples of other figurative languages used in the book. 

She would wake up swimming in her bed, screaming, and drowning in the flood of sheets.

This quote from The Book Thief shows metaphor as the figurative language when death was describing the nightmare Liesel was having.

She did have it easy compared to Max Vandenberg. Certainly, her brother practically died in her arms. Her mother abandoned her. But anything was better than being a Jew.

Here, the figurative language is contrast as death is trying to tell the readers that any hardship is better than being a jew.

Within seconds, snow was carved into her skin.

The figurative language used is hyperbole. Sure, snow was all over her body but it was extreme exaggeration to say it carved into her skin.

Analysis of Symbols

The Book Thief uses symbols extensively because it is not just a story about a little girl. It is an important historical novel that delved into the suffering of people who lived in Germany during World War II. The story has a lot of lessons especially in mortality, kindness and love and the symbols embody all these.

Giving bread anywhere is a sign of care and comfort. Once you give bread to somebody, you have shown absolute compassion for that person. You have also comforted the person and probably solved his hunger issues. It is a symbol of empathy in the story and it was clearly demonstrated by Max when he offered bread to the weak Jew as they were marching to the gas chamber.

The accordion in the novel was inherited by Hans Hubermann from Max’s father during World War I and it became part of Han’s identity. He played regularly to those around him to give them comfort. He plays it during trying times to give comfort and care to those who hear it. Example is when Liesel realises that her mother is not coming back again and when she first came to their house.

Books were a source of comfort to Liesel and later Max. It is another major symbol in The Book Thief and it was the source of Liesel’s transformation from a weak girl to an empowered young woman. She developed a great relationship over books when she learned how to read and write and thus got the power she needed from the books. This power helped her to develop a strong character, mature emotionally and became kinder and more understanding to those around her.

What is the main theme of The Book Thief ?

The Book Thief has many themes and they include love and kindness as expressed by Liesel and her foster family; literacy and power, as seen when Liesel learns to read and explore the world of words, cruelty and suffering as experienced by the Jews in the hands of the Nazis.

What is an example of a theme?

In most literature work, we have themes that the author uses to pass his message across. Some of the common themes that run through them are love, mortality, war, peace, revenge, grace, betrayal, fatherhood, patriotism, life, isolation, cruelty, motherhood, forgiveness, treachery, wartime loss, rich versus poor, and appearance versus reality.

Is survival a theme in The Book Thief ?

There are many themes in The Book Thief like love, mortality, kindness, etc. One of the themes you will find in the book is the theme of survival. Most of the major characters in the book namely Liesel, Max, Rudy, the Hubermanns, passed through many awful ordeals but they still survived. 

How do you identify a theme?

A theme is the idea the writer wishes to convey about an event, subject, or person. It is from the theme that you learn about the author’s view of the world. To identify the theme, you have to be sure that you have first identified the plot of the story, the way the story characterization, and the primary conflict in the story.

What are the steps in analyzing a theme?

Generally, here are the ways in which you can begin to analyze the theme of any literature you read. First, you look for recurring images in the story or poem, then ask questions about the author’s message. Through your answers, you’ll be able to identify the different tools the author uses to express the theme

About Juliet Ugo

Juliet Ugo is an experienced content writer and a literature expert with a passion for the written word with over a decade of experience. She is particularly interested in analyzing books, and her insightful interpretations of various genres have made her a well-known authority in the field.

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Ugo, Juliet " The Book Thief Themes and Analysis 📖 " Book Analysis , https://bookanalysis.com/markus-zusak/the-book-thief/themes-analysis/ . Accessed 1 April 2024.

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Mango. Gun. Handcuffs. Could a Story Get Any More Floridian?

Annabelle Tometich’s “The Mango Tree” provides an unvarnished look at her mother, who shot a BB gun at the truck of a purported fruit thief.

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By Michelle Orange

Michelle Orange’s latest book is “Pure Flame: A Legacy.”

