THE BOOK THIEF

The Book Thief is one of the greatest books you can ever read in your whole life. They have even made such a great movie based on the book and today I will talk about the character Liesel Meminger.

The darkest times in the history of nations are the times when humans believe that evil is the only way to good. In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak demonstrates how the protagonist dealt with discrimination, hope and using the power of words. Paula Meminger overcomes her deficiency and inability to care for her children after her husband got arrested for being a communist. By asking the social workers to find foster parents, The Hubermanns became Liesel’s foster parents and they tried as hard as possible to create a good quality of life for her. Through the story, the protagonist faced many challenges, but still found hope to take a stand against discrimination through the power of words.

Within the novel, the writer demonstrates the idea of discrimination in World War 2. No matter how German you are, if you had a dark colour of eyes, it meant a bad indicator at the time. Death, the narrator said “Her hair was a close enough brand of German blond, but she had dangerous eyes. Dark brown. You didn't really want brown eyes in Germany around that time.”(31) In Nazi Germany, having dark eyes were dangerous because it didn’t fit with the German mentality. Discrimination didn’t just stop at racism as shown above, but it continued to be against people who support or believe in the principle of communism. The narrator stated some good points about communism related to Liesel when he said “She saw it all clearly, her starving mother, her missing father, Kommunisten, her dead brother.”(111) The communist party was against Hitler and the Nazis, therefore, Liesel’s family is punished because her father identified himself as a communist. At school, Liesel also got discriminated against and bullied because of her inability to read and write. When Liesel wanted to read and write a sentence in class, Sister Maria shouted “No, you cannot . . . What are you doing?”(76) At school, Liesel was getting teased and discriminated against even by teachers just because she is trying to learn like any other student. In short, Humans didn’t choose their color, origin or nationality, yet some people insist on their treatment according to these things, but Liesel didn’t give up for her dreams and always hoped for the future.

In The Book Thief, the author described Liesel as a hopeful person. Liesel went through many obstacles but she always used her hope to escape from the negative thoughts. When Liesel lost her family, the narrator showed us her feelings when he said “ There was a chaos of a good bye.”(25) Even when the girl was being forced to leave her mother and buries her brother in the same day, she always thought of hope and how will she continue her life. When Liesel repeated the words from the story Max had written, she gave him hope. Max had been given hope for survival when Liesel said “Better to stand proud and resolute. Let the words do all of it. Is it really you? The young man asked, she said. Is it from your cheek that I took the seed?”(512) Since Liesel lost her family and Max is scared to not see his mother again, Liesel benefit by sharing hope with each other. Another situation that showed how hopeful Liesel is was when Hans was sent to serve the military for the war. Liesel learned more about hope and how to be strong when she said “ The sky is soft today, Max. the clouds are so soft and sad, and…” She looks away and crosses her arms. She thinks of her papa going to war and grabs her jacket at each side of her body. And it’s cold, Max. It’s so cold. . . .”(419) Once she knew that her papa was going to war, she hoped that he would be safe and come home soon and she also continued her life helping her mother to be strong until Hans Hubermann came home safely. Finally, Liesel started to get more mature by using positive thoughts and that makes her a hopeful person.

The author demonstrated that the power of words played a big important role in the book. When Liesel started to read the book, the words made her comfortable and made her want to read more. Liesel got reposed when she read books and that was noticeable when she said “Over the next few weeks and into summer, the midnight class began at the end of each nightmare.”(69) Reading books was a symbol of her mother and brother that gave her safety and allowed her more comforty and survival with her new family. Since Max was sick, Liesel healed him by using the power of words to keep him awake. Liesel was helping Max by saying “ I’ll read to you. And I’ll slap your face if you start dozing off. I’ll choose the book and shake you till you wake up.”(334) By using words, Liesel saved Max’s life. Although, Himmel street was flattened after the unexpected bombing, Liesel was the only one to survive by just using the power of words. Liesel survived because “She was sitting in a basement reading through the story of her own life, checking for mistakes.”(498) Words literally made her the only one who survive from the bombing. In summary, the author expressed that the power of words can strongly be the main reason for gaining strengths and it can make you survive.

At the end, it’s clear that Liesel meminger endured a fearful childhood and faced several obstacles, but she overcame discrimination, she still found the hope to take a stand against society’s unfair treatment and win people hearts by using the power of her words. Discrimination had always been an issue throughout the ages, it was commonly found in WWII and it’s still found these days. Humans need to rise in thinking and treatment to each other by having hope, believe in ourselves and read more to get more mature.