The Book Thief

Prologue (p. 1-15)

The narrator of this story is Death; he sees all and knows all. He sees the world in different colours, mostly red, white and black. He starts telling the story of a little girl named Liesel Meminger. She is on board a train with her little brother and her mother. Liesel and her brother are on their way to get dropped off at their foster parents’ house since their mother can no longer take care of them for unknown reasons. About halfway to their destination, Liesel's little brother dies in his sleep. Liesel is the only one who notices since she was the only one who was awake at the time. She is too shocked to wake her mother. Death explains how he gets on to the train, and gently takes away the boys soul. He says how he wishes that he could apologize to Liesel, but he can't.

Part 1 (p. 19-80)

Death describes Liesel's brother's death more in detail. He describes that when his mother finally wakes up and sees that her son is dead, she is hysterical and devastated, as any mother would be. Liesel is still shocked beyond belief; therefore it looks like as if she had no reaction to this tragedy. The funeral was very short and only Liesel and her mother attended. The gravedigger's were complaining how hard the snow was to dig through, and once her brother was buried Liesel becomes irrational and attempts to dig her brother out and go get his body. Her mother grabs her and drags her away, Liesel sees an abandoned book lying in the snow so she picks it up, and tucks it into her coat. Death now nicknames her, "The Book Thief." Sometime later Liesel's mother drops her off with the person designated to drive her to her foster parents’ home. She tries to hold onto her mother, but she pushes her away and leaves. They then drive her to her new home on Himmel Street; her foster parents are Rosa and Hans Hubermann. They get introduced and Liesel is reluctant, but goes inside eventually.

Liesel constantly has nightmares about her dead brother. Whenever she has a nightmare she wets the bed and wakes up screaming. But when this happens, Hans would come into her room and comfort her; some nights he would play the accordion and Rosa would scream at him to stop. When Liesel started school she was placed with the younger kids since she was illiterate. She would try to ask her parents for help but they both left school when they were about 10 years old. Every Wednesday and Saturday Liesel was forced to attend Hitler Youth, which lasted two hours. A few times a week Liesel would help Rosa with her work, delivering washed and ironed clothes to the wealthier families. Rosa would complain, and Liesel would just listen.

Death introduces us to the other people who live on Himmel Street. A boy named Rudy, who would become Liesel’s best friend. The children’s favorite pastime was to play soccer in the street, and since Liesel was new, she was made goalie but eventually proved herself good enough to play. Rudy shows Liesel around town, all the shops and houses. Then he shows her, “the road of the yellow stars” where all the Jewish businesses were marked. Death also explains how Rudy is obsessed with the Olympic athlete, Jesse Owens. In the year of 1936, Jesse Owen’s was winning his race, and Rudy got so excited he painted himself black with charcoal (since Owens was black) and ran into the middle of the street, hollering like a madman. Rudy’s father comes to get him, and explains to him how Rudy should be happy with blonde hair and “safe” blue eyes after Rudy confesses to his father that he wished he was Jesse Owens. Rudy of course is too young to understand what that meant. That is, “The Jesse Owen’s Incident.”

It is now May of 1939, and 90% of Germans obey and backed up Adolf Hitler at all costs. They march down the streets yelling, "Germany over everything!" And the final 10% of Germans did not support Hitler, and Hans Hubermann was one of them. One night when Hans was changing Liesel's wet sheets, he found the book she had stolen months before. That's when the, "midnight classes" started, where they would try to teach themselves to read, The Grave Digger's Handbook. Every night Hans would go to Liesel's room and they would spend hours just trying to read, and it paid off eventually.

