The Book Thief Analysis

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The Book Thief reasearch task -Robin Fourie For our group topic we chose friendship, stealing and power of words at the three most important themes of the book thief.We then had to decide what the real message of the book was. I thought that one of the strongest friendships in the book was between Liesel Meminger and Hans Huberman. Hans Huberman was Liesel's foster father, and was the first friend that Liesel made. When they first met, Hans had an automatic calming effect on Liesel and was the only one who could convice her to get out of the car when she was dropped off at the Hubermans house. He would always stand up for her and defend her against Rosa, which created a stronger bond between them. However they only really became friends when…show more content…
Their bond started to rapidly increase after Liesel had started school, and the Hubermans discovered she could not read or write. This is when the midnight classes started and every night they would read the 'Grave Diggers Handbook' (which Hans discovered was stolen). Hans taught Liesel to read and write, which then created the plot of the story, as Liesel found a love for words and books. This later resulted in her stealing (another main theme) so that she could read more. Their friendship also grows stronger when Max Vandenburg arrives and Liesel is forced to keep him a secret. Hans takes Liesel into the basement and explains what would happen if she told anyone. This is one of the most emotional scenes of them together as Liesel promises to tell no one. We experience their friendship throughout the entire book. It never faulters…show more content…
Liesel first met the mayors wife (Ilsa Herman) while collecting washing with Rosa and initially thought she was crazy. After the book burning for the Führers birthday, Ilsa saw Liesel steal a book from the fire. The next time Liesel collected the washing Ilsa brought her into her library, which created a friendship between them. However this bond was broken after Ilsa fired Rosa. Liesel was so heart broken that she stormed out leaving the book that Ilsa had given her behind. This also shows you how fragile friendships are and how easy they are to break. This is when Liesel really became the book thief as she stole four books from Ilsas library. Stealing became a major theme as she stole throughout the book, from fruit, food and books. As Liesel stole more and more books her love of words grew and she really experienced the power of words and how muched she loved them. Her stealing books from Ilsa also formed and strengthened other friendships, as she stole most of the books with Rudy. They loved to steal together and their friendship became a lot stronger each time. It also strengthened Liesel and Max's friendship as when he fell into a coma she would read to him every day from all the books she had. She then stole a book especially for him which she read to him to try and wake him up from his coma. That book then became a part of the thirteen presents that she
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