Symbolism In The Book Thief

In the novel “The Book Thief”, there has been multiple accounts of symbolism that has been used that are helpful, but to different people and in seperate ways. Throughout the book, bread, an accordion, and books have saved lives and have helped people learn through their struggles and show friendliness, but they differ in their own way. These three main symbols are very similar, in the fact that they all saved lives and have helped a character grow, learn, and mature. For example, for Liesel Meminger, books helped her grow, the accordion made her life bright, and the bread shows how selfless she could be for others. As the story progresses, the symbolism of the books and accordion let her mature in a fashion that made her life fun, and the
bread was a testament of how Liesel became a person worthy of looking up to and someone who deserves what she got in her happy ending. In addition, Hans has been saved from those three things as well, with the accordion being his will to carry on, the books to keep his life bright with his foster daughter, and the bread also being a show of character. As shown, items in the book that can be easily can be written off as ordinary objects, has a much greater depth in the novel inside a multitude of characters, such as Hans and Liesel.
As similar as these three symbols in the novel might seem, in actuality, they are quite very different.
For one, each symbol majorly affects only one person throughout the book, where it sticks. For one, books have been a huge part in Liesel’s development, as she says in her own words, “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” (Zusak 442) This shows the power of words in books that helped Liesel grow and become the person she died as, as the same person as where Death returned her book, and the same person who helped feed the Jews on Munich Street. Inadvertently, books have indirectly saved her life too; she was writing her book while Munich Street was being bombed by an Allied air raid. This impact from her words in the midst of war told Max Vandenberg to write “The Word Shaker”, a book that shows how influential words really are. The accordion is very influential to Hans is life during and after the First World War, for it represents the life debt that he owes to Erik Vandenburg, the father of Max, and a German Jew. During the war, Erik saved Hans’ life while he fell, and Hans keeps his memory by playing the accordion, but still believes that he hasn’t repaid Erik for what he did. Later, when Max shows up, Hans believes that he can finally repay his debt by hiding Max from the Nazis. The bread is a testament of character and shows how far someone would go just to be kind. Hans gave bread to the Jews while knowing that he would
receive lashings for doing just that, but he did anyway. In short, these three symbols single-handedly changed the lives of the characters in “The Book Thief ”, where they are all alike and yet different.
The similarities and differences between the symbols make “The Book Thief “ the book it is read by millions: to show a scared girl blossom into a young woman in the midst of WWII. These examples show that although they all are similar in what they achieved, they impacted the characters in their own separate way, with their own way of helping and learning about the true world, where everyone is trying to make the best out of a cruel, unforgiving world covered with lies and deceit, like in the book. All in all, books, bread, and a musical instrument have helped and shaped between the world and this fictional book.