The Book Thief Literary Analysis

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In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, Liesel is adopted into a different German family with a completely new life. Her new parents are Rosa and Hans Hubermann. She meets her best friend Rudy Steiner and in the end, realizes she's in love with him. Hans teaches her how to read and write, which is a real turning point in her life. Reading and writing help her in times of need. When World War II a Jew hides in her basement and becomes a great friend to Liesel. The theme that words can have more power than actions is revealed through the characters, setting, and plot.
In The Book Thief, the characters of the story reveal how words can have more power than actions. Liesel decides to write to her mother after they haven't spoken for some time now. “Liesel began writing immediately, choosing to ignore the sense of
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The people who live in Nazi Germany don't actually want to do the things they've been told to do. They do it because Nazis threaten the citizens so everyone lives and follows with fear of doing something wrong. “‘They'll come for us,’ Mama warned her husband. ‘They'll come and take us away.’ They. ‘We have to find it!’ At one point, it seemed like Papa might have to go down to the basement and paint a flag on one of his drop sheets. Thankfully, it turned up, buried behind the accordion in the cupboard” (Zusak 103). The Nazis are telling everyone to put their flag up and the Hubermanns are frantically searching for it or else they could get punished if the flag was not found. Later, Max is laying in bed, he is very sick and Liesel is worried that he is going to die. “She gave The Dream Carrier to Max as if the words alone could nourish him. On a Tuesday, she thought there was a movement. She could have sworn his eyes had opened” (Zusak 328). Liesel is trying to make Max better by using the power of words in a book by reading to him, hoping the words of the story could heal