...Rosa Hubermann, a character in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, is a seemingly abrasive person who despite first appearances, is a brave mother that acts based on morals regardless of the consequences for herself and is often unable to show her love and appreciation for her family. Rosa is considerate of others in her actions, whether family or a stranger only offering danger to her life. Death states that what shocks Liesel the most after they hide Max for weeks is the change in Rosa, “[w]hether it was the calculated way in which she divided the food, or the considerable muzzling of her notorious mouth, or even the gentler expression on her cardboard face” (211). Her changes reveal her thoughtfulness for others despite it having no benefit for herself as if she did not divide the food so that Max gets...
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...real life or in a fictional book, all people have their own feelings, personalities or emotions. All characters from The Book Thief are believable because they all have emotions and that is why they should be considered as believable characters because emotions and feelings are what make those characters realistic. For example, Max Vandenburg, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, are believable from The Book Thief. Max with his anger and Hans and Rosa’s love toward their family are what make them especially believable. First of all, Max Vandenburg is a Jewish fist-fighter who hides in the Hubermann’s house because of what Hans owe from his father. “You find a small black room, in sits a scum. He is starving. He is afraid.” (Page 138) This part of the book explained how before Max moved into the Hubermann’s house, he used to hide in a small room waiting for his friend. It definitely showed how lonely Max was while hiding and waiting. This loneliness is a very realistic human feeling that makes Max a believable character. “In the blue corner, we have the champion of the world, The Fubhrer… and in the red corner, we have the Jewish, rat-faced challenger –Max Vandenburg.” (Page 251) Loneliness is not the only feeling Max has in the story but also the anger towards Hitler. As a Jewish who was constantly being hunted for at that time, he had furious feelings toward Hitler, the Nazi leader, which made him fantasize about being in a fight with him. Next, Hans Hubermann is Liesel’s foster father...
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...The novel The Book Thief is based on the life of Liesel Meminger, a nine year old girl, who lives in Nazi Germany during World War II. In the story, Death narrates the experiences of Liesel’s life. These experiences brought both magnificence and devastation that effected many lives that were in this era. After Liesel’s brother's death, she arrives in an upset state at the home of her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. While Liesel was there she saw many terrible things that the Nazi ruling has brought to Germany. As she sees these horrific things going on in Germany she struggles to find a way to defend her guilt in the disturbing surroundings. While the political situation in Germany gets worse Liesel’s foster parents decide to hide a man named max who is a Jew. While Max remains in the house it makes it dangerous for Liesel and her parents to stay in the home. Liesel’s foster dad, Hans, who has a close bond with Liesel, teaches her to read in...
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...The Book Thief Summary How It All Goes Down The Book Thief is narrated by Death, who tells us the story of Liesel Meminger. It's January 1939, and Liesel, who is about ten-years-old, is traveling by train with her mother and her little brother Werner. Liesel and Werner are being taken to the small town of Molching, just outside of Munich, Germany, to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Werner dies on the train of mysterious causes having to do with poverty, hunger, cold, and lack of medical treatment. Before Liesel arrives in Molching, she attends her brother's burial in a snowy graveyard. She steals The Grave Digger's Handbook from the cemetery after it falls from a young grave digger's coat. The kicker is, Liesel can't read. Liesel is reluctant to enter the Hubermann house on Himmel Street, but is coaxed by her foster father, Hans, to whom she takes an immediate liking. She's not sure about Rosa, though. Liesel begins school, but suffers because she doesn't know how to read yet. She also meets Rudy Steiner, who is soon to be her best friend, not to mention her partner in book and food thievery. One night, Hans finds The Grave Digger's Handbook hidden in Liesel's mattress after her usual nightmare of seeing her brother dying on the train. This is what inspires him to begin teaching her to read. When Liesel learns to write, she begins composing letters to her mother, but these letters go unanswered. Finally, we find out that her mother has disappeared. ...
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...War. In The Book Thief The main character Liesel Meminger is surrounded by war, in the beginning she is only partly affected by it. although as the book and movie progresses it affects her more and more until her her whole world; friends, enemies, family, are engulfed in war. Liesel Meminger is is nine when she is grudgingly given to her foster parents Rosa and Hans Hubermann. Rosa is a fifty some year old who washes and irons clothes for the wealthy men and women of Munich, Germany. Hans Hubermann is a kind spirited man who fought in the first world war, and was only saved because of an accordion playing Jew. This is one of the first points that death narrated in the book that was not in the movie. In the book Death regales upon a time...
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...Family should be one of the most important things to everybody, no matter what it means to them. It goes beyond any other relationships. Family can influence people’s behaviours and personalities. It can provide confidence, responsibility, and safety to people. Liesel in ‘The Book Thief’, regained a lot of her confidence with her foster family. In the movie Moana, her family influenced her to be more responsible due to the accident that Maui did to the island. And last, in the movie Twilight, the Cullens made Bella become more confident and making better choices without regrets. In ‘The Book Thief’, Liesel Meminger’s biological mother and brother, her original family, at last abandoned Liesel and made her feel fear connecting with other...
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...Chapter One - How Liesel’s Maturity is Affected by the Setting “War will change people!” -Aaron Starmer. In Markus Zusak’s, The Book Thief, the protagonist, Liesel Meminger is living in the time of World War II. She doesn’t act like a child, she is mature and sophisticated. In The Book Thief, the setting influences the maturity of the main character, Liesel Meminger. The Book Thief is set in the time of The Holocaust in Germany. Liesel’s Dad is not a Nazi. In that time, if a male figure of a family wasn’t part of the Nazis then that family didn’t have extra privileges and would most likely have issues with money. This is what happens to Liesel’s family. Because of this, Liesel must do everything she can to help her family. Liesel helps her...
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...True Nature of Courage In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, there are several important themes that are analyzed throughout the story. The themes had a tremendous impact and were well demonstrated by the most important characters. The true nature of courage is one of the most important ones because between all the characters, each one had their moments in the book where they showed acts of kindness. There will be quite a few examples on the occasions during the book where courage is shown. The character in The Book Thief that expressed the most courage was Hans. Hans Hubermann was Liesel’s father and was married to Rosa Hubermann. Hans was a German who believed on everyone staying safe and being treated equally. There were numerous occasions...
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...the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak narrated by death. The novel is based on a nine year old german girl named Liesel Meminger. Shortly Before World War 1 Liesel’s birth mother gave her up to a German couple Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the small town of Molching in 1939. On the way to Molching Liesel experiences the death of her younger brother Werner which leads her to be traumatized and she also experiences nightmares about Werner for months. Hans helped Liesel grief her brother's death, he taught her how to read starting with a book she took from the cemetery where her brother was buried in. Liesel becomes friends with a boy in the neighborhood named Rudy Steiner, who later falls in love with her. During one of the book burnings Liesel realizes that her father was persecuted for being a communist and that her mother could have also been killed by the Nazis for the same reason....
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...The Book Thief Have you ever been afraid to fall, be left alone, or wish you hadn’t done something? How did you overcome it? In Germany, during World War II, there was nothing but fear. Fear from the Jews, fear from the Germans, and fear even from the Nazi’s. Throughout the story we explore the characters fears, loneliness and regrets through the important themes of courage, abandonment, and guilt. Courage was an important factor throughout the book and many of the characters had it. Due to the character’s courage they all come a little closer and tended to trust each other more. Max Vanderburg is a great example because he is Jewish and represents all the Jews in Germany. Being a Jew made you automatically be courageous and if you weren’t, then all hope was lost. You couldn’t show...
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..."The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love" (Hubert H. Humphrey). There is much evidence of this idea that love can make any situation better in The Book Thief. Written by Markus Zusak, The Book Thief is a fictional novel narrated by death that follows the intriguing, yet somber life of a young girl named Liesel Meminger, who lives in Nazi Germany. There are many types of love, the love shared between parent and child, the love shared between friends, and the love felt for a significant other. A major theme throughout the novel is love, including familial, friendship, and romantic love which all contribute to the 'therapy' the characters, especially Liesel, need to heal from past life experiences. Familial love played a huge...
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...“Do you still play the accordion?” (Zusak 173), this is the first thing that Max says to Hans when he arrives at Himmel street, which shows us the accordion's symbol as the connection between the Hubermann's and Max which gives Max safety. In the fiction book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Erik Vandenburg has an accordion before he is killed in battle and the accordion is given to Hans. He frequently plays it throughout the novel and it brings comfort. It symbolizes the comfort and protection of Hans and the Hubermann household to Liesel and later Max. When Liesel is reading in the shelter and thinks “This, it said, is your accordion.” (381) it shows that the accordion is a symbol of protection, safety, hope, distraction and comfort. The...
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...POWER OF WORDS ESSAY “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak expresses that words have a tremendous amount of power throughout the novel. Words express all of your feelings and emotions. The book was narrated by death who shared Liesel Meminger’s through feelings and emotions. Throughout the story we see Liesel’s roller coaster of a life. Although the novel was mainly about Liesel, other characters also had power through their words. Anyone can use words, but sometimes when the words are too powerful they can become hurtful. Liesel gets frustrated near the middle of the book and screams at Frau Hermann for not being able to pay for the washing anymore: “It’s about time that you do your own stinking washing anyway. It’s about time that 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 and it’s pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it. You think you’re the only one?” (Zusak 262). Liesel had lost her brother on her way to Molching. Yelling at the mayor’s wife could have been a way that Liesel finally releases from stress from...
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...The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is a novel about a girl in Nazi Germany, who moves into a new town after gaining new foster parents. There, she meets a lot of troubles in her life. She experiences person vs society conflicts many times during her stay on Himmel Street. She realizes that Nazi Germany was not so great as people had said when she asks her foster father “‘Is my mother a communist?’ Staring. Staring ahead. ‘They were always asking her things, before I came here.’ Hans edged forward a little, forming the beginnings of a lie. ‘I have no idea-I never met her.’ ‘Did the Fuhrer take her away?’...‘I think he might have, yes.’ ‘I knew it.’ The words were thrown at the steps and Liesel could feel the slush of anger, stirring heavily in...
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...Germany in the midst of world war 2. When we first meet Liesel (the protagonist) she is on a train with her younger brother to her new foster home . The first major event to occur was the death of her younger brother ,who died of hypothermia. At his grave she finds a book (A Gravedigger's Handbook”),and chooses to take it whilst not knowing how to read, landing her the name “the book thief” (which she is referred to as throughout by the narration by “death”). On arrival to her new foster home at 33 himmel street, she is greeted by her foster mother and father Rosa and Hans Hubermann,...
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