Preview

The Book Thief, By Markus Zusak

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
902 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Book Thief, By Markus Zusak
The book thief is written by Markus Zusak. This book is told by death about a little girl 'the book thief'. The girl is called Liesel, she has to go through alot. She was sent to her foster parents with her little brother. The rough time begins already by losing her brother. It was al because their mother didn't want them anymore. At the funeral of her little brother, a man dropped his book what she tooks. She took it home with her and hide it under her bed. A few days later living with her foster parents she met a boy called Rudy. They became friends and Rudy wanted through the hole book to kiss Liesel, but unfortunately it never happend alive. Suddenly a son of a friend of Hans(foster parent of Liesel) came by, he asked if he could stay …show more content…
Death gave her the nickname 'the book thief'. She stole the book from an Gravedigger, he dropped his 'gravediggers handbook' and she took it home. Because of everything she is been through, she has alot of nightmares and peed almost every night in her bed. She has a good relationship with her foster parent Hans. Hans understood the problem of Liesel in the nights. It was no problem for him to clean up her bed, but he found the 'gravediggers handbook' and start reading it together. Hans was reading aloud in the middle of the night to comfort her and to learn her how to read it for herself. He does this for a long time and she gets better everytime. Hans took Liesel also the the burial for her reading skills. Every word Liesel didn't knew or didn't understood it. Hans wrote it down on a wall, so Liesel can work on her reading …show more content…
The book were Liesel were writing in to tell her own story was lost at the end of the bombing attacks, death silently took it with him everywhere he goes. That was so he could think about 'the book thief' often. I thought that was a nice gesture, because death gave it in return as he come to get her soul, and got back to the place were she stayed. It was a nice ending, the writer took you really in this book. But how is this important in real life, because everyone has something to do with talents. Everyone has one even they don't know it yet. If everyone does something with his talent we have a beautiful world, but everyone comes in contact once with death. That is not something you can turn you back from. Death comes and get everyone's souls on earth, That is why it is important for us in real

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Besides strengthening the bonds she had with Hans and Rudy, it had also helped form a friendship with the mayor’s wife. Starting out as an act of revenge and Liesel thinking that she was clever with her stealing, it was actually in fact Ilsa allowing her to steal the books. Eventually, Liesel figured this out, and through her gratefulness she was able to forgive and understand the woman she had once hated. Liesel’s book thievery in the library taught her about life and death, images of such appearing all throughout the book, including of Ilsa’s grief when she explained her son’s death: “The mayor's wife tightened. ‘I used to read in…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Markus Zusak’s sanguine novel The Book Thief illustrates the austere story of a Jewish foster girl living amidst the cruelty and devastation of World War II. Liesel Meminger, an intelligent and kind-hearted youngster stricken by family tragedy, must contend with both physical and emotional conflict as she and her friends cope with the atrocities of life in Nazi Germany. In spite of the chaos encompassing their lives, Liesel and her allies manage to find peace and resilience through love and compassion.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Book Thief Quotes

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Her brother died on the train when they were going to the Hubermanns. Her nightmares started the first day she was with the Hubermanns. Hans tries his best to sooth her pain from the memories by playing the accordion for her “Some days papa told her to get back into bed and wait a minute, and he would return with his accordion and play for her.” (Zusak 37) He plays for her to not only amuse her but to show her that he cares. Liesel’s nightmares tend to reoccur every night until she realizes that she is loved and she can trust her new…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The presence of death reveals itself to the book thief within both celebration and mourning as her life of words cycles on. In a state of partial sleep, Liesel “could see without question that her younger brother, Werner, was now sideways and dead… [for] his blue eyes stared at the floor seeing nothing” as Death tenderly “knelt down and extracted his soul” (20-21). The book thief’s primary encounter with Death would always stay with her as she watches her sickly but beloved brother depart from this world in a train carriage. Liesel senses Death’s presence as she gazes at the dying pilot and the two “recognized each other at that exact moment” from the scene of “a train and a coughing boy [as Death] slowly extracted the pilot’s soul from his ruffled uniform and rescued him from the broken plane” (400-401). An intimate sharing of identity occurs as Liesel faces the sight of death’s mark on humanity alongside Rudy and recognizes a sense of solemn passing in this occurrence. This passionate adolescent witnesses death at its climax as she sees “the bodies of Mama and Papa both lying tangled in the gravel bedsheet of Himmel…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stealing her first book opened Liesel up to a world filled with words and grammar. As she stared at The Grave Digger’s Handbook, “touching the print inside, she had no idea what it was saying.”(38). Because Liesel could not read or write, as a nine-year-old, she was forced to attend school with children who just started learning the alphabet. There was a stolen book hidden under Liesel’s bed and she didn’t know what any of the words said. That inspired her to have “sudden desire to read it that she didn’t even attempt to understand” (66). However, it was also ironic that she asked her foster father to teach her these skills, when he could not comprehend them himself. It all became beneficial for Liesel because his lack of ability “would cause less frustration in coping with the girl’s lack of ability” (65). Because Hans could not read acutely, he understood what she was going through, and he was patient. In a few years, she was able to pick up a book and read…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This passage makes me feel sad because of the sudden death of Liesel. As a result, this prompts me into realizing that one of theme of this book is about how life is unpredictable. An example of this is when Liesel dies without warning. I can relate to this theme because a friend of mine from elementary has committed suicide and none of her friends knew until her parents posted a post on Facebook declaring that she has died. Therefore, I've learned that cherishing the people around me is important as they might die without warning, like…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    BOOK THIEF NOTES

