Author's style in The Book Thief

Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, has a very unique and distinct style of writing. First of all, Death is the narrator. That is a strange, but very interesting, point of view. Death does a lot of foreshadowing in his narration. For example he will say things like: "He already cheated me in one world war but would later be put into another (as a perverse kind of reward), where he would somehow manage to avoid me again" (Zusak 33-34). This statement clearly implies that Hans Hubberman will escape death once more in a later chapter, after being thrown into a second world war as a sick form of punishment (see previous post). Also, Death will put important pieces of information in bold and separated from the other text. For instance it would look something like this:
...I watched their stomachs open and the bombs drop casually out. They were off target, of course. They were often off target.

***A SMALL, SAD HOPE***
No one wanted to
bomb Himmel Street.
No one would bomb a
place named after
heaven, would they?
Would they? (Zusak 497-498)

These off settings of important thoughts, ideas, or simple facts are used quite regularily throughout the book. They help the reader to better understand major events in the book, and to think more deeply about them. Plus, they highlight key ideas and concepts brought forth by Zusak.

Zusak is a very talented writer. He made me experience much emotion while reading this book. Some of these emotions were...
*Dissappointment- Rudy and Liesel never kiss. And then its too late.
*Sadness- Liesel loses people she loves.
*Relief- Max and Liesel are reunited. Hans returns from war.
*Compassion- Rosa and Liesel are torn apart when Hans leaves.
*Anger- Jews were treated worse than dirt. Hitler is a maniac.
These are just some of the emotions I experienced. The book had a very powerful story that had a great impact upon me. Overall I would give it nine and a half stars out of ten. I would definitly recommend this exhilerating book.

Completion of The Book Thief

Not quite a happy ending for Liesel Meminger. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to ruin the book, but a warning: it doesn't end happily. Well I guess in one circumstance it does, and that is that Max and Liesel are reunited after their long separation. This separation was caused by an act of Hans Hubberman, not a mean act, but a nice one. This act of kindness and bravery proved to be a very dangerous move on Hans' part, and it will end up tearing Hans from his family and Max from his place of safety. During a parade of Jews (where Jews, on their way to a concentration camp, are paraded through the streets of Munich) Hans steps in and gives one of the struggling Jews a piece of bread. Overwhelmed with thanks, the Jew drops to Hans' feet and thanks him over and over again. Then a soldier comes over to them. The Jew was whipped six times, and Hans four times. Realization hits Hans later when he realizes what could happen to him and his family, not to mention Max (the Jew hidden in his basement). Knowing that "they" will most likely come for him, Hans must make Max leave the house. Hans has shown himself to the public as a "Jew lover", and so his house would definitly be searched for hidden Jews. Hans begs Max's forgiveness, but Max merely says "You've done enough." (Zusak 398). Later on, Hans gets his punishment. He is drafted into the military and forced to clean up after air raids (not to worry though, he is sent home after some number of months with a broken leg. Who would have thought that a broken leg would be the best thing to happen to Hans?). All of this for giving a hungry, dying Jew a piece of stale bread. On that day, the Jews being paraded through the streets witnessed a miracle.

Liesel Meminger

This post is strictly focused on Liesel Meminger, the main character in The Book Thief.


