Literary Baptism

In the beginnig of The Book Thief snow is mentioned alot. Foster says snow or water of any form represents baptism. I believe Zusak is showing a baptism with Liesel. Liesel travels from a life of poverty, only a mother, and fear of communism to a better life with two parents enough money for neccesities and no worries of Hitler. On page 26 the street Liesel is moving to is shown with a translation Himmel means Heaven so i believe the heavy mentioning of snow is a litterally baptism of a better life for Liesel

Argument: Knowledge Brings Power

In The Book Thief a major argument is knowledge brings power. Liesel goes through incredible lengths to ensure she will be knowledgable. Liesel steals her first book on page 24, The Grave Diggers Handbook, she steals this book from her brothers grave. Liesel moves to a small town in Germany during the period of time when Hitler was in control. Hitler restricted Germans knowledge by restricting the amount of books Germans could get ahold of. Liesel knows of the reprucussions of stealing these banned books but decides to do it anyways. Liesel is sent to school on page 49. Liesel was sent straight to the lower level classes. This embarrased Liesel but instead of getting upset and discouraged from school Liesel perservered and worked harder. On page 67 Liesel is described learning to read late at night with Hans. The reader can assume Liesel is aware of the fact Hitler is trying to suppress Germans by restricting thier knowledge. Liesel knows knowledge is power and uses to her full advantage

Conformity and Rebellion

Rebellion plays a major role in The Book Thief. Hitler tries to conform all of Germany to believe what he believes. He takes every peice of text besides the ones he approve from Germans. Liesel desires knowledge with everything she has. This strong desire leads her to stealing books so she can learn to read. Hans, her foster father, helps her in this journey eventhough he knows how dangerous it is for him to do this. Later on in the story Leisel and her family hide a Jew in thier basement knowing this is probally the most dangerous thing to do in Germany at this period in time. Max ,the hiddin Jew, has the same desire for knowledge as Liesel. Max and Liesel help eachother learn every night. These actions are proof of rebellion because Hitler does not allow Germans to be knowledgable so they will not figure out what he is actually doing in German but Max and Liesel are not bothered by this fact and search for more and more knowledge.

Death is Humane

Death, the narrator of The Book Thief shows many times of being particularly humane in the novel. But where does this humanity spawn from? On the last page, 550, Death says to Liesel "I am haunted by humans." How can Death be haunted by the very things that he himself is tasked to carry onward past their original live? Maybe it's because Death was once human himself. Death could have easily been a human before he became the courier of the dead, and he brought the humane characteristics with him as he passed on and became Death.

Words are capable of both cruelty and beauty

One of the arguments portrayed in "The Book Thief" is that words can be capable of both cruelty and beauty. From a cruel stance, we first can assume, based off knowledge of world history, that Hitler has been using words to convince and turn people to believe that Jews are detrimental to a "perfect" world. He is a prime example of, as Aristotle would call it, a sophist. He is telling all these lies to gain domination. On the other hand, words are also beautiful. Liesel has a passion for reading and this gives her comfort. A book is like a security blanket for her and this in itself is beautiful and fascinating. Liesel has been through so much in such little time and the fact that she can sit down and read a book or newspaper, to her, is like getting away from it all and finding comfort and trust in something. To me it is such a beautiful thing to be able to have words from a book to represent hope and comfort.

Death is humane by his words

Throughout all of The Book Thief, Death is constantly expressing himself as a human with is words. A human expresses feelings and emotions with most if not all situations that they are faced with. Death connects himself with humans that face serious and upsetting struggles and feels their pain. Death is supposedly only cruel and dark, but in this story Death is more humane than actual humans are sometimes. On page 242, all that is needed to be explained is stated in 5 simple words from Death. He says "Even Death has a heart." and for Death to say he has a heart means he knows what a heart can do and what its purpose is. One must have a heart to know what it is, right? A heart must love, have kindness, compassion and also endures frustration, anger and sorrow. Death portrays his power of words and his humanity in 5 simple words. If Death was not clear by just saying that even it has a heart, then those 5 words are so persuading in their simple syntactical structure. Death is humane by the power of his words.

Conformity & Rebellion

In "The Book Thief", there is a strong sence of rebellion among the main characters, but there are two sides to the rebellion. We have Leisel, a young girl in Germany during World War II, with little knowledge of the bigger situation. Leisel doesn't really understand what kind of trouble she could in if someone were to of seen her steal the book from the burn pile the Nazis made. Her rebellion is more of an innocent type due to her not fully knowing the consequences of her actions during this time. Hans on the other hand is fully aware of what he is getting into when he helps Max and keeps him in his basement, but an old important promise is more important than the punishment that could come about. Hans is probably the best example of a rebel just because of what he does for Max, a Jew, during the rein of Hitler. But he shows no opposition when the situation presents itself. This is an act of bravery and courage.