Midterm Research Paper, The Book Thief

September 13, 2021 by Essay Writer

Throughout reading the novel The Book Thief, there are very obvious themes that present themselves throughout the novel and enlighten people on what was going on in the world during that particular time period. The story of The Book Thief was written in the setting of World War II Germany, and it opens up a lot in understanding how living in that time period must have been. There were so many rules and unspoken rules living in Germany during war times, especially with Germany being under the rule of Adolf Hitler.

The novel The Book Thief is a complex, rich and masterfully told story of a little girl living in Germany at the time of World War II, and how she learned how to survive. This book is greatly impacted social, cultural and historical context that makes the story almost like no other.

One of the first things that you notice in the book is the amount of historical context that it actually contains. The book itself is set in Germany right before and during World War II. Germany during the time period from 1939 to 1945 was also under the rule of the communist leader Adolf Hitler, which caused a lot of problems in society because of the Nazi party. In 1941, Germany invaded the country of Poland, which ultimately started World War II. In the book, there is a couple lines about this that is kind of shocking to read. The line reads,” The German Invasion of Poland had begun and people were gathered everywhere, listening to the news of it. Munich Street, like every other main street in Germany, was alive with war.” (Zusak 74). This quote is saying that people were alive and happy about the announcement of the war, almost as if they had all completely been brainwashed by Hitler and the Nazi party tactics. This is something that when people read it, they see how crazy it is that a country and its people are happy to entering into a World War, and how the Nazi party and their politics influenced a lot of society. Another thing that presents itself as a huge part of history is how the Hitler and the Nazi party would gather together and have huge book burnings with most members of the German society. The main story line in the book is how a girl named Liesel Meminger is known as the book thief, because she steals and borrows books from people. One of the best parts of the book is when Liesel steals a book from a book burning pile that didn’t actually get burned, and she did this right in front of Nazi Soldiers that were monitoring the book burning. Reading about how many books that were burned in Germany during this time period alone leaves people to question how much knowledge that we have lost due to these kind of book burnings. In an article called The Real History Behind Book Burning and Fahrenheit 451, the author makes the statement,” The defining moment for that modern history came in 1933, with one of history’s most infamous book-burnings — the one that prompted TIME to coin the word “bibliocaust.” It was that year, in Berlin and elsewhere, that Nazi forces led the burning of tens of thousands of books, from the works of Sigmund Freud to those of Jack London.” (Rothman par. 4). The Nazi party burned thousands of books because they didn’t deem them appropriate in society because of the ideas that it gave people. Reading this book, it really puts it into perfect view about how controlling the Nazi party was down to the books they were allowed to read, and what kind of ideas they were allowed to have about society. The Nazi party that dictated Germany at the time of World War II adds an entirely different dimension to the book. This in turn changed how people viewed historical Germany after they finished reading The Book Thief.

Something that is talked about widely in The Book Thief is how the culture and social structure was affected by things that were happening in Germany at this point in history. Something that affected society socially was that people had to watch what they said around people, especially out in the public and around the community. In The Book Thief, there are many lines that talk about people watching what they say in this line Hans Huberman said, “You can say that in our house, but you never say it on the street, at school, at the BDM, never!” (Zusak 116). In the quote about, Hans Huberman is talking to his daughter Liesel about how she should’ve never say that she hated the Fuhrer in a public place, the Fuhrer being Adolf Hitler. Saying things about hating Hitler or the Nazi party could’ve gotten a family badly punished and maybe even extreme punishment like being sentenced to a concentration camp. People not being able to speak their true feelings and being punished for things that they did say seems unbelievable to people reading the book now. For example, all American citizens are protected by the first amendment which is the freedom of speech. People in America can basically say anything that they want to without getting in trouble. Not being able to speak as one pleases definitely gives people a look back into these historical times where speaking out at the wrong time could seriously harm oneself. A lot of people in Germany at the time of World War II were easily persuaded into following Hitler because he made a promise to the country that he would pull them from the economic crisis that they were in and make Germany great again. One of Hitler’s main tactics in getting people to follow him was to change society a little bit, and that started with one book, Mein Kampf. This book was highly respected book that the time of its publishing, and it shaped the way of the Germans socially. There is a quote from The Book Thief that says, “And what trash is this girl reading? She should be reading Mein Kampf.” (Zusak 105). Liesel’s older brother was a part of the Nazi party, so when he saw the girl reading other books than Mein Kampf, it upset him greatly. A lot of people during that time period were easily influenced by Hitler and the Nazi party, almost as if they had no thoughts on their own. The brother does not understand how the girl does want to read Mein Kampf because it is such a highly respected book of the Fuhrer and she should want to please him. Things like this tore families apart, and there for a lot of society was almost ruined socially. People were being brainwashed in believing things and it tore the society apart at the seams. People in Germany during World War II were either on the side of Hitler or against him, there was no in between.

One of the most common themes that is presented in The Book Thief is the themes of abandonment and guilt. Guilt becomes a huge identity of a lot of people, one wrong move and that could mean the death of your loved ones or even yourself. The entire beginning part of the book, Liesel is upset because she feels as if her mother abandoned her when her mother actually saved her in the long run. The war shaped a lot of the community when it comes to these themes of guilt and abandonment. Children’s lives were changed forever watching their fathers headed off to war and never had the chance to return home. In the article The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe, the author states,” Periods of hunger became more common even in relatively prosperous Western Europe. Families were separated for long periods of time, and many children lost their fathers. Many, including young children, personally witnessed the horrors of war as battles and bombing took place in the very areas where they lived. Horrendous crimes against humanity were committed.” (Kesternich 1). Families were separated because the Nazi party needed all the men to go and fight in the war, and this caused a lot of families to feel guilty, and a lot of young children to feel abandoned and scared. War shaped the community in The Book Thief, and the choices that they made impacted their own live and possibly many others. For instance, when Hans Huberman hides a Jewish man in his basement, or gave bread to the Jewish man on the street, he was acting in resistance to the war, and these acts could have got him and his family in some serious trouble. There is another section in the book that shows the theme of abandonment, and it was when Max Vandenburg left the family for their protection. Max Vandenburg was the Jewish man that Hans and Rose Huberman took in and hid in the basement during the being of the second World War. Liesel became very close with Max and would read with him, so when Max decided to leave the family, Liesel once again felt abandoned. Throughout The Book Thief, there is a sense of abandonment and guilt that is always present with the reader, and that really affected how people viewed historical Germany during that time period.

Throughout The Book Thief, the story is greatly impacted by social, cultural and historical context. The audience was enlightened to what Germany was like during World War II, and what life was like living under the fearless ruler Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. The novel The Book Thief is an intricate and extraordinarily haunting piece of literature. Markus Zusak made a gloomy and tough subject bearable to read about. Zusak educated a lot of people with his novel The Book Thief on a subject that is not widely discussed in todays world. The Book Thief is a masterfully written, complex piece of literature that took the literary world by storm, and still continues to impact and teach audiences in todays world.

Works Cited

Bailey, Stuart. “Book Review: Harmful and Undesirable: Book Censorship in Nazi Germany by Guenter Lewy.” International Social Science Review, no. 2, 2017. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=edsgwh&AN=edsgcl.495831736&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=cht2.

Kesternich, Iris, et al. “The Effects of World War Ii on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe.” Review of Economics & Statistics, vol. 96, no. 1, Mar. 2014, p. 103. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1162/RESTpass:[_]a_00353.

Rothman, Lily. “The Real History Behind Book Burning and Fahrenheit 451Time.Com, May 2018, p. 1. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=voh&AN=129684195&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=cht2

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. Picador, 2005.

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