The Book Thief Study Guide
It’s high time to get a taste of Australian literary creations with the best novel of Markus Zusak. Since 2005 “The Books Thief” sold millions of copies and became a world-renowned bestseller.
The events of the book are happening around the times of the World War II. Thus the unusual choice of the narrator of the story doesn’t strike as weird as it could have – it’s the Death that gives the accounts of the book. The protagonist is Liesel Meminger, a young girl who lived through the death of her relatives and is now placed at a foster family of Hubermanns.
The innocence and purity of her childhood is ruined by the terrible actions of the Nazi regime. Her life is further destroyed with every new event that takes place as the war unfolds. It seems that there’s no end to the horror and despair happening around her. However, the girl regains the meaning of life when her foster father teaches her to read. She then starts to write her own stories.
Liesel also grows fond of the Jewish man her family is hiding from the party in their house. Together they protect the books the Nazi are trying to destroy forever. For the little girl stealing the books is like ensuring the safety and security of the world around her. It’s her feasible input into fixing the broken surroundings she experiences.
The story is a manifest to the natural course of life. To its beauty and cruelty, to its tendency to end one way or another. It evokes tears and smiles, but, most importantly, provokes deep thoughts about the footprint we are leaving behind. Brace yourself for the six hundred pages of interesting facts, special atmosphere, penetrating characters and deep notions. Get lost in the streets and pay attention to the sounds – the real magic is in the details inside of you.
Author: Wilma Daniels
New Essays
Best known for his book the Book Thief, Australian born author Markus Zusak has been writing for young adults since the age of seventeen(Grade Saver). Born in Melbourne, Australia to German and Austrian immigrants, Markus Zusak lived a very humble and quite life. However being the youngest of four...
Alphonse Elric from Full Metal Alchemist says, "humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost." In the novel, The Book Thief, Markus Zusak portrays the multiple transactions humanity experiences but in return...
Imagery: “First the colors. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.” (1) Describe: The first passage of “The Book Thief,” already leaves the reader questioning what on Earth these words could mean; however, the answer to this question...
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is set in Nazi Germany in World War II. Narrated by Death, the novel takes as its protagonist Liesel Meminger, a girl who grows up in a foster home where Jews aren’t seen as evil, in a departure from attitudes in the rest of Nazi Germany. Max, a Jew living in...