It is now September of 1939 and World War Two has started. Hans and Rosa are extremely worried but of course, Liesel still doesn't understand. And since it was September, school had started again. Although her reading had improved over the past 4 months, she still wasn't that good. The teacher (or nun, rather) at school asked Liesel to read out loud to the class at some point. Unsure of what to do and panic stricken, she began reciting lines she had memorized from, The Grave Digger's Handbook. The teacher brought her into the hallway, and taught her a lesson. That day at lunch, one child in particular kept making fun of Liesel and kept calling her stupid. She eventually lost her temper, and beat him to a pulp and announced, "I'm not stupid." Again, she was sent to the hallway for a beating. No one ever called her stupid again.

Part 2 (p. 83-122)

Towards the end of 1939, Liesel was finally beginning to be happy. She was improving in school, she learned to love her new parents and she had a love-hate relationship with her best friend, Rudy. At Christmas time, she received two books from her parents. Hans had rolled up 16 cigarettes and went to go trade them for the books. But the happiness did not last long, after Christmas things began to go downhill. People couldn't afford to have their clothes washed and ironed by Rosa because of the failing economy, so Rosa lost a lot of customers. To try and get bigger tips and more money, Rosa began sending Liesel to deliver the clothes instead, hoping they would pity her and give her extra money.

At some point Liesel wanted to reconnect with her biological mother by sending her letters. When she told Rosa and Hans this, Rosa looked more sympathetic than her usual cold self. A little while later, she overheard a conversation between Rosa and Hans and she heard Rosa say, "Who knows what they've done to her?" Liesel was left with many questions in her head. Who are "they", and what could "they" have done?

Liesel's birthday came around a short while later and she didn't receive anything. Taking matters into her own hands, she took some of the money that she had made delivering clothes, and mailed all the five letters she had written to her mother. Rosa became enraged, and beat Liesel until she was unable to move. She lay there for a while, before coming to the conclusion that she would never see her biological mother ever again.

It was now April, and Hitler's birthday was coming up. To celebrate this, they burned all books that went against Hitler in a huge bonfire. In light of this, Hans and Rosa's two children came to visit, Trudy and Hans Junior. It was no secret that Hans and Junior didn't get along, Junior was a Nazi and Hans was not. In Junior's opinion, his father was a coward and didn't care about his country. Eventually, Hans and Junior got into a massive fight, which resulted in Junior storming out of the house and never be heard from again.

Hitler's birthday had arrived and everyone was getting ready for the big book burning. Standing in the crowd, Liesel was listening to a man's speech. It was quite long and boring in her opinion, but the part that actually struck her was at the end when he exclaimed, "Die Jews!" and everyone in the crowd cheered. She immediately felt sick and had a flashback of her starving mother, missing father and dead brother. Liesel then saw one of her classmates getting trampled by the crowd in their excitement and as a result, her ankle had been crushed. Liesel dragged her out of the crowd where there was air and few people. All they could hear behind them was the roaring crowd and the flames of burning books. Hans teaches Liesel that in public she is not allowed to say she hates the Nazi's, she must hail Hitler and do as she is told. Reluctant, she does.

Part 3 (p. 125-170)

Later on, Hans and Liesel attended another book burning in which they had to surrender their own books and toss them into the fire. Naturally, Liesel was planning something a little bit different. When no one was looking, she snatched one of the books from the flames and tucked it underneath her coat. As she was walking back home with her father, she could no longer take the heat and she took the book out in public. Two people saw; Hans and the mayor's wife. Hans agrees to keep it a secret as long as she stops stealing books, and promises him to keep a secret that he will tell her later on. She agrees, and then walks the rest of the way home.

The stress that Liesel was experiencing knowing that the mayor's wife had seen her was terrible. Any minute she was expecting the police at her door, ready to take her away. But that day never came; the mayor's wife had a kinder soul than Liesel thought. One day Liesel did her usual routine of delivering the wash to her mother's customers. As usual, she stopped by the mayor's wife's house. She was extremely nervous of what the woman was going to say to her, but nevertheless she had to do her job. To her surprise, the usual silent woman invited her in. In her home, she showed her the endless amount of shelves and books. Liesel was amazed and delighted at the same time. She left her home feeling completely relieved and happy.

