Book Thief Freedom

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The Book Thief is a novel by Markus Zusak and is set during the Second World War. The story is about a girl, Liesel, her new foster parents Rosa and Hans, a Jew that hides in the Hubermann family’s basement and indeed the Second World War. To escape the horrors of her past and of the war, Liesel turns to books. As time goes by, books progressively start to mean more to her. But they weren’t only this dear to Liesel; they were also present in the life of the other citizens. Books play an important role in The Book Thief, because they offered an escape from reality, they were a form of protest and formed strong relationships. Throughout the entire novel, books are used to escape reality. When Liesel’s brother dies, she finds a gravedigger’s handbook at the funeral. She keeps it, because it reminds her of him and of the last time she saw her mother. ‘It didn’t really matter what it that book was about. It was what it meant that was more important’ (p. 45). Death then sums up what the…show more content…
Liesel is very young and doesn’t really realise what is happening in her country. When Max arrives in the family, he educated Liesel on this by voicing his opinion. Max is against Hitler and uses books to protests against his regime. Max does this by painting over Mein Kampf: ‘There were the erased pages of Mein Kampf, gagging, suffocating under the paint as they turned’ (p. 246). The pages are personified and described as if they’re suffering. This makes the act of painting over them seem like a horrible act. Max then gives his zine to Liesel who is very shocked when she reads it. ‘Not the Fuhrer-, the conductor!’ (p. 246). Max makes clear that Hitler isn’t a saviour, he conducts everyone’s mind to make them believe his ideas are the best. This is a form of protesting against Hitler. In Nazi-Germany at the time, people had no freedom of speech. Therefore, people created secret pamphlets and books like this to protest against
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