The Book Thief Compassion Analysis

Empathy is felt at times of desperation. Only an act of compassion can relieve a small amount of the pain one experiences. As Liesel Meminger learns where she belongs in the Hubermann home, in Molching; a sympathy lurks through the novel during a series of events. In Zusak’s “The Book Thief’ compassion is painted between Death’s job and Liesel’s day to day life. Death witnesses the story of charity and how it grows into more than just an act of kindness. Not only is compassion in the art of giving and sharing but also in the art of thievery.
Compassion is a way of showing pity towards someone, which happens throughout The Book Thief. An example is when the Hubermann’s take in Liesel as a foster child. Liesel and her brother are being given up by her mother, and everything begins to change for Liesel. Her brother has passed on and she is being forced into a new home. After clinging to the fence due to fear and the idea of being in a new home, and new place, with strangers Liesel releases the fence and Death says, “Eventually, …show more content…
It is calming and natural because the feeling of sympathy is a need to help fix others. This feeling is strong throughout the novel, mostly portrayed by Hans Hubermann and the reader for the characters in the novel. Liesel feels sympathy for Max; Rudy feels sympathy for Liesel; Liesel, Rudy, and Hans feel concerned for the Jews being paraded through town; and Hans and Ilsa feel pity towards Liesel for her losses, her lack in reading, her lack in money and food, and her being bullied. The Jews are paraded around and the people who do not believe in Hitler’s rules but follow anyways feel empathy for the Jews. Liesel feels a sensitivity to Rudy’s Jesse Owens incident, as funny it is she feels a pain for how the people treated him afterwards. Throughout the entirety of the novel compassion is repeated, and necessary for the novel to proceed during its time