Comparing The Book Thief And A Separate Peace

Theme is expressed in both The Book Thief, by Mark Zusak and A Separate Peace, John Knowles, in separate ways. The Book Thief can have more than one theme, those themes are take nothing for granted and don’t let surroundings change a person. The Book Thief and A Separate Peace expresses their theme through characters, setting, plot, mood, and conflict. Both authors express these elements in their own way to help show theme in these books.

The Book Thief has characters such as Liesel Meminger, the protagonist, Hans, the foster father, Rudy, Liesel's best friend, and Max, the Jew. Liesel was an introvert as she kept to herself once she moved to a foster home after her brother passed away from an illness while traveling to their new foster parents,

He was always kind and he and Liesel formed a friendship and they would read together. He made her a book about his story and left the book for her after he left. All of these characters impacted Liesel in their own way and showed theme of take nothing for granted by the characters giving something to Liesel and she took them for granted until they were gone and she realized her mistake. Death narrated this story and the reader got to see his point of view of The Book Thief and understand how he sees the world and humans. This takes place in Nazi Germany, 1939 during WW II. This was the time when Hitler started to take over and orders Jewish stores, homes and anything Jewish be destroyed or vandalized by the Nazi. Liesel’s new foster home was located on Himmel Street where she met her best friend, Rudy. In the basement of the house, they kept Max down I the basement because they could risk him being seen in the house by other people from the outside of the house. The basement was small and disorganized but Max made living down there bearable. There were writings on the walls and paint cans all around. With the paint, Max made his book and drew pictures

She meets Max, who Hans took in. After they formed a friendship, he had to leave because he felt as though he shouldn’t be there. He felt that way because he felt like a danger to the family after time passed and the war got worse and he thought that it was time for him to leave. He left his life story for Liesel in sketches for her to see. The house gets bombed and Hans, Rosa and Rudy, but not Liesel. Throughout the novel, Rudy always asked Liesel for a kiss and she turned him down every time. When she saw him dying in the aftermath of the bombing he was about to tell her that he loves her, but he passes away in the middle of saying that he did. After he passes away in Liesel’s arms, she started to cry and told him to kiss her, unable to accept the fact that he was dead. This shows the theme because asking her to kiss him and her saying no she realized that she took him for granted and didn’t realize how much she actually liked him. Liesel did carry on and she shared her story and many years later she found Max and they reunited. The conflict in The Book Thief is man vs. society or to be more specific, the