A few hundred miles away was a Jew, crouched in a dark corner praying for his life. He was hungry, skinny and dirty. But it was better than outside he kept telling himself. He was awakened by his friend, who handed him a piece of paper with an address and a name, along with a key and some fake ID. That day he made the journey to Hans Hubermann's home, in hopes of finding a safe place.

On the opposite end, Liesel and Hans were starting to read Liesel's recent addition to her collection, The Shoulder Shrug. Life was normal; Liesel went to school, delivered the clothes, visited the mayor's wife and continued reading with her father. But because of the failing economy, the Hubermann's had less and less food. So, Liesel and Rudy took matters into their own hands, and began stealing food. They joined a group of boys, and the leaders name was Arthur, a little older and lot cockier. They stole apples and Liesel and Rudy thought they were completely delicious. So delicious, that Liesel ate so many she threw up that night, but in her head it was worth it.

Later on we see the Jew on the train on his way to Han's house, now which we determine his name is Max Vadenburg. He's extremely nervous and trying to calm his nerves by reading the book Mein Kampf, pretending to blend in. Thankfully no one notices him, and when he gets off he goes to the bathroom to look into his bag. In it he finds a razor, a spoon, shaving cream and some scissors. He cleans himself up and leaves the train station, and is baffled by the fact that one of the things that saved him that day was a book by his greatest enemy, Adolf Hitler.

Part 4 (p. 173- 238)

At the point in the novel, we learn that Hans has quite the past that runs quite deep, which is why at this point Max is standing in Hans's kitchen with the single question, "Do you still play the accordion?" Which really meant, "Will you help me?"
Hans was in World War 1 when he was twenty two, fighting in France. Most men this age were extremely eager to get on the battlefield and blow some heads off, but Hans wasn't so excited. He much rathered sit around the camp, and roll cigarettes with his new friend Erik Vadenburg, Max's father. They both didn't enjoy war, and were very content with staying at the base and Erik enjoyed teaching Hans how to play the accordion. The reason Hans was still alive, was because of Erik. One day the sergeant had come in and asked if anyone knew how to write and write well, since the captain wasn't able to do it himself. Erik lifted up his hand and told the sergeant that Hans had "immaculate" handwriting. Because of that, Hans didn't have to go on the battlefield with the others, but Erik still did.
He never came back.

Once Hans returned to Germany, he went to go see Erik's wife to explain to her what happened. When he got there, it was only then did he realize that Erik had a little boy named Max, no older than five at the time. Hans made a promise to himself that if anyone in that family ever needed anything, he would gladly do it for them. But once Hitler was elected in 1939, his job as a painter was going downhill, and real fast. He made an application to the Nazi's, but was put on a waiting list.

About 6 months after Liesel arrived on Himmel Street, Hans was walking home one day when he was approached by a man named Walter Kugler. They whispered for fifteen minutes or so and arranged a meeting later that night, deciding what will be done with Max and more importantly if he was willing to help.

End of flashback, Max is now standing in Hans's kitchen waiting for an answer to his previous question. At this point Liesel was standing there terribly confused, in which Hans told her to go to see. She ended up staying up all night, listening to the muffled voices downstairs. We go into another flashback at this point, of Max's life. He grew up with his mother, and he loved to fistfight, particularly with Walter. Over the years Walter and Max had fought thirteen times, and Walter won 10 of those times. They became great friends, but once the Jew hunting began Max had to go into hiding, which Walter helped him with. He hid in the storeroom for 2 years, until the Nazi's were onto Walter which is why he had to go see Hans to arrange something. Hans agreed and that began a great journey. They clothed, fed and washed Max while he hid in their basement during the day, and at night when everything was dark he would come back upstairs to sleep in a more comfortable setting.