At the beginning of the book Liesel is a scared, timid, and an emotionally scarred child. After witnessing the death of her brother on the train and being separated from her mother (the only family she has left), Liesel shuts down. Every night her dreams are haunted by her brother's death aboard the train. Every night Liesel wakes up screaming, and every night Hans comes in to comfort her and read to her. Liesel develops a strong relationship with Hans and starts to open up to him. Each day Liesel gets more comfortable with her new home and foster parents. She makes friends in the neighborhood, especially with a boy named Rudy. Liesel begins to find happiness through reading, Rudy, soccer, and, of course, stealing books. Liesel makes friends with the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, for whom Rosa Hubberman does the laundry. Ilsa invites Liesel into her home to read books in her library, something Liesel enjoys very much. However, when the Hermanns stop being customers of Rosa, Liesel gets mad and yells at Ilsa. Liesel sort-of apologizes, but still will not accept Ilsa's invitation to read in her library. So instead, Liesel decides to steal from the library. Soon, Ilsa discovers that Liesel is stealing her books, but she is not angry. On the contrary, Ilsa invites her to keep stealing and even leaves a dictionary right next to the window the book thief enters through. Through out the novel, Liesel develops a new relationship with Max (the hidden Jew). Liesel shares nightmares with Max and often keeps him company in the basement. She is devastated when Max is forced to leave. In the end Liesel loses many of the people she loves, but finds comfort when Max returns to her at Ilsa Hermann's house, Liesel's new home. (When Liesel's home and family are destroyed by a bombing, Ilsa takes her in.) Liesel evolves into a strong, but still very emotionally wounded teenager. Liesel still has two rays of light in her clouded life: Max and Ilsa.

The Book Thief (one of many posts by that title)

"'Do you still play the accordian?' Of course, the question was really, 'Will you still help me?'" (Zusak). This quote is important because it sparks the new fear and anxiety within the Hubberman household. Afterall, hiding a Jew is a crime punishable by death. This question, asked by Max Vandenburg, the Jew, marks the start of a new way of living for the Hubbermans. Fear of being caught by members of the Nazi party, the Hubbermans must do everything they can to keep their secret safe. This means Max must live in the cold basement behind a sheet and some paint cans. Liesel is sworn to secrecy by her father, after being told that he can be taken away from her if anyone discovers the jew in the basment. Max gets very sick after being in the cold basement all day everyday, so the Hubbermans decide that, once cured, he should come upstairs each night to warm up and get a change of scenery. During the days that Max is unconcious from sickness, Liesel collects gifts for him, in hope that they will help him wake up and get better. These gifts consisted of a destroyed soccer ball, a ribbon, a pinecone, a button, a stone, a feather, two newspapers, a candy wrapper, a cloud described on a piece of paper, a toy soldier, a miraculous leaf, and also Liesel read her book The Whistler to Max. A deep relationship formed between Max and Liesel. They shared nightmares with eachother, and Liesel would, very often, visit Max in the basement to keep him company. As a birthday gift, Max wrote and illustrated a book called The Standover Man for Liesel. Max's book defined his and Liesel's realtionship in a story. Here's a quote from the story: "Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. On her birthday, it was she who gave a gift-to me."

Much Ado About Nothing

Thus far in the play, Hero has been successfully wooed for Claudio, even with the evil Don John trying to cause trouble with Claudio by telling him the Prince only wants Hero for himself. Also, Leonato, Don Pedro, and Claudio trick Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice. They do this by making sure that Benedick overhears them talking of the great love Beatrice has for him, and how, even though her tongue is sharp, she is just expressing her love for him. Hero and Ursula do the same with Beatrice, making sure that she overhaers them talking of Benedick's deep love for Beatrice. Both tricks are successfull and Beatrice falls in love with Benedick, and he with Beatrice. All this happiness makes Don John unhappy, he only wants to cause havoc and discomfort. So, he makes a devious little plan with Borachio and Conrade. This plan will, to their hope, break apart Claudio and Hero and therefore make Don Pedro unhappy (which I believe is their ultimate goal). The plan consists of Borachio having relations with Margaret, Hero's lady in waiting, in Hero's bed chamber. BUT, instead of Margaret being Margaret, she will act as Hero. Don John will make sure that Claudio can hear Borachio call Margaret "Hero"(and vice versa) in their love making and consequently destroy the young relationship. Will the plan work? Technically in comedies, everything turns out for the best, so we already know that everything will work out between Claudio and Hero. But we don't know how this conflict will be solved.

