Courtney Arnold

Mrs.Stoermer
7th grade ELA
May 28, 2015
The Book Thief Essay
Millions and millions of people were killed during the Holocaust. But
some people got away with dangerous things. Liesel Memminger is a
surprisingly lucky girl. She has miraculously escaped death many times. After
losing her brother in 1939, she is sent to a new home. There is now a Jew in
the basement, writing on the wall, and the constant worry of attack. This will
be a synopsis of this shocking story, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak,
about love and lose.
The theme of this story I think is that your true family isnt always
blood related. That means that even though you may not be related to
someone, you can love and care about them. An example of this is through
Liesel and Hans Hubermanns relationship. Theyre very close with each
other, and have a father-daughter like relationship. He helps her through the
hard times, and the frequent nightmares about her brothers death. When
Max Vandenburg enters the family as a scared Jew who is wanted by the
Nazis, the Hubermanns are very helpful and kind to him. Liesel and Max
grow close very quickly, and in no time, they are much like family. This is

important in the story because their relationships and closeness help you
deeper analyze the characters.
The characters in this book are essential on the theme. Some of the
characters that go with the theme are Rosa and Hans Hubermann, Liesel
Memminger, and Max Vandenburg. Throughout the story, they all grow very
close and bond. An example of Max and Liesels relationship is when the
book says The scrawled words of practice stood magnificently on the wall
by the stars, jagged and childlike and sweet. They looked on as both the
hidden Jew and the girl slept, hand to shoulder. They breathed. German and
Jewish lungs. (238). I think this quote is important because it says a lot
about the type of people they are, and it explains a little about Maxs hiding
in the basement.
There are many conflicts in the story. One important one in this story is the
conflict that Max has with himself. He sleeps in the basement and has very
scary dreams, some even while hes awake. He battles with his own
thoughts, and has dreams that he is fighting Adolf Hitler, and a lot of people
are around. This conflict is important in this story I think because I believe
the reasons he had the dreams is because he was scared. He was living very
secretively in the Hubermanns household and he knew he could be caught
at any point. German soldiers and the Nazi party would kill him if they found
him.

The solution to this conflict wasnt really told in the text. Later on in the
book it mentions that Max Vandenburg starts having other dreams about his
family and his past. Since he came back to Liesel after the war ended and he
was safe, I assume that he stopped having those dreams because he didnt
need to be scared anymore. I think that conflict was important because Max
became one of the main characters and was a big part of Liesels life. He was
also influential on Hans Hubermanns life because Maxs father, Erik
Vandenburg, saved Hans life back in World War One.
All in all, I thought this book taught me a lot. Throughout Liesels
journey with soccer on Himmell Street, book stealing, and accordion playing,
a lot about the Holocaust was told. In my essay, I took a deeper look and
analyzed the book. I could relate to this book because I have people in my
life that arent related to me that I consider my real family, even though we
arent blood related. I thought that The Book Thief was an amazing book
with a very good message.

Work Cited
Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. Alfred Knopf. New York N.Y. 2005.