The Book Theif
Written by Markus Zusak, Article by Adam Smith
summary
The story The Book Thief a story narrated by Death during World war II about a girl named Liesel. Liesel is a girl who brother dies and at the funeral she steals her first book. After the funeral she is adopted by the Hubbermann Family. Once she is adopted she starts having nightmares and once that starts her father starts to teach her how to read. as she learns how to read she makes friends with Rudy Steiner and as they get older they both become part of the Hitler youth. slowly in the story the war effects their town more and more but Rudy become better and better Friends. the Hubbermanns also takes a huge risk by taking in a Jew in their basement. near the end of the book their street is bombed and Rudy and many others are killed but Liesel survives. the book ends by telling the reader what happened after the war with Liesel and how when she die she is a mother of three in Sidney with many Grandchildren.
Character analysis
Hans Jr. "What trash is this girl reading? She should be reading Mein Kampf." In this excerpt it is shown that Hans has very strong nationalism because he think German is better than the rest of the countries and every one needs to follow their teachings.
Rudy Steiner "He smeared the charcoal on, nice and thick, till he was covered in black. Even his hair received a once over." This is when the reader hears what happens at the Jesse Owens incident. this quote showed Rudy did not care bout ethnicity but the best and it didn't matter who they were.
Hans Hubbermann "In sloppy lettering, the words JEWISH FILTH were spilling over at their edges." When Hans SR. paints over the insult he gets in trouble but this shows his character that all men are equal in his eyes.
how the holocaust effected people.
The holocaust effected people in many ways the most common way was inflation. The story show how inflation is effecting the people when Liesel and Rudy go and buy candy and they expect to get a lot more than they did, another way they were effected was through the burning books. Hitler burned any anti-Nazi ideal books in giant book bonfires, this is shown when Liesel grabs a book because it showed a Jewish person as a protagonist. One other way they were effected was through the lose of business. The book talks about the lose of buiseness both the Steiners and the Hubermanns.
Reflection
I found book was quite interesting and I would read it again but I would recommend it to around the 15 years and up because of the slow story line. I thought this book was going to be less sad than it was and yet at times I could not put it down. I'm not sure if I would not have read it unless I would have needed to but I am glad I did. This story was very emotional.
Right in the very beginning you find out this story is sad when Liesel's younger brother dies. This story is like many modern day one hears about the kids in Africa who entire family die and they try and adjust. the difference is sadly many African kids aren't adopted right away while Liesel was. I find this story full of emotion and would recommend to all teenagers so they realize that their are others much worse off.