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Two days later, Liesel's brother is buried by two gravediggers. Liesel steals a black book from the cemetery ground. The stolen book is called The Grave Digger's Handbook. Liesel is illiterate, but keeps the book anyway.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though Liesel had a very spontaneous attitude towards books, there were certainly points through the story where books were her only safe haven when she was going through the horrors of war, due to them bringing her a sense of peace and comfort. “There was a sudden desire to read it [The Grave Digger’s Handbook] that she didn't even attempt to understand. On some level, perhaps she wanted to make sure…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    No one believed she was smart enough to read, and instead of being placed in her age appropriate classes, she was out with the kids at her reading level. For her it was humiliating, but it only gave her the fuel she needed to keep moving forward. Desperate for help, she confronted her uneducated step father Hans for help. Hans himself cannot read that well, but she knows any help is better than none. Hans, referred to as Papa by Liesel, began to teach Liesel basic reading skills every night. They had a tradition, “unofficially…called the midnight class, even though it commenced around two in the morning”. Now Liesel knew how to read. She had an unlimited amount of knowledge available to her through literature. But, she herself could not take down Hitler. That does not mean that she could not fight back though. When the Nazi’s bombed her street, most people stood in the bomb shelter terrified. Yet, Liesel instead took out a book and began to read. Everyone soon began to congregate around her and listen. The fear of what was going on around them subsided, and at the moment they had won. Though Hitler was still attack them, he no longer had control over them, they were not scared. It was at this moment that Liesel realized the true power of literature, and the book she held between her fingers transformed into the sword she would use to fight her way out of Nazi Germany.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The single greatest loss Liesel experiences is the death of her little brother. After she watches him die she has to watch him get buried and the brutality of the situation is more than her young mind can understand "Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't." pg.23 She takes her first book, even though she cannot read, as a memento of her brother, a reminder of the brutality she has just witnessed. However as her foster father teaches her to read and she…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Liesel realizes how words can be good and evil. She learns that words and reading can bring families and communities together. When she is reading at the shelter, “Young kids [are] soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the crime scene... they [are] distracted now, by the girl with the book” (Zusak 381-382). When she reads at the shelter during the bomb raid, it gives the audience a sense of comfort and distraction. Because of her reading in the shelter, Frau Holtzapfel stops her grudge with the Hubermanns, and asks Liesel to read for her. Liesel realizes that words also have a good side, where the words have the power to bring people together. Liesel also comprehends that Adolf Hitler uses words to manipulate German citizens to carry out horrific facts, which cause a lot of deaths and suffering. So Liesel decides to create her own novel, so she can spread the good in words. Her last line ends with, “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right” (Zusak 528). This shows how the power of words has impacted Liesel in good and bad ways. She shows that she wants to use the words for good, rather than evil. The fact that Liesel was illiterate and now she is writing a book to spread awareness is very impressive. In…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Book Thief

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Liesel has a great passion for books and it is first shown when her brother dies and she steals her first book The Gravedigger’s Handbook. The second time Liesel steals a book, she is seen by Ilsa who is one of the clients of Liesel's mother Rosa Hubermann. Liesel faces an argument with Ilsa and this is how she used the power of words: “It’s about time,” she informed her, “that you do your own stinking washing anyway. It’s about time you faced the fact that your son is dead. He got killed! He got strangled and cut up more than twenty years ago! Or did he freeze to death? Either way, he’s dead! He’s dead…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When she originally came to her foster family, she only recognized very simple words: “He made [Liesel] point out any words she could read and ... say … , there were only three--the three main German words for ‘the.’ The whole page must have two hundred German words on it,” (67). She was completely committed to learning how to read. Every night Liesel would wake up because of nightmares. Her foster father would read with her and help her learn to read and write each night at around two o’clock in the morning. Liesel also really loved books. Her foster family was very poor, so they couldn’t afford to get Liesel presents for her birthday or Christmas. On Hitler’s birthday, the town decided to do a book burning. A few books survived the fire, so “she snatched [a] book from beneath a steaming heap of ashes” (84). Liesel was willing to risk going to jail (or worse) to read a book. More people should be like Liesel when it comes to her bravery and her willingness to work hard for the things she…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Liesel first starts to learn to read is when she starts to gain power and by the end of the book when she is able to read and she is able to use words to write down her ideas she gains even more power. The power the Liesel gains through her ability to read is evident in the bomb shelter where everyone is scared, however, when Liesel starts to read people listen and hearing Liesel reading is what helps calm the fear of the people in the bomb shelter. Liesel demonstrates her power over the Nazi’s by using words to calm the nerves of innocent people who are being affected by the Hitler and the Nazi’s lust for power and hatred of Jews. The Nazi’s physical power forced people to hide in a basement from airstrikes but Liesel much stronger ability of free thought and will is what helps these people get through a difficult time. Liesel also demonstrates her power with Frau Holtzapfel when she reads to her especially after one of her sons takes his own life, Liesel comforts her using the strongest ability she has which is her words. When Max arrives he arrives with a greater power than Liesel yet poses, he arrives with the ability of writing. Although, Liesel can read the words written by others and she can understand others thoughts it is not till Max arrives that she learns and is inspired to write her words down and place her thoughts on paper so that they will last an make impressions on…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plot Of The Book Thief

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages

    She is fostered by the Hubermanns when her father "abandons" their family, her brother dies, and her mother is forced to feed her nothing but Vienna Sausages. Liesel is the "book thief" referred to in the title.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays