Kayla Bates - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

A journey of lies, hatred, betrayal, and death is explained with great detail in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The life of Liesel Meminger, during the reign of Hilter, is told by the narrator, Death. Irony and foreshadow is also presented. Guilt and abandonment, the two main themes in this novel, as Liesel is "abandoned" by family members, friends, acquaintances, and her close foster parents. Guilt fills the heart and mind of Hans Hubermann, Liesel's foster dad, after he survived World War I and the rest died. He wonders why he had been the one to survive and feels very guilty. This guilt moves him to help others in need. "Living is living. The price was guilt and shame" (page 208).

On their way to the fosters, Liesel and her mom and brother sit and wait upon arrival, not knowing that Liesel's brother was greeting Death. When they notice he is dead, the train is stopped and the train guards buried him the snow. The Book Thief finds and steals her first book, The Grave Digger's Handbook, hidden in snow. Expecting two children, Hans and Rosa Hubermann are told about the boy's death and welcome in only Liesel to her new home. Liesel has a hard time going in but somehow Hans coaxed her to go in without even saying a word. This brings them close together later on. Hans is an accordionist now, after he was shown how to play by a friend of his in the army who had been one to die along with everyone else, Eric Vandenberg. Rosa does laundry for various people and is more of a grouchy person than anything else. Her favorite insult name would be, "filthy pig."

Then Liesel meets her future best friend, Rudy. He begins to like her but Liesel won't have anything to do with him, as far as kissing goes. Death mentions, "The only thing worse than a boy who hates you [is] a boy who loves you" (page 52). As Liesel is forced to take laundry to Rosa's costumers, Liesel meets Ilsa Hermann, the mayor's wife. Isla finds out that Liesel likes to read and shows Liesel her library. She is overwhelmed by all the books and continues to go to Ilsa's house to read. As her last costumer, Ilsa Hermann has lay off Rosa with doing her laundry because of money issues going around. Liesel doesn't take it to well and instead off getting books from Ilsa for free, she crawls in a window and occasionally steals books from her library. Ilsa knows about it but continues to allow her thievery and gives Liesel a dictionary with a letter in it. From this point, Ilsa and Liesel become closer.

During all this, in the basement of the Hubermann household hides a Jew by the name of Max Vandenberg, the son of Eric Vandenberg. The Hubermanns have decided to allow this man to hide away from the Nazis and struggle to keep him hidden in occasional obstacles. The girl and Max gain a friendship that draws them together. All goes well until Jews walking to a concentration camp were passing by. Hans saw a man who was desperately in need of food and rest. Without thinking, Hans grabbed some bread and gave the man the bread. A Nazi came and whipped both men. Hans realized that the Nazi would come to his house and take him. He thought about Max. This lead to Max's departure. Nazis never came.

War was arriving to Himmel Street, the street of the Hubermann household. Air raids would force everyone to run to nearest basements for shelter. Bombs weren't dropped near Himmel Street until one day. The air raids began and the usual sirens were too late. Himmel Street was still asleep and everything and everyone was destroyed, except Liesel Meminger, who slept in her basement. She had been rereading her life's story book she had written in a blank page book that was given to her by Ilsa Hermann. This book and this woman had saved her life. After being rescued by LSE men, Liesel walked Himmel Street, or what use to be Himmel Street. She was in shock and couldn't believe what was happening to her until she found the bodies laid out in the street. She went to her beaten friend and she who had refused to kiss him many times, kissed Rudy on his dead lips. "Rudy, please, wake up...don't you know I love you, wake up...," (page 535). She found her foster parents. She began to cry hysterically, especially when looking at Hans. Both bodies were still wrapped in the covers they were sleeping with. She held Hans and hugged him for the longest time. She dropped her life-saving book and forgot all about it. She did remember, however, her papa's accordion.

Liesel was taken to a police station, and the book giver walked in. Ilsa Hermann, who lived with her husband on Grand Strasse, came and took Liesel home. Liesel was still in shock, even after four days. Liesel feels abandoned because of circumstance that lead everyone she loved to Death.

As for Max, he was taken to a concentration camp and one day he came back to Liesel. They cried and held each other. He had survived the suffering and troubles. He even survived the long walk to Dachau. Liesel had seen him amongst what appeared to be the walking dead. She had run to Max and grabbed him in excitement. She was whipped with Max. But now, he was safe.

Himmel Street was being cleared of all the mess and was taken in a dump truck. Death was hanging around as usual, keeping track of Liesel's lives, when he saw Liesel's book being thrown into a dump truck. He ran and took the book and over the time of Liesel's life he had read it over and over. Liesel lived a long life until she was delivered into the hands of Death. They met and he gave her her long lost book. "I can't believe...," (page 549). Liesel was said to be the Book Thief but maybe it was really Death because he had stolen Liesel's book.

Foreshadowing is a main theme in this novel because throughout the whole book Death gives away future happenings. Colors are used to describe scenes and what they symbolize. Stealing occurs many times and not only with books. Music , guilt, abandonment, and dehumanization are also other main themes in The Book Thief. Irony also plays a part in the life of a little girl. She goes to live on Himmel Street, where everyone she loves dies. Himmel means heaven. I just can't forget the thought that Death is the actual book thief. He calls Liesel the book thief but ironically its him. The titles of the books she recieved and stolen were also very important. Of course there is a lot more to the book. I'm sure this is the main part of it all though. Markus Zusak sure did an amazing job.