Morality In Zusak's The Book Thief

Hundreds of men and women have debated the human conscience, the morality of thousands of different situations and still, we cannot agree on one singular statement. Constantly, we have fought over human nature and ethics in war or everyday life. Many have argued that the first instinct of humanity is simply survival, to preserve oneself to live another day. Yet, that isn’t always what’s displayed over an intricate and troubling past. In The Book Thief Zusak argues a different, yet compelling truth. Zusak utilizes his war novel to argue how regardless of circumstance, survival isn’t humanity’s first instinct, doing the right thing, despite often guaranteed danger will always be humanity’s first thought. Throughout The Book Thief we see this
As the Nazi officers parade the captured Jews through Molching, the town just watches the atrocity, standing there as one old man in particular struggles to even stand. “Just give him five more minutes and he would surely fall into the German gutter and die. They would all let him, and they would all watch.” (393). Hans Hubermann, however, is unable to stand and watch the cruelty, and as the man falls again, he jumps into the fray and gives the Jew a piece of bread. Hans is immediately whipped until he can no longer stand, the Jew peering back at Hans as he is ushered forward. “He took a last sad glance at the man who was kneeling now himself, whose back was burning with four lines of fire, whose knees were aching on the road. If nothing else, the old man would die like a human. Or at least with the thought that he was a human.” (395). Hans Hubermann, a man who is dirt poor and is housing a Jew secretly in his basement, is the one who ultimately steps in to help the Jew. Zusak uses one of the most desperate men in Molching to prove his point because it illustrates even more clearly how anyone who can offer even the littlest thing can make a difference in someone’s world. Hans has so much to lose and is putting his entire family in danger due to his action, but this thought never even enters his mind, His very first thought when he sees this suffering man is to help. In Han’s mind and according to Zusak in all minds, it’s as simple as: if you can help, you do. Even more so, it is not only the piece of bread that matters, but the fact that Hans Hubermann showed this old man that someone, anyone, cared about him. Hans relinquished all of his anonymity and safety in being part of the crowd and brought himself into the light, monumentally changing both his and the Jew’s life. This act, that anyone is capable of, allowed that one man to feel valued