Analysis and Reflection on "The Book Thief"

The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger which is narrated by Death. She is a nine-year-old German girl who is about to be living with Hans and Rosa Hubermann, a married couple in the German town of Molching in 1939 after her mother decides to give both her and her brother up. But tragedy strikes when on the train to Molching, Liesel's younger brother Werner dies, and Leisel is forever traumatized which causes her to experience nightmares about him for months.

At her brother's funeral, she steals her first book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook. When she arrives at Hubermann’s home she acts coldly until her foster father, Hans plays his accordion to try and cheer her up which brings them closer. Hans calms Liesel when she experiences her nightmares and helps her learn to read, starting with a book Liesel stole from the cemetery where her brother was buried. Liesel soon befriends a boy from their neighborhood, Rudy Steiner, who falls in love with her. Liesel later steals another book from a book burning and comes to the realization that her father was persecuted for being a Communist and that her mother was likely killed by the Nazis for the same crime. Ilsa Hermann saw the book theft and later invites Liesel to read in her library.

Keeping a promise he made to the man who saved his life during World War I, Hans hides a Jew named Max Vandenburg in his basement behind some paint cans. Liesel and Max become close friends and Max writes two stories directed towards Liesel about their friendship and how Hitler came to power. But during a parade of Jews being taken to a Concentration camp, Hans openly gives a Jew bread which results in him getting publicly whipped. Max leaves in order to not get Hans in any more trouble than he already is. Hans and Rudy’s father are drafted into the military at a point when air raids over German cities are beginning to happen more and cause more death and destruction. But after Hans suffers a broken leg in a car crash he is sent back home. Liesel next sees Max as he is being marched towards the concentration camp at Dachau.

Later, Ilsa gives Liesel a book with blank pages in order for her to write. Liesel begins to write the story of her life in the Hubermanns' basement during the night, which allowed her to somehow survive an air raid that kills Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and everyone else on her block except Rudy’s father who is still in the army at this point. Liesel survives the war and meets Max as it comes to an end. She goes on to live a long life and finally meets death himself at old age.

Words and stories are one of the most important themes in the book. There are many examples of how words and stories intertwine themselves with the story. One of the first examples is the alphabet. Every time Liesel had her nightmares he would take her down to the basement to teach her the alphabet which formed a deep bond between both of them.“The Word Shaker,” the story Max writes for Liesel, also supports this theme. In it, he suggests that words are one of the most powerful forces, using the example of Hitler who used words to take over the world, not weapons. “ Yes, the Führer decided he would rule the world with the world with words. ‘ I will never fire a gun,’ he devised, ‘ I will not have to.” The story essentially dramatizes the way Liesel has used words to cope in the midst of Nazi Germany-, and Max was able to find shelter in her words as well. Liesel later reads from her book to calm her neighbors during the air raids, she also reads to Frau Holtzapfel to comfort her. But the most important example of words having an effect on this story is when she gets her life saved by them when she was writing in her book in the basement during an air raid which killed everyone else on her block but she survived.

It is greatly shown in the book how words are equal to power and it suggests that power can be dangerous. Again, Max tells this to Liesel in the book he leaves for her where he relates how Hitler used words and propaganda to conquer the world. “ He ( the “. This also relates to how Nazis would burn books to keep people away from certain ideas as if those ideas would spread and defeat them. This also shows Liesel and Max how the Nazis fear these ideas/words which are put in the Word Shaker, Max’s book on page 446-447. Liesel plants a seed in the story which sprouts into a tree that not even the Fuhrer could chop down. This represents how her ideas are completely against the Nazis which they fear could spread like a tree that spreads its seed.

The second most important theme in the book is the accordion. One example of this is with Liesel. To her, the accordion represents Hans and what he has done for her. To her it represents Hans himself as seen as when on page 545 Ilsa Hermann has come to pick Liesel up from the police station after Hans and Rosa have died, Ilsa offers to carry the case holding the accordion but Liesel refuses which signifies how this is her last connection to Hans. “ Ilsa Hermann offered to carry the case, but Liesel held it firmly in her hand as they walked down the police station steps.”

Another example of how the accordion is an important symbol is with Max. To Max, the accordion represents a debt to Erik Vandenburg, his father, because he saved his life during WWI. Hans inherited the accordion after Erik died in the battle after getting Hans out of having to fight, and he learned to play it as a way of honoring Erik's memory. In that way it also symbolizes Erik. This is shown by the second thing Max says to Hans when he arrives at his doorstep on page 173, “ Do you still play the accordion,” this line was is Max asking Hans if he still remembers what his father did for him which would indicate if he was safe or not.

The final way the accordion symbolizes something is comfort and hope. In the beginning times of Liesel’s stay with the Hubermanns, she is very depressed due to her brother dying and her mother dropping her off at some strangers’ house. But once Hans starts playing his accordion to try and soothe her sorrows. This not only brightens the mood for Liesel but also for the book because up to this point there was only sorrow and gloom.

I enjoyed The Book Thief. The narration of death adds greatly to the gloomy setting of Nazi Germany. I also felt that the narration by death was very reliable seeing how he was neutral in this situation. But Death still could’ve missed certain important details seeing that he was in charge of so many bodies at the time. Death in this story could also see what people were doing and thinking which meant that no secrets were kept in. The narration in this story is also very straight to the point and doesn’t beat around the bush about any deaths most likely because death himself doesn’t care anymore about them. An example of this is when Death doesn’t just foreshadow the death of Rudy he completely spoils it and blatantly says he died.

This book did give me insight into what Nazi Germany was like. I feel it represented well how, yes, there were, of course, people who were extremely pro-Hitler, but, there were also people who thought less extremely and some people were probably completely against Hitler’s ideas like Hans. This also represented how the people of Nazi Germany were still people who were scared of dying and this war which I feel most people don’t realize. I would recommend this to other people. This book’s insight into Nazi Germany and a unique style of narration make it a must-have for people who like historical fiction.