How did I initially picture a book thief to look like?
1)I think thieves in general are people with few possessions and little to lose. A book thief is no different to a jewelry thief in my opinion because all thieves share the same traits. Sympathy must be given to those who steal because they are people who aren’t as wealthy or secure as the general population may be. I don’t have any particular stereotypes attached to what a thief may look life for it could be anyone. Hypothetically if I were to be in a very poor country with little money I am near to certain I too would attempt acts of thievery. I don’t believe a thief looks any different to any one else, even their hearts can be in the right place.
2)To lose your entire family at such a young age comes with tremendous amounts of pain and grieving. Liesel is lucky to be taken in by Rosa and Hans for they give her a life where she is loved like any other family would love their child. If this never happened then I believe Liesel wouldn’t of recovered so quickly because her new foster parents gave her a normal life so shortly after having to part with her brother and mother. However they cannot replace what she once had. I cannot speak for Liesel because those that suffer the loss of loved ones can deal with the matter in many different ways. She may feel a great deal of pain and suffering when she is older or she may not. For some the loss of a loved one can make them a fragile and unstable person. For others they may become a stronger person through their loss and learn how to deal with certain elements of life in a new way. As time passes I can imagine Liesel becoming a much stronger person because she has learnt how to deal with such tragic moments from a young age. At the need of the day Liesel is the only one that can truly know how she is feeling and I can only speculate so much as to how her losses truly made her feel.
3)Words give Liesel many things. They give her new worlds to dive into and unravel their mystery’s. Words give her challenges as she learns new and more complex words each day. They give her the power to speak her mind. They allow her to connect with new people such as Max Vandenburg. Liesel gains many things from words and grows a love for words that results in her stealing several books. Even with all the great things that words teach Liesel she also discovers that they give men like Hitler power. They may teach her the wonders of literature but they are also responsible for many of the deaths during WW2.
4)Liesel loved Rudy, there is no denying it. Though the love she had for Rudy was from a friendship perspective not a romantic one. She ends up regretting her decision to never kiss Rudy as she only does so after he dies. However that doesn’t change the past, for she technically never kissed him. Rudy and Liesel both loved each other however I think Rudy was coming from a romantic point of view. They have such a strong relationship in this book that is one you wish they can keep for ever and that’s why it hurts so much when Rudy dies at the end of the book. If Rudy were to of lived I can imagine the two of them ending up as either life long friends or partners. They symbolized love in a very pure form which showed us that love is not always from a romantic feeling.
5)Max opened her mind up to many great things. Some of those things were also rather grim such as his reasons for staying with the Hubbermann’s. Max is running from the Nazis for being a jew throughout the course of the novel and has to part with his own family to save his own life, knowing they will mostly likely die. Liesel didn’t have it easy but neither did Max, however I am not going to justify that one of the characters had it harder than the other. This is because both were suffering equally as much as the other, there is no need to saw who was going through more pain than the other. What Max did for Liesel was give her comfort and allow her to share her grief and nightmares with him. Max was like an older brother for Liesel and gave her the comfort and reassurance that she needed. Being of an older age meant that Max could deal with his situation rather well which is why he acted as a role model for Liesel.
6)Liesel’s continuation to steal novels is driven by curiosity, anger and passion. Books gave her many great things in her younger age so it makes plenty of sense as to why she would keep stealing books. You have to put yourself in Liesels shoes to understand why her thievery never stopped. Books were one of the few important things she had in her life so she cherished them very deeply. Bookstores were filled with propaganda during this time period so she couldn’t buy them there if if she had the money. With few options there was only one way to acquired what she desired.
7)The lessons Liesel taught me were few but valuable all the same. People can recover, even from the most desperate of situations. The amount of loss Liesel had to bare in her younger age is immense. If a writer can make me emotional from watching/reading a young girl lose her most beloved people then I can only imagine how much pain it caused Liesel. Recovery sounds far fetched for someone in Liesel’s condition but she pushes through the worst to become her best self. I find this great motivation for the times when I am in need of reassurance that it will be ok. Words are peoples greatest power. The book thief mainly revolves around Liesel Meminger and her love for words. Many of the people around her also helped me to acknowledge the power of words.