Unbroken And The Book Thief Comparison

World War II is known worldwide as the bloodiest war in history, taking more than 60 million lives around the world. For anyone living in Germany during the time of war, especially those associated with Jews, it was an extremely dangerous period. For Liesel Meminger and her foster family, life had never been more risky than during the times that they had a Jew hidden in their basement during World War II. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak is an emotional story about how a young girl growing up in Germany is affected in many ways by the war, and how she finds comfort in reading stolen books. As Liesel Meminger is growing up in Molching, Germany in the midst of World War II, she finds herself surrounded by death.

Unbroken is reasonably effective for teaching Canadian 20th century history. Much of the back story on Louie Zamperini is unrelated to the course and despite being for the most part accurate; irrelevant to Canadian 20th century history as a whole. Despite this, the majority of the movie relates nicely to World War Two. The opening scene among others shows a B-24 Liberator flying a combat mission. Based off of old photographs the plan used in the movie seems extremely accurate.

Can something be beautiful and terrible at the same time? That is the question Death strives to answer regarding humanity in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. World War II was a tragic event caused by the hatred of one man toward a group of people, the Jews, and subsequently, anyone who was against him. The book’s focus is not on the war itself, but on the lives of a handful of people and their actions. In this book, Death recounts the story of Liesel Meminger, a ten-year old German girl, who faces tragedy throughout her time in Molching, Germany.

Reading Log #8 (pg. 256-291) Strategy: Make a prediction The narrator Death says, “Deep down, you know that this small piece of changing fortune is a signal of things to come. You hide a Jew. You pay.

Circumstances can make or break you, yet Markus Zusak uses Liesel to show it can make you into the person you can be. Like for example, when one gets tossed with people she has no idea she can turn into the person one is truly made up of or she can let her break her to make her complain and not take the advantages she is given. In The Book Thief, Markus uses Liesel to illustrate how tough circumstances can build you. For Liesel, defining tough circumstances were when she had to live with foster parents, when she had to learn to read, when she had to read in front of her class and be made fun of, and the dealing with her mother and brother dying. These are a few of the many tough situations that built her throughout The Book Thief.

Tragedy, terrorism, anarchy, and genocide are all results of the same societal quality; human weakness. This quality causes us to stay seated when the world needs us to stand up. The worst of our world’s history was caused by this societal issue. Throughout time the effects of such little participation and selfishness of people in power are clear. Although many circum to weakness there are some who stand up; those brave individuals overcome the weakness and harness their own opinion and change the world.

Growing up is often a difficult part of life. During adolescence many people struggle with the idea of growing up and moving on. Additionally, many teenagers and struggle with losing their innocence and understanding the consequences and realities of living life on their own. While offering different perspectives on the topic, The Catcher in the Rye and The Book Thief both are both similar because they address the importance of innocence and how it is significant to one’s childhood.

Throughout history the human race has faced numerous struggles in conquest towards the refinement of civilization. Some struggles however, being so severe that nations had to join together to fight off forces that would otherwise enslave or exterminate a race of people. This is commonly seen during war while tyrants force their overruling reign upon individuals seeking for an entity to put their faith into. One of most know to date cases of this is when the Nazi Party set afoot a quest to conquer the Jewish people; igniting a spark in history that would set aflame a raging fire of war for five deprivating years. Although inevitable, war is not a presence to recon with, it’s not wanted nor is it desired.

Why I chose the book: I chose to read The Book Thief because of its setting in the Second World War. The events which occurred during this period, with specific reference to the holocaust, interest me. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a Novel by John Boyne is what sparked this interest. The expressive writing technique of the novel provokes the utmost emotion within the reader. For this reason I enjoy reading literature which makes reference to historical events which have been considered to have plagued history.

Markus Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia, on June 23, 1975. He grew up listening to his parents’ stories of their childhoods in Vienna and Munich during World War II. One story his mother often told was about watching a group of Jews being marched down the street on their way to the concentration camp in Dachau. An old man was struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. When a boy ran up to the man and offered him a piece of bread, the man fell to his knees, crying and kissing the boy’s ankles.