Literary Analysis

Stylistic Choices

The Book Thief is written in a unique and exceptional style. Written from the perspective of omniscient Death, The Book Thief is riddled with bolded explanations and thoughts from Death himself. These bolded interruptions give the reader setting cues:

“A Spectacularly Tragic Moment: A train was moving quickly. It was packed with humans. A six-year-old boy died in the third carriage.” (pg. 19)

facts about characters and places:

“A Portrait of Pfiffikus: He was a delicate frame. He was white hair. He was a black raincoat, brown pants, decomposing shoes, and a mouth – and what a mouth it was.” (pg. 52)

as well as translations, memories, and facts that connect to the plot. These extra pieces of information serve to break up the narrative and complicate the plot. The reader is given more information, and often told a future outcome, but not the path that will lead there. This also creates tension for the reader, making them want to read on.

While Death may seem a ruthless narrator, he is characterized as “haunted by humans.” (pg. 550) and experiences feelings of sadness and philosophical thoughts. Death also allows the reader glimpses into the future, letting on early who will die and what will happen. This, combined with Death’s comforting descriptions of how gently he treats dead souls, creates a book that is at once terribly sad and wonderfully beautiful. Zusak presents a tragic topic in a gentle manner, drawing in readers who may be averse to such a haunted time period and place.

Similarly, in the beginning of each part or section, there is a list of titles for each chapter which give a preview for what is to come:

“Prologue: a mountain of rubble: in which our narrator introduces: himself – the colors – and the book thief” (pg. 2).

Once again, this strategy allows the reader to wonder at how the story will take place, and prepares them for the good as well as the bad. The Book Thief is a sad story but is made readable by these forewarnings.

Zusak also chooses to depict the actual written and drawn creations of his characters. The reader is able to see a story within a story, rather than a simple description. Adding depth to the book, characters, and story, the stories created by Max and Liesel give the book a sense of authority; a sense of realness. Not only do the drawings give The Book Thief authority, they also break up the text, allowing the reader to think differently and move through the book at a different pace.

In The Book Thief Zusak has chosen to use unusual stylistic choices, however, together they create a unique and special book. Written in a way most readers are unused to, The Book Thief draws people in, and feeds them with its words and style.

Historical Context

"And so I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. In standing guard against the Jew I am defending the handiwork of the Lord" Adolf Hitler

While The Book Thief was published in 2006, the story takes place during the WWII era. Beginning in January of 1939 and continuing until 1943 (excluding the epilogue), The Book Thief covers a long period of time marred by atrocities and loss. Zusak was inspired to write this novel by his parent’s personal experiences living in Nazi Germany.

While Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, and the Nazi party was already well on its way, The Book Thief begins its story in 1939, the official start of WWII. With multiple countries involved, mass executions and widespread battles, The Book Thief chooses to take a smaller focus, the fictional Himmel St., Molching next to the not-so-fictional Munich.

Munich seemed to have been a city of importance to Hitler, and Nazi culture. Hitler tried to take over the German government in Munich, was jailed, and after his release returned to Munich. Once he took power he set the headquarters of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Munich and Dachau, one of the first concentration camps, was created around ten miles from Munich. So, the fictional town of Molching, set not so far away from Munich, is a good location to describe the effects of Nazism

in Germany.

The Book Thief ends a few years before the end of WWII in 1945 but during the time period of the novel,  Europe was divided in two, Japan invaded China, the United States got involved and over 60 million people were killed.

To learn more about “The Book Thief” and World War II check out these sites:

The Book Thief Setting

World War II Casualties

World War II Timeline

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 Literary References

The Book Thief, as the title suggests, is all about books, and more specifically, words; their influence and power. The reference to literary texts within the novel plays a key part in this major theme. Liesel Meminger, the main character, has a unique relationship with words. The book seems to chart her journey with them. It starts out as a struggle. When the novel begins she can neither read nor write, and what follows throughout the book is the painful process she must undergo to finally harness and control the power of words. She is the Book Thief, and the narrator, Death, sees her steal three books in the span of a few years. She also acquires other ones along the way. The three she stole were The Grave Digger’s Handbook: A Twelve-Step Guide to Grave-Digging Success, The Shoulder Shrug, and The Whistler. Other books and stories that she acquired in the few year span that The Book Thief covers are Faust the Dog, The Lighthouse, Mein Kampf, The Standover Man, The Word Shaker, The Dream Carrier, The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus, A Song in the Dark, The Last Human Stranger, and the book she wrote herself; The Book Thief: A Small Story.

Each of these books played a specific role in Liesel’s life. She learned to read with The Grave Digger’s Handbook. The Shoulder Shrug, The Whistler, and all the other books give her a stronger and a firmer grasp on the words. As was mentioned earlier, in the opening of the book she really struggled with words. Death says, “She was the Book Thief without words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.”(80) This is foreshadowing the power that Liesel would eventually gain with words. One of the books that had a huge part in this transition was the one that her Jewish friend Max, who her foster parents were hiding in their basement, wrote for her. It was called The Word Shaker. It was about Hitler, a “strange small man”, who decided that he would “rule the world with words”. He goes on to do just that. His words are described as being on trees, and it was a “word shaker’s” job to climb up the trees and shake the words down, to feed to the German people. One of the word shakers, a small girl, decides to plant her own seed amongst the trees of Hitler’s words. It grows into a mighty tree, taller than any other in the forest. This story is part of what drives Liesel to write down her own story. She writes of her life in the small German town, of her foster parents, of hiding Max in their basement. She writes of the bombs and the sorrows and the wars. She becomes a real word shaker, and instead of Hitler harnessing the power of words, she does instead. Her words are so powerful that when Death, the narrator finds the book, he carries it around with him. It prompts him to tell her story. Without these literary references within the novel there would be no story, no word shaker. It was because of the literary references within the novel that such a complex and beautiful story was created and sustained.

The Book Thief as a Young Adult Text

The question of why this is a young adult text is an interesting one in that Markus Zusak, the author, did not intend for The Book Thief to be for a specific audience. He wanted people of all ages to enjoy it. In Australia and many other parts of the world it was marketed as an Adult book. In the United States, however, the publishers decided to market it as young adult fiction. Besides going against the opinion

of the author, in ways this marketing decision made sense. The book is about a young girl. Liesel is fourteen by the end of the book. It also deals with themes of mortality, oppression, and isolation from family. She is growing up during a war, separated from her family. Many teens, while not identifying literally with this, can really identify with feelings of isolation and repression. During your teen years issues of death and mortality are often confronted as well. So these elements in the book definitely connect with the teen reader. The book also places great emphasis on learning, and overcoming barriers in that. Liesel did not pick up reading and writing easily. She had to fight to learn it, and had a drive to prove she wasn’t stupid. I think that this could resonate with a lot of teenagers. This book in many ways is similar to Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. This book as well was marketed for a young adult audience. Like The Book Thief, it deals with the importance of knowledge, oppression, and war. Marjane was a young girl growing up in an extremely turbulent time, just like Liesel. She also clung to knowledge and words to give her some stability and power. This could really speak to the teen experience. Persepolis also emphasizes looking at things from another perspective. A major point in the book was that not everyone in Iran were these extreme fundamentalists who hated the West. The same point is made in The Book Thief. Not everyone in Germany supported Hitler. There were those who fought back. These things could really appeal to teen readers.