THE MANGO TREE: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony, by Annabelle Tometich

When her 64-year-old mother was arrested in 2015 for shooting a BB gun at the truck of someone who she believed had stolen fruit from her Florida property’s mango tree, one of Annabelle Tometich’s colleagues called to check in.

Because Tometich worked at The News-Press, a daily newspaper in her hometown, Fort Myers, this colleague had more than her well-being on his mind. “You have to write something, huh?” she asked, pausing to take the call outside the courthouse where her mother, Josefina, had just appeared. But Tometich knew the answer: A story is a story, and this one had a Floridian ripeness no local reporter could deny.

A writer’s loyalties, Tometich also understood, exist in tension with a hunger for story — which is to say, her need for coherence, a means of control. Tometich’s nonfiction debut, “The Mango Tree: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony,” bears out this tension. In reclaiming Josefina from the mug shot and clickbait headlines that followed her arrest, the author opens the door to something even more lasting, and possibly more severe: a daughter’s unflinching gaze.

For the better part of “The Mango Tree,” that gaze belongs to Tometich as a shy, recessive child, a girl whose longing for “normality” — a consuming wish to belong — is spawned by her eccentric, tumultuous family, but comes to extend well beyond it.

In large measure this wish is a product of Tometich’s biracial identity: Josefina, who left her family in the Philippines to work as a nurse in the United States, married a privileged, white American man.

Though both sought to escape their families of origin, they were bound to them in opposite ways: “Dad lived off his parents most of his life,” Tometich observes. “Mom supported hers until the days they died.”

The early chapters are haunted by the presence of Josefina’s mother-in-law, Josephine, a sickly and increasingly horrid woman who refers to Josefina as, among other slurs, “that Mongoloid.”

Using the present tense to convey her preteen and adolescent perspectives, Tometich adopts a tone of tart remove, a mix of knowing and wide-eyed intrigue. This is a narrator who notices that although her mother is strong and capable while Josephine is frail and weak, “Gramma is white” — and whiteness entails a greater proximity to power, if not the thing itself.

Keeping us close to the child’s-eye view of her formidable mother and the tragedies that befall their family — including her father’s sudden, mysterious death when Tometich was 9 — yields moments of unexpected humor and stinging truth.

She writes scene and dialogue with the metronomic precision of a seasoned broadsheet reporter, her ledes and kickers often bearing a sly, precocious slant. “Tito Gary’s funeral falls somewhere between Dad’s and Gramma’s in terms of attendance,” she begins one chapter, following her uncle’s suicide in their home. To the 10-year-old narrator, this latest death makes even less sense than the others: “Why would anyone want to leave America? We’ve got liberty and justice for all.”

Later, when Josefina takes her children on their first trip to Manila, Tometich’s initial alienation from her extended family — and their poverty — cedes to a creeping admiration for her mother, who appears poised and self-assured in her native element, able “to shame her siblings into doing her bidding with the mere tilt of her head.” Unlike her daughter, Josefina does appear to have “a place where she is normal. A home where she belongs.”

Occasionally, Tometich will slip out from behind her child’s perspective to let us know, for instance, what she believes now about the unresolved circumstances surrounding her father’s death. These moments are brief, and grow more conspicuous as the story progresses. Few scenes depict Josefina and her adult daughter together: We learn in a stroke that Tometich didn’t see her mother for the six months between the shooting, which shattered the rear window of the plaintiff’s truck, and Josefina’s sentencing hearing.

Increasingly strange in her habits and behaviors (at one point Tometich refers to her mother as “manic-depressive”), Josefina remains a staunch but elusive figure, remorseless about the felony charge for which she served five years of probation.

Tometich’s reclamation of the mother whose jailing she fantasized about as a child hinges on a dawning sense of her own internalized shame. “The justice system does not see her as a whole person, worthy of leniency and redemption,” Tometich writes, late in the book, of the harshness of Josefina’s punishment. “And up until this point, neither did I.”

The reader clamors for a sense of what has proceeded from that reckoning, a story as yet untold.

THE MANGO TREE : A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony | By Annabelle Tometich | Little, Brown | 320 pp. | $30

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