The next day, Hans and Rosa kept Liesel from going to school because they had to explain the seriousness of the situation of hiding a Jew in your house in Nazi Germany. Hans threatened that if she told anyone, he would burn all her books, that him and Rosa would be taken away and never seen again as well as Max. Hans drilled this so far into her brain that she cried, but in his eyes it was completely necessary. She needed to understand the seriousness of their situation.

Max slept for three days, he was so exhausted. Liesel had become a little obsessed with him, checking up on his constantly, making sure he was still breathing, just seeing how he was. Once he awoke, he apologized and said he would never sleep upstairs in Liesel's room again, that it was extremely dangerous since he might get caught. For the next few days, Liesel ignored him. She denied his presence and refused to believe he was even there. Every day before Liesel went off to school, Rosa would remind her to shut her mouth by pointing to her own. It was the silent agreement.

Christmas came around and Trudy came to visit, Hans Jr. did not of course. She didn't expect a thing the entire time, which was a blessing. They had all agreed that they can only trust the three of them, so anyone else was a threat. After a few weeks Liesel had become a little less shy with Max and they began talking; just a few simple words or sentences. One night Liesel couldn't sleep, so she crept down to the basement where Max was hiding and was happy to find that he was awake. They exchanged the nightmares they both have each night and bonded over that.

On Liesel's 12th birthday she received a book called, The Mud Men. She was very excited to read and it and was very grateful. Obviously, she didn't expect anything from Max but a week later he gave her something very special. Out of torn up pages from Mein Kampf he created a scrapbook for her, a story of his life and how it relates to hers and although they are different; they are also very much the same.

Part 5 (p. 241-303)

Life continued as normal on Himmel Street. Liesel bonded some more with Max by cutting his hair, giving him daily weather reports and fetching him empty crossword puzzles to play. But when Liesel was gone, Max had some dark thoughts. He thought about boxing with Adolf Hitler, with an entire crowd watching. And it ending very, very bloody. He had this vision countless times a day, and it began to poison his mind. He tried to keep himself busy with little projects and working out excessively. Max told Liesel about his day dreams, and it frightened her a little bit. She couldn't picture such a gentle soul being so violent.

A few days later Liesel went to the mayor's house to drop off the washing as usual and maybe read some more books in the library. But she was greeted by an envelope that the mayor's wife handed to her with a sad expression. They had cancelled Rosa's service. Everyone else had cancelled too; now leaving her mama jobless. Liesel became furious, she swore at the woman telling her that she's pathetic for rotting away in her mansion. The mayor's wife offered her a book, and she refused it. After Liesel was done her rant, the woman did nothing. She simply closed the door and left Liesel on the footsteps.
Once Liesel returned home, she handed Rosa the letter. She immediately started apologizing saying it was her fault that they had cancelled. Surprisingly Rosa didn't believe herm so Liesel left the room. Then she heard mama throw all the jars on the floor.

In other news, Liesel's best friend was having many problems of his own. He was having problems at Hitler's youth. Most of it consisted of mouthing off, being a smartass and being severely punished for it. Each time he returned home, he looked worse than the time before. But besides getting beaten at Hitler Youth, Liesel and Rudy were up to other things. Often times they would steal food from farmers because there was none at their home; they also believed there was safety in numbers. So far the leader had been a boy named Andy Schmeikl. He was a decent guy, nothing too exceptional. But one day he called a meeting near the river; there was a new leader in town. His name was Viktor Chemmel. He was rude, arrogant and mean to Rudy especially; but everyone was too scared to do anything about it. Viktor had beat up Rudy a few times, and on one occasion Rudy spit blood on Viktor's feet after he was finished. He would pay for it 5 months later.

Rudy at this point had become slightly depressed. With his troubles in Hitler Youth, not getting his fair share and getting the crap kicked out of him by Viktor and always starving, he felt that somewhere he needed to win. He needed to steal something, and Liesel knew exactly what it was. They had decided the mayor's house; they were going to steal food and Liesel was going to take the book back that the mayor's wife had originally offered her. She wanted to send a message.
She didn't get a chance to steal any food, but she successfully stole back the book, The Whistler.

