Lisel
Meminger is the protagonist in, “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. Lisel is a
nine year old living in the time period of the Holocaust. Lisel’s parents are
communists. Lisel’s father left the family and her mother is forced to give up
her two children: Lisel and Werner. Lisel’s mother was on her way to deliver
her kids to the foster family that would be taking care of Lisel and Werner.
However, on the way there, Werner dies on the train, at age 6. Lisel and her
mother get off the train and bury Werner in a nameless town. There, Lisel sees
a book that fell out of the funeral director’s pocket. She picks it up and
takes it with her. This is the first book she steals. Throughout the rest of
the book, there are more books that are stolen, along with other things. Her
foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermann take very good care of her. Rudy
Steiner is her best friend and the guy she truly loves and loves her back. He
goes on many adventures with her. There is always something he is usually
asking for, a kiss from Lisel.
Aside
from that, Rudy comes from a family of 6 children, so he is usually starving
and sometimes asks Lisel to get him food or come along with him to steal some. Hans
doesn’t support the Nazis party, but he is forced to join. He is later drafted
into the Germany Army. Hans fought in World War 1; the only reason why he
survived was because he was left behind to write letters. He had a friend
named, Erik Vandenburg, who died in battle during world war one. Hans later
visited Erik’s wife and son. His son, Max later calls Hans for refuge, because
Max is Jewish. Since Hans doesn’t hate Jews, he agreed and Max stayed in the
Hubermann’s basement for two years.
Rosa,
does the washing and ironing for the wealthier people. One of them is the
mayor. Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife lets Lisel into her library to read. Lisel’s passion for reading increases the more
times she visits the library. Plus with the midnight classes that Hans gave her
for a while. One by one, all of Rosa’s
bosses fired her because they couldn’t afford it because of the war. When Ilsa
gave Lisel the letter explaining that she and the mayor couldn’t afford Rosa’s
service, Lisel got very mad that she ripped up the letter and said mean things
to Ilsa. Ilsa was sort of mad and hurt at the beginning, but was over it, she
even invited Lisel to go back. Lisel however, did go back, but to steal books.
When she found a dictionary by the window, it contained a letter saying that
stealing isn’t necessary because Ilsa doesn’t want them either way. That Lisel
can come by and pick the books up by using the door. Lisel was shock when she
saw this letter.
Raids
were being made by Germany’s enemies. In
Molching, the town where Lisel and her foster parents live, it was made a
requirement to inspect people’s basements so shelters during raids can be
defined. When the inspector came, Lisel only had enough time to tell her foster
parents that the inspector was coming. They didn’t have time to hide max,
however he wasn’t found. The Hubermann’s basement was judged as too
shallow. Later on, there was a parade of
Jews walking to concentration camp. Here, Hans sees an old man stumbling and
falling; he takes a little piece of bread from his painting cart and offers it
to the man. The old man takes it with delight, but they both get whip by the
official. Everyone in town saw this. Hans got scared that they (Nazis) will be
coming for him, so he told Max that is was best if he left so he wouldn’t be
found. Max left, the Nazis never came to take him away. Instead he was granted
membership into the party and drafted into the Army.
Hans
left and Lisel stayed with Rosa. Then there was word that, Rosa’s son, Hans
Hubermann Jr. is in the army. Rosa would fall asleep with Hans’ accordion. Rosa
never knew this, but Lisel saw her holding the accordion on some nights. The raids
continued, and Lisel kept reading at the shelter. Lisel saw Max in the last
Jews parade that she saw. She insisted to walk with him. She and he get whip. Later
on in the book Hans is in an accident and he broke his leg. He is sent back
home. Ilsa came to the Hubermann’s house with paper for Lisel. Lisel begins to write her story with the paper
pad that Ilsa got her. The bombing calmed down for a while, however that didn’t
last long. Himmel Street was bombed in 1943. There were no warnings, so every
died while they were sleeping. Lisel was the only survivor. Ilsa and the mayor take her in and take care
of her. Lisel then finds out that Max survived concentration camp. Lisel gets
marries and has 3 children. Death gives her back the book she wrote when she
was younger.
This
book has one great theme: Words can create pain and relief. Throughout the
book, Lisel loves words (books) at some times and in other times she hates them
because they create pain for her. However at the end of the book she learned that
words have to be appreciated because they express people’s feelings. There are
many symbols in this story. As you can see in the summary, Lisel truly cares
about the people around her, especially the ones that have a good impact on her
life. Lisel also learned that she has to let her feelings to out, Rudy died
during the bombing and she loved him. He also loved her, Lisel finally kissed Rudy
while he was dying/dead. (The books doesn’t say if he was dead or not)
