“The consequence of this is that I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both”. Death is the narrator of the novel ‘The Book Thief’. Death implies that there is something ugly and beautiful in every human being he has come across, but yet he doesn’t know how they can co-exist in one person. The Book Thief explores how beauty can co-exist with brutality. Liesel Meminger, Rosa Hubermann and Hans Hubermann are three of the vast majority of characters who show their beauty in the midst of brutality.
Firstly, Liesel Meminger is a hard one to discover something ugly about her since she is the main character and very likable. She tends to be mean to Rudy, calling him a ‘Saukerl’ every now and then. Saukerl meaning ‘male pig’. The influence behind her being mean to Rudy comes from a verbal abusive like mother. Rosa
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The way Rosa Hubermann shows her love towards Liesel is by her ugly side. Rosa was always quick with violence and abrupt language but slow in showing affection. One could say this was Mama’s way of showing love and protection and teaching her in order to make her safe. The moment when Max fell through the front door, Rosa started to show her hospitality and kindness towards the mad, even though he was Jewish. She was a good woman for a crisis. Rosa was selfless and giving towards Max, in a different way to Hans Hubermann. Her ugliness lies in where she tends to abuse people verbally. In the start of the novel, when there was a crowd surrounding the area when they tried to ‘coax’ out Liesel from the car, she curses at the crowd by saying ‘What are you arseholes looking at?’, and her tendency to describe Hans Hubermann as a ‘Saukerl’, who Liesel starts to get influenced by. But Rosa shows her kindness, hospitality, compassion and love through harsh
Originally, she does not realize Nazis are actively persecuting people, but after she meets and grows close to Max, Liesel begins to comprehend the ugly truth of Nazi Germany. Though her closest family members, Hans, Rosa, and Max, do not support Nazi values, other people she grows close to do support the Nazis. For example, Ilsa Hermann, though extremely kind to Liesel, is the wife of a mayor in Nazi Germany and wears swastika-embroidered bathrobes, supporting the Nazi party. She does own books banned by the Nazi government, but never once speaks out against or even mentions their persecution of various peoples. A similar situation occurs with Frau Holtzapfel.
5. Rosa Hubermann was Liesel’s foster mother, and requested Liesel call her mama. In the book, Death mentioned that she loved Liesel just as much as Hans, she just didn’t show it the same way. Rosa was very strict, and to make money for the family, she did the rich’s laundry. Liesel and Hans always joked about how much mama complained, because she always seemed to be able to argue about everything.
Written by Markus Zusak, The Book Thief is a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Liesel Meminger narrated through the words of Death. The thievery character of this girl emerged after the death of her younger brother. Built over a prolonged period, this desperate nature is the foundation of what became of her later in the story. The books that Liesel stole, the stories that she told, and novel that she wrote enhanced a symbolic meaning in this novel centered around wholeness. Liesel Meminger’s first victim was the gravedigger.
After her mother learns she cannot look after Liesel and her brother anymore, she decides to take them to a foster family. Her brother, Werner dies on the train ride there. Liesel meets her new foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Hans and Rosa Hubermann find a purpose during the war by protecting and caring for Liesel. Liesel found joy and comfort in reading to Max while he was in the coma.
Her whole family was deported to other concentration camps and killed in the gas chambers. After living in Auschwitz for 2 years, she was working in a clothing supply section of the camp when she was approached by Noah Zabldowicz, a member of the Jewish underground operating. Noah told Rosa that they must stage an uprising and plans to blow
Most accounts state that Liesel is the most kind and loving character in the novel, but I disagree with that because I say Max is the kindness and loving character in the novel. He is a character who sacrifices his own basic human needs to protect The Huberman and Liesel from getting in trouble by The Nazi. Max would write books to Liesel to help her learn how to read more and describe the world better. He also did this to show the strength and courage she has given him. He left Himmel Street to protect Liesel and The Huberman from getting arrested for keeping him in their basement.
That was the business of hiding a Jew"(211). Rosa does not have to take Max in and put her family in danger, but she does. Secondly, at the Hubermann household, Rosa makes sure everything is divided equally. Soon things begin to change and Liesel notices, "Whether it was the calculated way in which she divided the food, or the considerable
Lily has the strongest relationship with Rosaleen, in which she describes her: She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent, and she was so black that night seemed to seep from her skin. She lived alone in a little house tucked back in the woods, not so far from us, and came every day to cook, clean, and be my stand-in mother. Rosaleen have never had a child herself, so for the last ten years I’d been her guinea pig. (Kidd 2)
In the Book Thief, Liesel’s life represents beauty in the wake of brutality in her relationship with Ilsa Hermann, in her relationship with Rudy, and in the Hubermann’s house. Ilsa Hermann is the mayor’s wife and her connection to Liesel is through books. Throughout some of the book, Liesel went to the mayor’s library and read with Ilsa Hermann. The beauty is the books and reading, and the brutality is that Ilsa fired Rosa Hubermann and Liesel ripped up the books in the library.
It was hard for Rosa mother to find jobs. Rosa began stealing and shoplifting to get the things she needs. At the age of Thirteen, Rosa became pregnant (Dash, Leon, 1996). After Rosa’s father died, she did not have a good relationship with her mother. Rosa’s mother had begun abusing her.
On Himmel Street, the characters of The Book Thief share the hardships of their past and current situation, along with the necessity to cope with it. In the novel The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak exemplifies beauty appearing within the wake of brutality, as well as the resilience of spirit in times of hardship with Max, Liesel, and Death Death’s use of color to cope with his dreadfully miserable job demonstrates the resilience
Her father left her constantly at young ages. He left his family completely till she was an adult when Rosa turned five. Rosa later moved to Abbeville to live with her father’s family when she was one year old. Her mother hated living there with his family. Later when
Markus Zusak has assembled ‘The Book Thief’ using a variety of narrative conventions. These include a unique narrative viewpoint, plot structure and use of imagery, all of which provide meaning to the reader. (33 words) A narrative’s point of view refers to who is telling the story. In this case Zusak’s narrator identifies himself as Death.
In the novel, Liesel’s behavior shows justice and love through her friendship with Max. Although her relationship with Max in the beginning of the book was rather awkward, soon her perspective towards Max soothes and their relationship bonds to a friendship. There are some times when Liesel’s actions were unbelievable, especially during the Jew parade. “ ‘ You have to let go of me Liesel.’
Life is not always beautiful, that is a fact. It is a fact that every human being has come to realize. Another fact that we all know but cease to accept is that life is brutal, that is another fact, except that, it is a fact no one wanted to accept until that one turning point in a person’s journey in which they realize that there is not always a way out. In “The Book Thief”, the protagonist, Liesel Meminger comes to realize that in life, there is beauty and brutality, sometimes both combined together with a fine line between them. The author, Zusak, uses three out of the five senses-vision, hearing and the ability to feel, both physically and emotionally as imagery to communicate the ideas of beauty and brutality to the reader and enforce