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Themes In The Book Thief

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‘The book thief had struck for the first time, it is the beginning of an illustrious career’. Liesel’s book stealing in my mind does not qualify as criminality. But the failure/inability to apologize for stealing items, this is the greatest crime. Markus Zusak attends to show us the humanity in everyone, he does this by elaborating on words and sentences creating the theme criminality. Markus successfully uncovers the theme criminality creating a profound effect on the reader while also linking to modern day society.
Liesel is seen countless of times stealing and breaking laws to satisfy her needs to reading, this is symbolic in the way of creating identity and understanding Liesel’s environment. ‘Liesel Meminger was a criminal but not because she had stolen a handful of books through an open window’ (54134). The statement by death is referring to Liesel’s inability to do what she knows is right and apologize to Elsa Hermann. Liesel never says sorry or shows any remorse failure to say sorry to Elsa is the greatest crime. Markus Zusak is trying to show us the humanity in everyone, Markus/death is trying to express his feelings towards Liesel, she is not a criminal but a little girl trying to belong. Markus describes Liesel as being unable to say sorry or apologise to people, possibly due to her being stuck in a new environment alone with no proper family. This same issue is also seen in another event. Rudy …show more content…

Markus shows us the humanity in everyone, he shows us how Liesel and Rudy are not criminals but people trying to belong. He portrays them as having the inability to say sorry or remorse for the actions therefore making them seem criminal minded. Liesel and Rudy for example are seen as criminals due to stealing apples from peoples stalls however never showing any remorse or sympathy for their actions. Liesel and Rudy’s actions link to modern day society and contain strong messages about identity and

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