The Book Thief

For a class assignmanet Liesel is asked to write two letters, one to a friend and one to somenone in the another class. Liesel chose to write one of these letters to her mama. Not Rosa Hubberman though, her birth mama. Liesel spent hours in the basement, while her father painted, working on the perfect letter to send to her mama. In the letter she told mama about everything she had encountered since their separation. Since she didn't have her mama's address, Liesel was encouraged to give her letter to Frau Diller, who was the woman who brought Liesel to the Hubberman's home and worked with the foster agency. Then she started waiting. Each day Liesel would check the mail box for any letter from her mama. Later, Liesel overheard her foster parents talking about her mama:
"What was she doing writing to her mother?"...
"She asked me," Papa answered, "and I couldn't say no. How could I?"
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Again with the whisper. "she should just forget her. Who knows where she is? Who knows what they've done to her?

Liesel is once again forced to ask herself:
"Where was she?
What had they done to her?
And once and for all, who, in actual fact, were they?"

Shakespeare

In class, we are in the midst of reading Much Ado About Nothing, a comedy by Shakespeare. So far I am enjoying the play very much. The handsome war-hero, Claudio, has fallen deeply in love with the beautiful, doting daughter of Leonato, Hero. Leonato is keeping Don Pedro, the prince, as well as Claudio and Benedick as guests in his home, for they have recently returned from battle. Also staying with Leonato is Don Pedro's half-brother, Don John the bastard and his two comrades Borachio and Conrade. Don John is the villain in the story and wants to cause trouble and discorde, for the discomfort of his half-brother. When he hears that Claudio wants Hero's hand in marriage, and that Claudio and Don Pedro have planned a way to woo her and talk with Leonato about the marriage, he wants to do whatever he can to make sure the marriage doesn't happen. The reason he wants to do this, is because he is a mean guy, it's just in his nature. The plan that Don Pedro and Claudio have conjured to win Hero over is as follows: Don Pedro will woo Hero in Claudio's name at the masked ball, and also talk to her father about the marriage. Then once Hero is won over, Claudio will take Don Pedro's place as himself. Clearly, there are many ways Don John can cause confusion and mayhem at the masked ball, and that's exactly what he intends to do.

The Book Thief Update

Rudy Steiner, Liesel's new friend and companion, has this strange obsession with the olympic runner Jesse Owens. This 4-time gold-medalist had a real impact upon the young Rudy, and there is a certain incident that the people of Himmel Street will never forget. Though this incident happened before Liesel's arrival, she feels that she was there when it happened, because she can picture it perfectly. The incident was so bizarre that it would be hard to ever forget. After Rudy's family watches Jesse win his 4 gold medals, Rudy dashes into the kitchen and smears charcoal all over his body, so that it covers every inch of his white skin. He then headed out the door to the Hubert Oval. Upon arrival at the track, Rudy begins his uncoordinated stretches. Impersonating Jesse Owens, he takes off down the track, commentating on himself the entire time. He imagines the crowd chanting his name, which at this moment was no longer Rudy, but instead he was the unbeatable Jesse Owens. Rudy realizes he is in trouble when he sees his father standing at the finish line waiting for him. On the way home Rudy's father lectures him about his strange behavior. The discussion leads to Rudy's father telling him to never ever again paint himself black. When Rudy asks why not, his father tells him "Because they'll take you away" (Zusak 60) Again Rudy asks why, and his father tries to explain that anyone who isn't "like them" is not safe. Blacks and Jews especially. Here's a small section from the reading that had a great impact on me...
"Mr. Steiner...explained, 'I know son--but you've got beautiful blond hair and big, safe blue eyes. You should be hapy with that; is that clear?' But nothing was clear. Rudy understood nothing, and that night was the prelude of things to come. Two and a half years later, the Kaufmann Shoe Shop was reduced to broken glass, and all the shoes were flung aboard a truck in their boxes" (Zusak 61).

