A Different View of the World War II | Teen Ink

A Different View of the World War II

June 27, 2024
By TristanLyu GOLD, Beijing, Other
TristanLyu GOLD, Beijing, Other
14 articles 0 photos 0 comments

In the book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, he used the first-person point of view to represent realistic scenes. The prototype of this story is his parents, who came from Austria and Germany. There will be a summary of this book and a personal thought about this book after reading it at the end.
Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old German girl, given up by her mother, lived with Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the small town of Molching in 1939, shortly before World War II. On their way to Molching, Liesel's younger brother Werner died. She grieved her brother’s death and experienced nightmares for months. Hans was a gentleman who brought her comfort and helped her learn to read, starting with a book Liesel took from the graveyard where her brother was buried. Liesel befriended a neighborhood boy, Rudy Steiner, who fell in love with her.
At a book burning, Liesel realized that her father was persecuted for being a Communist and that the Nazis likely killed her mother for the same crime.  She was seen stealing a book from the burning by the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, who later invited Liesel to read in her library. Keeping a promise, he made to the man who saved his life, Hans agreed to hide a Jew named Max Vandenberg in his basement. Liesel and Max became close friends, and Max wrote Liesel two stories about their friendship, both of which were reproduced in the novel. When Hans publicly gave bread to an old Jew being sent to a concentration camp, Max must leave. Hans was drafted into the military when air raids over major German cities increased.  Liesel saw Max being marched toward the concentration camp at Dachau. Liesel lost hope and began to disdain the written word, having learned that Hitler's propaganda was to blame for the war and the Holocaust, and the death of her biological family, but Ilsa encouraged her to write. Liesel wrote the story of her life in the Hubermanns' basement, where she miraculously survived an air raid that killed Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and everyone on her block. Liesel survived the war, and so did Max. She went on to live a long life.
 
I find this book interesting because I’m highly interested in World War II.  The book is written from the German people’s view, which gives it a unique perspective.  Some books are written by American Armies, such as The Pacific, and from the perspectives of the Allied Forces, while this book is written by a German girl.  This book is amusing because Liesel started “stealing” books when she was nine. There is also another thing that is interesting, which is the title of the book. “The book thief” has nothing to do with the war or any events that are related to the main background of the year that happened the things in the book. However, this title is related to the main character, Liesel in some way. She wasn’t a book thief but the author described her action somehow in a way of stealing the book.


The author's comments:

This is the book review for The Book Thief.


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