Preview

Analysis: Why Germans Love To Burn Books

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
152 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis: Why Germans Love To Burn Books
In this part, Death talks about how Germans love to burn books “...Germans not loved one particular activity - to burn.” This is foreshadowing what is coming in the future. Liesel makes great progress in reading and receives two books for Christmas. Hans trades his cigarettes for those books and this shows how their relationship is growing. Liesel also continues to help Rosa with picking up and delivering the laundry but as the war progresses Rosa starts to lose her customers. Meanwhile, Liesel starts writing letters to her mother but later she gets news from her social worker that she lost contact with the girl’s mother. This does not make Liesel stop writing to her mother “Still, the girl persisted, and as you might expect, each day when

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    However, the Hubermanns are too poor to pay for something extra like a book for Liesel, so Liesel getting a Christmas present was completely out of the question. Even though Papa wanted to get Liesel a book, “the Hubermanns were essentially broke, still paying off debts and paying rents quicker than money could come in” (88). After Liesel, Rosa, and Hans got back from church on Christmas Liesel sees something wrapped under the tree in newspaper addressed to her, even though it is from Saint Nicholas she knows her Papa got it for her. When Liesel got the gift it completely surprised, that she even got a gift, at that a book, when her family couldn’t even afford it, without going further into debt. Also the way Hans got the books surprised me, making cigarettes and trading them to a…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grief and a sense of the tenderness of death assimilates itself throughout the tale of Liesel Meminger and hearkens us to what will one day be the fate of all. In conclusion, death possesses an omnipresent outlook within this novel and exemplifies the tragic unfolding of the life of Liesel…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Liesel In The Book Thief

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Liesel, being the main character, comes across plenty of tragedy throughout the book. There’s no question. Though we do not know much about her life previous to her residency at the Hubermann’s household, we can definitely say that she is full of misery. Her tragedies at the start and her relationships for the duration of the book taught her that there is much more to life than just sleeping, eating, and working. She learns that life is about loving not hating.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stealing her first book opened Liesel up to a world filled with words and grammar. As she stared at The Grave Digger’s Handbook, “touching the print inside, she had no idea what it was saying.”(38). Because Liesel could not read or write, as a nine-year-old, she was forced to attend school with children who just started learning the alphabet. There was a stolen book hidden under Liesel’s bed and she didn’t know what any of the words said. That inspired her to have “sudden desire to read it that she didn’t even attempt to understand” (66). However, it was also ironic that she asked her foster father to teach her these skills, when he could not comprehend them himself. It all became beneficial for Liesel because his lack of ability “would cause less frustration in coping with the girl’s lack of ability” (65). Because Hans could not read acutely, he understood what she was going through, and he was patient. In a few years, she was able to pick up a book and read…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Book Thief Passage

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages

    This passage was chosen because throughout the entire book the characters are tragically dying, especially at the end after the bombing. We see everyone that Liesel associated herself with die, and this one haunting sentence foreshadows the events. This statement makes it known to readers that death, is basically inevitable and that there will be a great deal of it in the text. The passage contributes to the work as a whole because it focuses in on one of the major themes in this novel, death. It uses death as a unifier, conclusively…

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This passage makes me feel sad because of the sudden death of Liesel. As a result, this prompts me into realizing that one of theme of this book is about how life is unpredictable. An example of this is when Liesel dies without warning. I can relate to this theme because a friend of mine from elementary has committed suicide and none of her friends knew until her parents posted a post on Facebook declaring that she has died. Therefore, I've learned that cherishing the people around me is important as they might die without warning, like…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When everyone starts to hear Liesel, read the Whistler out loud, everyone starts to calm down .The children in the basement stop crying, the basement is in silent, and Liesel continues to read. She does not stop reading, as her voice soothes them, and as well as she does not wish to see the scared faces hanging on her words. Therefore, proving my claim that literature, words are the greatest weapon of all, that have the ability to make a situation right. Furthermore, this quotation displays that although Liesel was reading for herself, for her benefit, in the beginning, she now begins to realize that words also indeed have the power to manipulate a person to help them. She soothes the neighbors in the basement by reading out a story, and for the first time, she learns that words can be used to do good as well. Even though Hitler used the words to negatively manipulate people, Liesel uses them for good purposes. Liesel continues to read, as she realizes that people hearing the Whistler, have made them forgot about their worries. The reason everyone quiets down to hear her story is because her voices caried away their foreboding worries of being killed by the bomb. Liesel’s actions of using the words positively emphasize how a good hearted person she is. This quote is important to the plot, as it makes the character of book thief realize a very important thing. Hitler used the power of words to manipulate people for his own use/benefit, while she used the power of words for other’s benefit. In addition, The Hitler used the power of words to make people agitated and wrathful, while she used it to soothe and pacify others. Once again, proven that literature is a great weapon as it had helped the citizens survive in the basement during the times of horrors. In addition, this…

