Childhood In Liesel's The Book Thief

In The Book Thief, readers follow through the childhood of Liesel Meminger, a young German girl growing up in Nazi Germany during World War II, all through the interesting perspective of Death. After losing her entire family, she is adopted into a new family, and gradually adapts to a new life in the town of Molching, on a street named Himmel. She learns how to live with her two adoptive parents: a stern, “small wardrobe-sized” mother who swears “Saumensch” on a daily basis, and a father who plays the accordion, with eyes made of warm melting silver, and is fond of rolling and smoking cigarettes. She meets her first friend, Rudy, through a game of soccer on the street. She attends school, and struggles to learn how to read and write. Gradually, with the help of her father, Hans Hubermann, she is able to achieve that goal, and thus begins her love of words and books. One day, after being well accustomed to her new life, Liesel, along with the other Hitler Youth divisions were called to march together in honor of Hitler’s birthday. Afterwards, people rushed excitedly to see the public book burning in the town square. Liesel is lost in
the flood of people as she tries to find Rudy, when she suddenly hears a crackling noise. Believing that it was a fire starting, and although “something inside told her that this was a crime - after all, her three books were the most precious items she owned - she was compelled to see the thing lit. She couldn’t help it.” Death, who can’t fully understand how humans think, guesses that “humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, house of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate” (Zusak 109).

At this point in Liesel’s life, she treasures words and books dearly, and the idea of a book burning conflicts her thoughts. This is the first time that Liesel is presented with such a situation, seeing literature being publicly destroyed in front of so many onlookers, most of which are encouraging the act. Despite her love for books, even she has the urge to see the event. Death cannot fully grasp the reason behind Liesel’s feelings, so it tries to reason by generalizing that all humans like to see some sort of destruction. Death then mentions common things that children do: building sandcastles and houses of cards. Death then alludes to the reader that those small actions of wrecking sandcastles and other things as a child can grow into massive, more harmful actions. This quote shows the development of character in both Liesel and Death, showing Liesel’s spark of interest in destruction, although it involves burning something she loves, and Death’s interesting view of how humans’ actions can grow.
The simple suggestion in this quote, the suggestion that smaller actions can grow into larger ones, potentially more destructive ones, is what made me stop and think for a while.
If Death says that trivial actions can grow, then what actions in my life have grown into something more? Perhaps it was my enthusiasm to open up a children’s book and struggle to read the words, before I even knew how to read English, which lead to me becoming the avid reader I am today. What about Adolf Hitler? What parts of his youth contributed to his actions during World War II? What happened in his life that made him hate Jews, to the point that he believed that all Jews should be eliminated? What small childhood habit could turn into something so drastic? All these thoughts made me remember that, although Adolf Hitler did many horrible things, he
too

once was a child, just like everyone else. It was the things that influenced him and his own actions that turned him into the infamous leader of the Nazi Party. It was only after stealing another book that Liesel was able to really meet Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife. After the book burning ended and the crowd dispersed, Liesel was able to snatch a stray book from the smoldering ashes. Just as she believes no one caught her, she notices the shadow of Ilsa Hermann watching her from a distance. Liesel tries to avoid the mayor’s wife as she makes her rounds picking up laundry for her mother’s cleaning service. Eventually, she musters up her courage, and arrives at the doorstep of the mayor’s home. Ilsa greets her at the door as always, but instead of having laundry for Liesel to pick up, she brings a stack of books. Intrigued by the books, she follows Ilsa into the home. They arrive at a room full of books, and in awe, Liesel approaches the bookshelves, running “the back of her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernails gliding across the spinal cord of each book. It sounded like an instrument, of the notes of running feet. She used both hands. She raced them. One shelf against the other. And she laughed. Her voice was sprawled out, high in her throat, and when she eventually stopped and stood in the middle of the room, she spent many minutes looking from the shelves to her fingers and back again. How many books had she touched? How many had she felt? She walked over and did it again, this time much slower, with her hand facing forward, allowing the dough of her palm to feel the small hurdle of each book. It felt like magic, like beauty, as bright lines of light shone down from the chandelier. Several times, she almost pulled a title from its place but didn’t dare disturb them. They were too perfect” (Zusak 135).