A few days later, Viktor got his real revenge. He took Liesel's book, and pitched it in the river and sent Rudy swimming after it. After he gets it, he asks for a kiss where he is immediately rejected.

Part 6 (p. 307-350)

Christmas rolls around again, and Liesel is now 13. Luckily enough, Trudy could only stop for a few hours at the house a couple of weeks before Christmas and the Hubermann's appreciated it, they didn't need unnecessary visitations. Since this year there were no presents or no extra food, Liesel decided to do something special. She went in the front lawn, got buckets of snow and brought it down to the basement so her and her family (including Max) could build a snowman. It was a happy day for the Hubermann's, but the joy did not last long.
Max's health began to decline. He was constantly cold, sweaty hands, increased visions of boxing with Hitler, couldn't do very much exercise and always freezing. In mid-February Max collapsed onto the floor, and they couldn't wake him up. They brought him to Liesel's bed, and she constantly asked if he had died. Rosa shooed her away, and Hans gave her a hug she desperately needed. Everyday they constantly checked on him, and he did not wake up. But he wasn't dead, he was still in fact breathing. A couple of days later he opened his eyes; but only for a few seconds before they shut again. Every day Liesel read to him her stolen books, or a new book that she had added to her collection. She also gave him little gifts such as: a ribbon, pinecone, button, stone, feather, newspaper, candy wrapper, cloud, toy soldier, leaf, finished whistler and a, "slab of grief." It was the best she could do.

Liesel broke into the mayor's wife house again and snatched another book, The Dream Carrier. At this point, the mayor's wife had figured it out and purposely left the window open so Liesel could get in, although Liesel didn't know this. Once Liesel returned home, her mother and father were arguing. They were debating what to do with the corpse if Max did die. He woke up 8 days later when Liesel was at school. Rosa showed up at Liesel's school, and made a big scene on how Liesel stole her hairbrush and that she was a nasty little thief, until Rosa pulled her outside and whispered in her ear the real reason she had come.

Max was finally awake.

That day Liesel raced home to go see Max, and he thanked her for all the wonderful gifts she left for him. But again, the happiness did not last long. The Nazi's were making their way towards Himmel Street, checking basements to see if they could make bomb shelters out of them. If they found Max, the Hubermann's would be at great risk. The man came in, and went down into the basement. Max was hiding under the stairs, gripping onto the scissors for dear life. It was the longest three minutes of all their lives. He came back upstairs, and said that it was too shallow for a shelter. Extremely relieved, they could breathe again.

Part 7 (p. 353- 403)

It is now summer of 1942 and the entire town is preparing for the worst. They are preparing for war and death. But for Hans, things were actually working out. People wanted him to paint their windows and blinds completely black to block out the enemies. Job after job came and more money starting rolling in; not only that Liesel was thrilled because she got to go on jobs with her papa. She enjoyed spending all day with him and she hoped the summer would never end. But of course, all good things come to an end. One day Liesel was waken up very early in the morning, with papa's voice ordering that they had to go. The bombs were being launched and it was very possible that it could hit Himmel Street. Rosa, Hans and Liesel grabbed their most important things and made a dash for the door, unfortunately having to leave Max behind. Their bomb shelter was six houses down, the Fiedlers. Twenty-two people were able to fit in their large basement, including Rudy. Hours passed and everyone was awaiting death. Liesel held onto Rudy and Rosa and prayed that they would all survive and that Max was safe in their basement.
Once the scare was over, they returned home to see that Max was in fact alive and perfectly okay. Not only that, he took advantage and glanced out the window to see the stars. He hadn't seen the outside for almost 2 years. He said the stars burned his eyes.

