The Theme Of Loss In The Book Thief

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you truly are.” E.E Cummings. Coming of age is a period of time when a person’s perception of the things around them change. This person starts to realize their role in society, and they now have responsibilities and roles to take care of. Two components of coming of age include one’s perception of parents, and experiencing loss. Christopher Boone, the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, experiences the component of perception on parents. Liesel Memenger, the main character of The Book Thief, experiences the component of the experience of loss.

The perception of parents is how one understands and thinks of their parents. This perception changes from childhood to adulthood.

It can be a person, place, or thing. It impacts one’s life, and it often changes how that person views different things. Liesel Memenger experiences loss early in the book. Her little brother died from a sickness early in the book. Her mother gives her to foster parents to try to protect her and help her have a better life, and Liesel doesn’t know what became of her after that. Liesel is alone and grieving over the loss of her brother and mother, and afraid of this new place and people that she didn’t know. When her brother died, she experienced a couple of stages of grief. The first was denial, and the second was depression. On page 23, Liesel and her mother buried her little brother. Liesel was denying his death and did this: “Her knees entered the ground. Her moment had arrived. Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. He couldn’t-” (Zusak). She experienced depression on page 24, “Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart in two pieces… She was being dragged away. A warm scream filled her throat” (Zusak). She was depressed when her brother died. She didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to leave him. These stages of grief are proved in the article Stages of Grief, reviewed by Dr. Lori Lawrenz. For denial, this article says, “You might not believe that your loved one has really died or perhaps the news hasn’t really sunk in yet. Denial is a common defense mechanism that gives you time to absorb what has happened” (Lawrenz). For depression, this article says, “This might be an emotional low point for you, when you don’t care about anything or anyone. You might go through feelings of emptiness, loneliness, or might even stop caring about anything or anyone, tiredness or lack of appetite” (Lawrenz). Liesel goes through these stages when her brother dies in the beginning. Throughout the book, Liesel experiences more grief. Her best friend