Memory In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

Gretel had to explain to him that the people were Jews, and his father told him that the people on the other side of the fence, weren’t people at all. Bruno is important to the story, because without him, none of the adventures would occur, the book would show the cruel Germans; but with Bruno in the story we saw war life from a little boy’s perspective. Bruno made the story progress with his kindness and caring for others. Without him we wouldn 't have learned about Pavel or Maria’s past, and the story would just be about how a family moved next door to Auschwitz. Another main character is Shmuel.

The Significance of Loved Ones “‘The only thing that keeps me alive,” he kept saying, “is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up’” (Wiesel, 45). This is said by a Jewish man attempting to fight an onerous and exhausting fight against death. His family was his will to live. In the graphic novel Maus II, Art Spiegelman reveals what hardships his father had to go through to survive his time during the Holocaust.

Oskar Schindler: A True Hero “If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car, wouldn’t you help him?” Not many people can say that they have saved thousands of lives, while still being friends with the people trying to kill them. It takes someone with bravery, courage, and valiance. Someone willing to put everyone before themselves no matter what danger might come, who will do what some would consider impossible. This kind of act takes someone like Oskar Schindler, a true hero. During the time of the holocaust during WWII, Oskar provided protection to Jews that changed, and even saved, their lives.

Elie Wiesel was a young boy when he did survived the holocaust.. In his memoir Night, we follow his journey as a Jewish boy in a time where expressing your religion could mean life or death. Between living under the watch of Nazi regimes, trying to keep his father alive, and surviving the inhumanity of others, Elie’s had fought and lived through the genocide unlike any other. However, surviving the holocaust does not come without a price. Wiesel lived at the sacrifice of his faith and identity, which were left in fragments after the existence of evil that left a permanent scar on his life.

The definition of a hero is someone who always thinks about others and tried/tries to save lives, therefore, Oskar Schindler is a hero. Oskar Schindler is a hero because he was mad and thought about the Jews after he witnessed the massacre of the Jews in the town. He tries to buy all his workers back from the concentration camps when a typo error occured to save them. Schindler also goes out of his way to save his worker’s children from Auschwitz. Schindler was thinking about the Jews after he witnessed the massacre and makes up an excuse by saying it’s “bad business” in an angry tone when he is talking with Goeth, but he was just feeling bad for the Jews.

Forgive, not because they deserve forgives, but because you deserve peace. It’s not easy to stop blaming someone’s fault, especially for someone who do wrong to us. In the book The Sunflower written by Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Holocaust during World War II, he described his conflict with Karl, a dying Nazi soldier who killed many innocent Jews and begging for forgiveness for his outrageous crime at the end of his life. At the end of this sad and tragic episode, Simon did not response to Karl’s request directly; instead he left us a tough question: “What should you have done?” Based on what Karl had done during World War II and his repentance, each person might have their own point of view about where should we draw the line of forgiveness.

Firstly, living with the Hubermann’s has a lot of effects on Liesel’s actions. For example, it teaches Liesel to be selfless. “ There was a trace of a grin on her face as she and Rudy Steiner, her best friend, handed out the pieces of bread on the road.” (Zusak 440). Although times are hard for not only the Hubermann’s but Germany as a whole, Liesel demonstrates the same selflessness that Hans does. When he sees an old Jew falling down constantly and close to death.

In the novel, The Book Thief, a fictional story, author Markus Zusak demonstrates the power of words to save or destroy someone or something. The setting is WWII in Molching, Germany. Leisel is a foster child who went through a lot to get to where she is, Himmel Street. She is living with her foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermann. She also has a very good friend, Rudy, who is your typical Aryan boy with blonde hair and blue eyes.

The Book Thief Chapters: (Start of) The Sound of Sirens-(End of) Handover Man Job: Passage Master Passage 1: page 34 paragraph 1- paragraph 5 In this passage, Hans Hubermann holds out a piece of bread for a Jewish man to eat who was on the verge of being taken away by Death. The Jewish man was forced to walk in the parade with all the other Jews because their 3 trucks had “apparently broke down” which Death denies was the truth. After the Jewish man hesitated before taking the slice of bread, he knelt down to Hans thanking him. This passage shows how kind Hans can be despite the fact that this was not the cleverest move for him and his family. Hans Hubermann did this without thinking of all the consequences, but in that moment, his instinct

Another instance betrayal is shown is how Baba is Hassan's father which means that he betrayed his best friend Ali. Another large theme is working for forgiveness. Amir tries to gain redemption for not saving Hassan from rape was saving and adopting Sohrab. Baba's redemption for betraying Ali was creating an orphanage, doing other charitable activities, and giving many gifts to Hassan each birthday. An obvious symbol for The Kite Runner is kites.