END OF RESEARCH PAPER and start of Shakespeare

The research paper unit is finally over! I believe that my research paper was definitely my best paper of this school year, and hopefully I will recieve a very high grade that reflects the time and effort I put into this paper. Ms. West asked us to complete a reflection on our papers, after we turned them into the wire basket. We were asked various questions about what we thought of our paper, also we were asked to make a list of the steps we would take to write another research paper. These are the steps that I would follow:
1) Find a topic that interests you.
2) Find atleast 5 credible sources for that topic.
3) Annotate all your sources.
4) Make an informal outline that will help structure the paragraphs in your paper.
5) Write notes for key information that you annotated in your sources. (paraphrase, quote, summarize)
6) Design a Flee Map that will help to better organize each paragraph and help you to lay out exactly what you will say in your paper.
7) Construct a rough draft to be edited.
8) Write your final draft.
These steps will prove to be very useful later on in my college career. After all research papers were turned in with our reflections, we started a movie all about Shakespeare. I enjoyed the movie very much. The most interesting thing I learned from it is that we actually don't know a lot about Shakepeare. I think they said in the movie that we only actually know 3 things about him. That's so weird because he's one of the most famous names in history and literature.

The Book Thief Update

Recently in The Book Thief Liesel begins school, however because of her level of education she is in a class with kids much younger than herself. When Liesel wakes up screaming from her nightmares, a nightly routine, Hans Hubberman will read from The Grave Digger's Handbook (the small black book Liesel found/stole from her brother's grave site) to comfort her. One night, when Hans asks Liesel how many words on the page she can read, she replies that she can read about half. Hans later discovers that she can only read three words. Later, he begins to re-teach Liesel the alphabet and and shows her how letters are arranged to make words. They call this nightly session their "midnight class", these "classes" start after Liesel's bed-wetting incident (she became so terrified of her nightmare that she had a little accident). Eventually, Liesel is moved up into the class with kids her own age, though she still can't read as well as the rest of them. Among her classmates is a boy by the name of Rudy Steiner. Rudy and Liesel become very good friends and walk to school together every day. They also play daily soccer games with the other children in the neighborhood. Rudy decides that he is in love with Liesel, and he sticks up for her when she reads aloud in front of the class, a complete disaster. Liesel is made the "heavy-weight champion of the school-yard", when she beats up two boys for making fun of her reading ability. A lot of things are going on right now in the book, this was just a quick summary of the key events.

In-Class Update

This week in class Ms. West taught us many different ways of preparing to write a research paper. These things included: how to organize and write notes on your subject, how to create a flee map, and how to properly paraphrase and summarize. I found that paraphrasing was quite difficult. Its really hard to restate the facts and ideas without being guilty of plaigarism. Ahhhhh! Its very frustrating. Anyways, that's probably why my notes took so long, because I had to do a lot of paraphrasing. However I'm really glad I fininshed them because its going to make writing my paper so much easier. The same goes for doing the flee map, though I'm not so sure I did it right. Before this year I never had realized how many rules there were to avoid plaigarism. I understand them now, but up to this year I have probably plaigarised more than once. Thats not a good thing. I also didn't know that colleges can expell one of their students for plaigarism, so I'm going to have to be very careful from now on. Thank you Ms. West for teaching me how to avoid it, because I would like to graduate from college. :)

Outside Reading: The Book Thief

Recently in The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger gets adopted by a foster family, the Hubermans. Liesel took her first ride in a car on the way to meet her new foster parents who reside on Himmel Street (Himmel means heaven).Hans Huberman is a man who enjoys rolling his own cigarettes, a lesson he teaches Liesel to ease the tension and uncomfort of her new home. He is a gentle man capable of great compassion. On the contrary, Rosa Huberman is a cold woman who "was good at being furious" (Zusak 32). In fact Rosa is described as having "a face decorated with constnat fury" (Zusak 33). She is a short, stout woman with "a distinct waddle to her walk" (Zusak 27). Liesel finds it hard to adjust to her new home and remains in the back seat of the car until at last they were able to coaz her from the car. She also refused to undress for a bath, and this angered Rosa Hubberman. Rosa cursed at her until Hans came in and told her to leave Liesel alone. Hans, to ease the tension, gave Liesel a lesson on how to role a cigarette. Though it may seem that Rosa is a cruel woman uncapable of love, she really did love Liesel, she just had a different way of showing it. Rosa asks Liesel to call her mama and to call Hans papa. Liesel finds that she has a much easier time calling Hans papa than calling Rosa mama.