Since The Book Thief Character Analysis

Improved Essays
Since The Book Thief is a historical fiction text, the fictitious characters interact in a realistic WWII setting in Germany. Three characters in the book, Liesel, Rudy, and Hans develop their identities within the parameters of the Nazi controlled society. However, if Liesel, Rudy, and Hans were characters in today's society, their lives would be different. The society and the character’s identities would influence the choices they make.

Liesel was skinny and pale, she has dangerous brown eyes, and have german blond hair. She was deceitful, sweet, and kind. “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right”, Liesel says on page 528. She stole books and was in love with words in them, she sometimes stole food with her best friend Rudy. She also became friends with Max. Rudy has blond hair and have safe blue eyes. He was playful, sweet, and active. “If I beat you, I get to kiss you”, Rudy says on page 53. He loved to play soccer and loved to play with Liesel, he loved her so much. Unfortunately something terrible happened to him at the end. Hans was tall, has silver eyes, and is an accordion as it explains on page 537. He was nice, passionate, and strong. “Well, promise me one thing, Liesel. If I die anytime soon, you make sure they bury me right”, Hans says on page 66. He teaches Liesel how to
…show more content…
Liesel would actually be living with her mother and would be reading books. Rudy would be with his father, mother and his sisters. Hans would be getting a good job and being visited by Max. But on the other hand, Liesel and Rudy would still be playing outside soccer. They wouldn’t have died. I know this because if they weren’t at the time with Hitler, Rudy and Liesel would be in school in a peaceful society. Hans would be getting good money to pay for his family. Nobody will judge him nor his family. But instead, in that society it would be completely

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    ‘I hate him.’ And Hans Hubermann? What did he do? What did he say? Did he bend down and embrace his foster daughter, as he wanted to?…

    • 1834 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Liesel trusts Hans above all other people, and he is the one responsible for teaching her to read, write and roll a cigarette, which is what truly started their friendship. (Page 33, paragraph 5). LIESEL AND RUDY: The arrow between Liesel and Rudy…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The relationship between Liesel and Hans was based on learning words, playing the accordion, and rolling cigarettes together. The thing that Liesel loved to do was listen to her papa play his accordion it always made her feel happy whenever she heard it. The accordion was a symbol for the debt that Hans had to a Jew that saved his life during the war. “It said, ‘Huberman, sir.’ The voice belonged to Erik Vandenberg.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Starting with her brother’s death on the train to Munich, she becomes familiar with the pain. Indirectly, Liesel meets other affected by death. This includes Frau Holtzapfel, who had lost her son. Ilsa Hermann, too, lost a child at an early age. Liesel is friends with both women and is influenced by them.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the novel Liesel learns to read, love, and understand the power of words from her gentle foster father and a few books she steals. In the midst of an ordinary childhood, she also is put in much danger. Her foster parents hide a Jewish man in their basement and her father is punished for his tolerance towards Jews.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dualism In The Book Thief

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In the midst of Nazism, Hitler's malicious and frightful words carve their way through people’s mind and soul, at the same time some characters in the book thief stands as an evidence that people who do not wish to be influence by Hitler's weapon like words; develop the quality of duality in their identity, in order to survive in the society where contradiction against Hitler's word leads to death. The character of Hans Huberman exhibits in the story as a law abiding citizen in the eyes of society, but in reality, he offers ascend to some activities that directly opposes the Nazi ideology. Hans Huberman, a law abiding citizen, so much so that he abides to join the Nazi party, while in reality he is hiding a Jew named Max in his house, by doing…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethics In The Book Thief

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As for these naive children, Rudy and Liesel, they must learn the difficult way that an innocent act of kindness in an intolerant society can often lead to severe punishment. Hans also offers bread to a dying Jewish man, but in his case, he suffers dire consequences. What a Nazi soldier witnesses Hans ' kindness, "he was struck four times before he… Hit the ground" (394). The Nazi whipped Hans because in his eyes, Hans was breaking the law; this demonstrates the extent of "brainwashing" any Nazi supporter undergoes. In this instance, the cruelty of the Nazi…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagery In The Book Thief

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Hans is portrayed as the accordion, because he is an instrument of comfort for the characters. “Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.” (Zusak 527) Liesel thinks of her papa as an accordion, but not literally.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hans uses the accordion to distract Liesel from the bad times and give her comfort and hope. Liesel and her mother hold the accordion when Hans is away at war and Liesel mentions throughout the end how her Papa is an accordion. Her father created a relationship with Liesel using the accordion. Finally, I knew that books were going to be huge symbol in Liesel's life when Death said 'The book thief had struck for the first time-the beginning of an…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Liesel uses her books to be disloyal and Hans uses his accordion to go against Hitler. Hans’ accordion symbolizes his undermining attitude because of where he got it, and when he plays it. Liesel’s books symbolize her negative attitude towards the Nazis attitude because it goes against what they think of…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Liesel as a young child learns how to read and write better than any other kids her age. This ends up paying off when she is able to write her own book and record her life. Liesel is like one of the people in society who has been able to overcome this mountain of personal success. Many people are never able to achieve this goal, but many try, many fail, and many succeed, and many are still trying to become successful in some…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel, Zusak juxtaposes the kindness and cruelty of humans several times. During the brutal Death Marches, Liesel, Rudy, and Hans selflessly offer the Jews bread. Their generosity towards the Jews proves that kindness is often the result of malice. In another instance, Rudy places a teddy bear next to a dying soldier who has just been in a plane crash. This incident depicts the innocence amidst the suffering that surrounds them.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Most characters in The Book Thief are naïve to the fact that one’s degree of morality seems to work both against and for people regarding their fate. Sometimes good people suffer while bad people benefit; sometimes bad people live while good people die. Fate, however, does not take morality into account. Instead, it is an unbiased, random phenomenon. Being one of high moral standing does not necessarily provide protection.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Book Thief Essay

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Liesel’s whole world began to revolve around the hope that he would wake again. On page 317, death had visited Max ready to take him. However, he could not having seen the way Liesel refused to give up hope. She read to him daily, brought him gifts for when he would wake, and simply sat and spoke to his still body. On page 319 it states, “Liesel rushed hope from school each day in the hope that Max was feeling better.”…

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Book Thief Analysis

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    She benefits from the friends she had. Liesel learns how to read from Hans Hubermann and steal what she loves with Rudy. As Liesel Meminger concludes her narrative, she says, “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right” (Zusak 528). Like Liesel, people need to make sure that they use their words properly, whether it is to their advantage or for…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays