Book Thief Essay - Themes
Set in the times of the second world war, “The Book
Thief” written by Markus Zusak is a story, with
powerful themes of love, sacrifice, the love for
literature and the treatment of the Jews.
Liesel Meminger’s loves books, and during the
desperate war times she steals books from a fire,
and other books from a Mayor’s home. Playing an
important role in Liesel Meminger’s life, words have a
lot of influence, and a tremendous impact. Words
were a survival comfort for Liesel. When her brother
died, Liesel tried to learn how to read the “Grave
Digger’s Handbook”. Words are also used to bring
Liesel and Max together. Max used words to express
his feelings and write down his own book.
Another example of the power of words is how they
impacted Hitler. Hitler used words to gain
recognition in the society, and convince the people
that the world needed to be thwarted of the Jews.
Love plays an important role in this story, thus
making it one of the most prominent themes. The love
relationships that have been explored in this book
are – the relationship between Liesel and Rudy, Rosa
and Liesel, Liesel and Hans, Ilsa Hermann and Liesel,
and Max and Liesel. The love Liesel has for Rosa and
Hans Huberman is very strong, although stern and
violent at times, Rosa offers a very strong motherly
love.
The love between Liesel and Rudy is also deep.
They are both best friends, and they share the same
interest for stealing and despising Hitler. Ilsa
Hermann and Liesel share a special bond.
Liesel’s world was gripped in war, and therefore
there are many signs of sacrifice, hope and
desperation. For example, Rosa and Hans
Hubbermann sacrifice themselves to save a Jew
named max Vandenberg. They do this even when they
know that anyone who is helping a Jew would be
slaughtered. Even if the whole country had hatred
towards the jews, this family still attempted to save
one. Another instance depicting sacrifice is Alex
Stiener sacrificing himself for Rudy. He himself went
to war, so that Rudy did not have to go to the Nazi
school. Max Vandenberg hopes that he will not be
discovered, and that he will be able to see the world
again. Rudy is constantly hoping that his father will
come back from the war.
Markus Zuzak provides a striking importance to the
theme of Death, in the novel “The Book Thief” Death
is the narrator of the story. The story starts with
death, with Liesel losing her brother Werner in the
train. Death talks about how he picks up thousands of
souls from war struck places. As the story
progresses, there are more deaths as the war
becomes merciless.
The themes in this story are based on the
experience that Markus Zusak’s mother had in
Germany. Through the story, Markus Zuzak captures
those memories.