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Analysis and Reflection on "The Book Thief"

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Published: Jun 6, 2019

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The Book Thief

Markus zusak.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Markus Zusak's The Book Thief . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Book Thief: Introduction

The book thief: plot summary, the book thief: detailed summary & analysis, the book thief: themes, the book thief: quotes, the book thief: characters, the book thief: symbols, the book thief: theme wheel, brief biography of markus zusak.

Historical Context of The Book Thief

Other books related to the book thief.

• Full Title: The Book Thief
• When Written: 2002-2005
• Where Written: Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany
• When Published: 2005
• Literary Period: Contemporary Fiction
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Setting: Fictional town of Molching, Germany, 1939-1943
• Climax: The fire-bombing of Molching
• Antagonist: Adolf Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust
• Point of View: First person omniscient, with Death as the narrator

Extra Credit for The Book Thief

Bread. Zusak was inspired to write The Book Thief by a story his mother told him, which involved a boy giving bread to a starving Jew who was being marched to a concentration camp. A Nazi soldier noticed and whipped both the boy and the Jew. This scene is recreated in The Book Thief with Hans Hubermann in the place of the boy.

Rudy. Zusak's favorite character from any of his books is Rudy Steiner, Liesel's best friend.

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Retrospect Journal.

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY'S HISTORY, CLASSICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE

Review: The Book Thief 

The Book Thief , written by Markus Zusak, has been regarded by many critics as a future classic. The novel, originally published in 2005, has become an international bestseller, selling over 16 million copies, translated into 63 different languages, and even being adapted into a feature film in 2013. The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel which begins in 1938, at the start of the Second World War, and follows the story of a young girl, Liesel, who becomes orphaned. On her way to Germany her younger brother dies, an event which haunts her throughout the novel, and she steals her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook . When she arrives at her new home in Nazi Germany, she is fostered by Hans and Rosa Hubermann and suddenly has a new mother and father. Hans learns Liesel cannot read, so he teaches her the wonders of written language to try and help her process her brother’s death. Liesel’s love of books leads her to steal books from dangerous places such as Nazi bonfires and the mayor’s house, as her foster parents are too poor to buy more books. Though her parents are very poor, they secretly shelter a Jewish man whose father saved Han’s life, making their situation even more precarious.  

The story is told by Death, who is our guide and narrator. Death becomes a character the reader comes to respect and even feel sorry for by the end of the story. Death is a very human and nuanced character, especially in comparison to many of the antagonist Nazi characters depicted within the book. He is not the Grim Reaper character that is usually seen in stories. For example, Death experiences both joy and sadness in the novel; he even gets depressed at the idea of the amount of unfair Jewish deaths occurring. Death becomes a character we do not blame; instead, he seems like a poor person who has a never-ending, terrible job. Like many humans, Death is trying to justify his work and does this by collecting stories of courageous humans such as Liesel. He retells these stories to ‘prove [to himself] that you, and your human existence, are worth it’ – this seems like a very human need. However, Death is always separate from humans, as he has a kind of omnipotence that he wields, due to the fact that he controls their deaths. Using Death as a narrator sets this story apart as it adds an odd and at times philosophical perspective to the story. Death is in an unlucky position of having human-like emotions but being separate from humanity, which allows him to tell stories in a new, interesting way.  

One of the other striking features of the book is the way in which it shows that so many types of people in Germany became victims of the war. It is a well-balanced story which shows the perspectives of German people during the war, from truly committed Nazis, to those against the whole Nazi regime like Hans Huberman. This is done very well, although it should be noted that Zusak is not an apologist, but rather is able to give the reader a glimpse into the human psyche. The book also does a beautiful job at showing problems in Nazi Germany that go beyond the war. For example, Rudy Steiner is a close friend of Liesel who is obsessed with the Black athlete Jesse Owens. His support of this athlete highlights the widespread racism of the time, as he is constantly bashed for his support of Owens, even though Owens inspires him to be the best athlete in the Hitler Youth. Another character whose worries show the minutiae of everyday German life is Isla Hermann, the mayor’s wife, who, while she is financially secure and popular in society, cannot get out of the depression caused by the loss of her son during the First World War. These examples help to make the characters feel more real and relatable, while highlighting other troubling issues that occurred in Nazi Germany. It is the way in which Zusak combines terrible events – such as the Munich Bombing and the offering of bread from a teenage boy to a starving Jew – with believable characters and scenes of everyday life that makes the book so impressive.  

