The Book Thief Literary Analysis
The Power of Literature
In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, one theme the author includes in the work is the power of knowledge.
In The Book Thief, a young German girl, Liesel, begins to steal books. Her one dream in life is to read and write. Coming from a poor family, she is not given the opportunity to read as the other kids are. Only the rich could have access to extensive libraries, because of the cost of books. Hitler also wanted to maintain complete control of the Germans. This meant controlling the books they had access to. Hitler was smart to do this, but Liesel was smarter. Liesel realized why Hitler wrote his own book. If he could control the text that everyone read, he controlled the knowledge that everyone had. Liesel said that …show more content…
No one believed she was smart enough to read, and instead of being placed in her age appropriate classes, she was out with the kids at her reading level. For her it was humiliating, but it only gave her the fuel she needed to keep moving forward. Desperate for help, she confronted her uneducated step father Hans for help. Hans himself cannot read that well, but she knows any help is better than none. Hans, referred to as Papa by Liesel, began to teach Liesel basic reading skills every night. They had a tradition, “unofficially…called the midnight class, even though it commenced around two in the morning”. Now Liesel knew how to read. She had an unlimited amount of knowledge available to her through literature. But, she herself could not take down Hitler. That does not mean that she could not fight back though. When the Nazi’s bombed her street, most people stood in the bomb shelter terrified. Yet, Liesel instead took out a book and began to read. Everyone soon began to congregate around her and listen. The fear of what was going on around them subsided, and at the moment they had won. Though Hitler was still attack them, he no longer had control over them, they were not scared. It was at this moment that Liesel realized the true power of literature, and the book she held between her fingers transformed into the sword she would use to fight her way out of Nazi Germany.
Throughout
In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, one theme the author includes in the work is the power of knowledge.
In The Book Thief, a young German girl, Liesel, begins to steal books. Her one dream in life is to read and write. Coming from a poor family, she is not given the opportunity to read as the other kids are. Only the rich could have access to extensive libraries, because of the cost of books. Hitler also wanted to maintain complete control of the Germans. This meant controlling the books they had access to. Hitler was smart to do this, but Liesel was smarter. Liesel realized why Hitler wrote his own book. If he could control the text that everyone read, he controlled the knowledge that everyone had. Liesel said that …show more content…
No one believed she was smart enough to read, and instead of being placed in her age appropriate classes, she was out with the kids at her reading level. For her it was humiliating, but it only gave her the fuel she needed to keep moving forward. Desperate for help, she confronted her uneducated step father Hans for help. Hans himself cannot read that well, but she knows any help is better than none. Hans, referred to as Papa by Liesel, began to teach Liesel basic reading skills every night. They had a tradition, “unofficially…called the midnight class, even though it commenced around two in the morning”. Now Liesel knew how to read. She had an unlimited amount of knowledge available to her through literature. But, she herself could not take down Hitler. That does not mean that she could not fight back though. When the Nazi’s bombed her street, most people stood in the bomb shelter terrified. Yet, Liesel instead took out a book and began to read. Everyone soon began to congregate around her and listen. The fear of what was going on around them subsided, and at the moment they had won. Though Hitler was still attack them, he no longer had control over them, they were not scared. It was at this moment that Liesel realized the true power of literature, and the book she held between her fingers transformed into the sword she would use to fight her way out of Nazi Germany.
Throughout