Lost Innocence In The Book Thief

Lost Innocence is a major theme throughout in all three novels. Each novel portrayed it in different ways and each novels is also has a variety of other minor themes.

When Liesel moves to Himmel street she befriends a young boy named Rudy. Throughout The Book Thief Rudy symbolises pure innocence. He never understands what is going on around him. He is know as the boy who is obsessed with the black athlete Jesse Owens. One day he paints himself with charcoal and runs around a field. His father catches him and Rudy does not understand the severity of his actions in that time period. The following quotation illustrates Rudy’s ignorance as to what is happening around him.

“Alex said, “You can’t go around panting yourself black, you hear?” Rudy

The time and place that all the protagonists live in define the circumstances that they have live. The setting of a novel limits a character to certain parameters in which the storyline unfolds. All the novel’s settings impact the storyline.

The Book Thief is set in Nazi Germany.

The protagonist, Liesel Meminger, is introduced when on a train on her way to move into her new foster home in Munich. She moves in with the Hubermanns in a small town in the outskirts of Munich called Molching. The Hubermann’s house is situated in Himmel Street. This name directly translates from German into English as Heaven Street. This is very ironic because it is common knowledge that Himmel Street is “not exactly the epitome of idyllic Molching living.” The neighbourhood is portrayed as very bleak an poor.

World War Two plays a major role in The Book Thief due to its impact on Liesel. Without Nazi Germany, the novel wouldn’t have it’s storyline. It is due to the war that Liesel is serperated from her mother and moves in with her foster parents. The war forces Liesel to live in poverty. Without the war she wouldn’t have met Max, a jew that they hid. The war caused the death of all of her loved