The Book Thief Sparknotes

The ten cent hammer catches Al's eyes while he is looking through the store, and he figures that the hammer would be good to have so he could use the nails he has collected from the construction site, to build something. Al has not money with which to buy the hammer however, and the proceeds to slip the hammer into his pocket and head from the store.

Al is caught in the act of his theft, by a young man in the store, and is then taken to Mr. Clemmens, whom is the store owner. Mr. Clemmens accuses Al of being a thief, and treats him poorly, and rudely, not being kind at all, then tells Al that he may not come back to the store until he is able to actually purchase the items he is looking at. Al leaves the store shamed, humiliated and angry. At Mr. Clemmens, and the young man for calling him a thief, and being so rude and unkindly to him. But Al is also mad at himself for trying to steal which is so unlike him, and …show more content…
Through this he considers stealing for a living, and then thinks of killing the young man who caught him and rated him out in the first place, earning his revenge, and earning his respect.

The next day Al's mother wakes to find Al already gone and when she returns home from work with her friend, she finds Al busy at work in the yard building what looks like a bench out of box wood with a hammer and his nails, the watering already done, and the yard tidy. She then makes dinner with the help of her friend.

Al's mother asks Al where he got the hammer he tells her that he got it from the store, she asks him if he stole it, but Al worked for it at the store, the hammer being his pay, he was then offered a job from Mr. Clemmens from the suggestion of the young man, but Al refuses, she proceeds to ask why he refused the job because he could have made money. But Al hated the men, and how they had treated him before, so he did not, and would not ever work for them, because of how they had degraded