The Book Thief is written for a young adult audience, another component which makes the book so refreshing. It deals with very serious themes instead of the cookie-cutter romances and fantasies which flooded the young adult market during the early twenty-first century. Such a unique and insightful book set within an important historical setting makes it a read I would recommend to anyone, although I would consider it most appropriate for those over the age of thirteen considering the heavy themes present throughout. 

Written by Sophia Aiello 

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Critical Insights: The Book Thief

Tags: Critical Insights Critical Readings Critical Contexts Cross References The Book Thief Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak’s 2005 novel The Book Thief became an instant international best-seller, was translated into over 60 languages and was made into a major motion picture. Set during one of the most important places (Nazi Third Reich) and periods (WW II) in twentieth-century history, the novel emphasizes the value of family, love, literature, and friendship and the ways these influences help people cope during the darkest times. This volume explores Zusak’s work from diverse perspectives, setting it in various contexts and examining the traits that make it a significant work of literature.

This volume, like all others in the Critical Insights series, is divided into several sections. It begins with an introductory piece—“ The Book Thief , Death, and Me,” by Michelle Ann Abate—designed as an interview to introduce readers to some of the major issues treated in the volume as a whole. This is followed by a Biography of Markus Zusak, written by volume editor Robert C. Evans.

A collection of four critical contexts essays are intended to treat the novel (1) from a historical vantage point, (2) in terms of its critical reception, (3) using a specific critical lens, and (4) by comparing and contrasting it with another important work. This section opens with an article by Lindsay Huysentruyt titled, “Hitler, Hope, and the Autobahn: ‘But the Lord sent us our Führer and he fed us,’” which draws on interviews with Germans who lived under Hitler. This is followed by a piece written by Joyce Ahn, “Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief : A Survey of Academic Criticism.” The following two articles are written by Robert C. Evans and Caitlin Mattera respectively. The first, “Teaching Literary Criticism Using Reviews of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief : An Experiment in Critical Pluralism,” offers a particular critical lens by examining numerous newspaper and magazine reviews of The Book Thief . The final essay, “Language and Morality in Novels by Twain, Salinger, and Zusak , ” compares and contrasts the work of Zusak, Mark Twain, and J.D. Salinger.

Following these four Critical Context essays is the Critical Readings section of this book, which contains the following essays:

• Zusak’s The Book Thief in the Context of Holocaust Literature, by Eric Sterling
• “Righteous Gentiles” and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief , by Robert C. Evans
• “Kriegskinder,” Bombing, and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief , by Robert C. Evans
• Germans and the Holocaust: “We Didn’t Know,” by Lindsay Huysentruyt
• A Survey of Interviews with Marcus Zusak about His Novel The Book Thief , by Kelly Snyder
• Visualizations of Death and Their Relevance to Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief , by Jordan Bailey
• A Close Encounter with Death: Narration in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief , by Erin M. Gipson
• The Revealing Voice of Death: Liesel’s Encounter with Trauma, by Jerusha Yoder
• Death, Friendship, and the Power of Words: Liesel Meminger’s Traumatic Story in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief , by Jerusha Yoder
• The Jewish Fist-Fighter: The Trauma and Representation of Max Vandenburg, by Caitlin Mattera
• Reviews of the Filmed Version of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief : A Survey, by Mikia Holloway

In the final section, Resources , easy-to-follow lists are provided to help guide the reader through important dates and moments in the author’s life. A selection of further reading is then provided. Each essay in Critical Insights: The Book Thief includes a list of Works Cited and detailed endnotes. Also included in this volume is a Chronology of Markus Zusak’s Life , a list of Additional Works by Zusak , a Bibliography , biographies of the Editor and Contributors , and an alphabetical Index .

The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studies literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: The Book Thief provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.

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