Liesel's initial state of shock and reaction of suffering due to the death of her brother is shortly followed by her reaction of hopelessness at being abandoned by her mother. At the point when Liesel is separated from her mother "There was a chaos of goodbye", (p. 39) a statement expressing wrenching emotional pain. Liesel "... Had never felt so completely alone" (p. 62) and "nothing changed the fact that she was a lost..." child ... " alone" (p. 50). Alone, used repeatedly, signifies Liesel's reaction of hopelessness, an emotional result of separation from her mother.
War had taken Liesel's father for being a "Communist[c]ommunist" (p. 48). War had restricted access to medicine and medical treatment, the effects of which killed her brother. War brought poverty, forcing abandonment by her mother due to her mother's inability to feed and care for her. In light of these events, and all that had been taken from Liesel, " T[t]he book thief had struck for the first time..." (p. 45). Liesel's reaction to her brother's death drives her to steal books, the first being The Gravedigger's Handbook. This book represents the only tangible item of her brother and mother, the last time they