A raid was announced September 19th, so again the Hubermann's made a run for the Fiedlers. But this time, this one was more intense and they could actually feel the ground shaking. Everyone was terrified; so to distract everyone Liesel started reading one of her books out loud, The Whistler. Within a minute, everyone was paying attention to her and everything was silent except Liesel's voice. Children and babies had stopped crying and adults had stopped thinking about dying. By the time the raid was over Liesel was able to finish Chapter 1. Everyone thanked her, and she felt extremely important.

The next morning the town was inspected. No one died by two apartment buildings had collapsed leaving many people homeless. A few weeks later, there was a parade of Jews. Kind of like a freak show, they were sent to walk through the streets, almost dying of hunger and thirst and their bodies permanently stained with dirt. They're sunken in swollen eyes and dry, dehydrated throats. If one started slowing down, the guard behind him would whip him. Everyone watched and no one intervened, until someone in the crowd offered a Jew a piece of bread.
Hans Hubermann.
The Jew was whipped and taken back, and then it was Hans's turn. He was ridiculed and called a, "Jew lover" and things of that nature. His act was foolish because later on he was expecting them to show up at his doorstep to check his basement and take him away.

He waited three weeks till they came. But they did not come for him. They came for Rudy.

Part 8 (p. 407-455)

Two men came to Rudy's house trying to take him away to join the Nazi's, but in the end they were only able to get Rudy's father. Since they didn't get all the Steiner's that they wanted, they also decided that Hans would be a good candidate.
A week later Hans and Alex Steiner were shipped off to God knows where to fight someone else's war. Fortunately, neither of them were sent to fight. Alex was sent to Austria to an army hospital, and Hans was sent to the Air Raid Special Unit. To clear up what that is, the job is to remain aboveground during air raids and put out fires, put walls back together and rescue anyone who needed rescuing. But in theory, it was better than the frontlines. They were a team of 4 with the captain, and to put it in short; no one enjoyed it. Hans would occasionally write letters to Rosa and Liesel, but they were short and brief.
In honor if Liesel's father, at the next Jew parade Rudy and Liesel took some pieces of stale bread they had found, and fed it to the Jews; it was also to see if Max would appear. He didn't, but one of the guards noticed them and they had to bolt for their lives.

For Liesel's birthday, Rosa gave her a diary so she could record all her thoughts. She began immediately.

Part 9 (p. 459-493)

Back to Hans and his air raid team, things weren't going quite so nicely. To pass the time the men would play cards and whoever won would get some cigarettes. Hans was a humble man so when he would win, he would give every man across the table a cigarette. And only one refused it, Reinhold Zucker. He was twenty-four and extremely cocky, not to mention a sore loser. A week after he had decided that he hated Hans, they went out on patrol in a truck. Reinhold being as stubborn as he is, took Hans's seat. That would be the death of him.

Several minutes later the entire truck blew up and Reinhold died. It should've been Hans, but fate was on his side. After a broken leg and some evaluation, they decided that Hans would be sent home since he was, "generous with his cigarettes." Liesel and Rosa were overwhelmed with joy when they got his letter; things would be back to normal. A few days later another air raid happened when forced them once again into the basement of their neighbor's house. The only difference is this time, a pilot outside died. Rudy and Liesel discovered him, and the last thing he saw was placing a teddy bear next to his corpse. He died happy.

Papa returned home not long after that; no one was happier that day than Rosa and Liesel.

Part 10 (p. 497- 539)

Liesel ended up seeing Max in the Jew parade one day. She ran up to him and hugged him and he kissed her hand. She told him she was sorry and that she missed him; he told her it was alright. They both got whipped until they could no longer move. Not long after that Himmel Street was bombed; Rosa and Hans died in their sleep and Rudy died in the middle of the road. Liesel finally kissed Rudy after rejecting him so many times; it's a shame he wasn't there to see it. That day, Liesel lost everything. Her only friend, and the people she considered to be her parents.

The End.

The Book Thief

Monday, March 18, 2013

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

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