    • 1692 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though Liesel had a very spontaneous attitude towards books, there were certainly points through the story where books were her only safe haven when she was going through the horrors of war, due to them bringing her a sense of peace and comfort. “There was a sudden desire to read it [The Grave Digger’s Handbook] that she didn't even attempt to understand. On some level, perhaps she wanted to make sure…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Liesel's Strangeness

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Chapter One, Liesel is introduced as a nine-year-old girl soon to be ten, when her younger brother dies and, she is fostered away by her mother to live with the following characters Hans and Rosa Hubermann. The readers learn that Liesel is uneducated, “She hadn’t learned to speak too well or even to read, as she had rarely frequented school.” (Zusak 21 ). Further down in the novel, the readers learn that Liesel deals with anxiety and she is closed-minded due to her horrendous past. Although Liesel suffers from anxiety and being close minded; there is a small part of her that is open to the purity and kindness of Hans Hubermann heart. “Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father’s eyes. They were made of kindness and silver.” ( Zusak…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upon Liesel’s arrival to Himmel Street, she has no desire to meet Hans: her new Papa. Hans notices her stolen copy of The Gravedigger's Handbook and offers to teach her how to read and write. From then on, a lively friendship presents itself as “Liesel made her way down to the basement.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She is beginning to grasp the concept of reading and is seeing the effect words can have on people. She sees that words can be weapons. During the 1940’s, Hitler was in power. Hitler used words instead of guns and money to take over. He manipulated and tricked people into believing what he was doing was right. This shows that words can give someone the ability to rule and take charge if used in the right way. On page 262, Liesel is very rude to Frau Hermann. Liesel gets very angry that Isla cancelled her washing and uses words to insult Ilsa Hermann and damage the relationship they had. Later on Liesel apologises to Ilsa, but before she does, she feels terrible about the nasty things she…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Liesel realizes how words can be good and evil. She learns that words and reading can bring families and communities together. When she is reading at the shelter, “Young kids [are] soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the crime scene... they [are] distracted now, by the girl with the book” (Zusak 381-382). When she reads at the shelter during the bomb raid, it gives the audience a sense of comfort and distraction. Because of her reading in the shelter, Frau Holtzapfel stops her grudge with the Hubermanns, and asks Liesel to read for her. Liesel realizes that words also have a good side, where the words have the power to bring people together. Liesel also comprehends that Adolf Hitler uses words to manipulate German citizens to carry out horrific facts, which cause a lot of deaths and suffering. So Liesel decides to create her own novel, so she can spread the good in words. Her last line ends with, “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right” (Zusak 528). This shows how the power of words has impacted Liesel in good and bad ways. She shows that she wants to use the words for good, rather than evil. The fact that Liesel was illiterate and now she is writing a book to spread awareness is very impressive. In…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a reaction to the Nazi book burning, Helen Keller once wrote in a letter to the students of Germany saying, “History has taught you nothing if you think you can kill ideas. Tyrants have tried to do that often before, and the ideas have risen up in their might and destroyed them.” Right before World War II students from universities across Germany gathered to burn books. Book burning is lighting of fire to books or other written material, in a public area. It is usually done from a cultural, religious, or political perspective. Book burning was an important event in World War II, literature was the first target, and the Americans had many different responses.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Liesel, Rosa, and Death show beauty and brutality through their society of Nazi, Germany and through the rough humanity of their society. Each of the characters throughout the novel show perserverance; no matter how hard times get they keep trying to do better in their…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Albert is rewarded for his kindness, his reunion with Joey at the end of his story is his return for his kindness and hard work in the war. Liesel, on the other hand, is almost punished for her actions; she does not get any reunion with a long lost friend, she gets no happy ending, instead she has everything taken from her at the end of the story as her family and friends are killed in an indiscriminate bombing. The hatred for the other side, Ally or Central, in World War I and the genocide of the Jews in World War II were combated by the average citizens back home, who sympathized with their enemies and sheltered Jews from the searching eyes of the Gestapo. This is shown as Albert is not as happy as he thought he would be fighting in a war, seeing the brutality of it, losing friends and killing people back to back; and Liesel sees that no matter how good or kind people are, the world does not care with her alone surviving due to her books, while the kind Rudy, Hans, and Rosa are wiped out by bombs. It was this dual kindness and cruelty that made Death afraid of humans and crushed Liesel’s spirits for…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays