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AP Literature
MAJOR WORKS DATA SHEET
Title: _The Book Thief______________________
Biographical Information about the Author
Author: ___Marcus Zusak__________________
Marcus is a famous Australian writer. His best
known books are
The Book Thief
and
I am the
Messenger.
He was born in Australia in 1975.
His Mother was born in Germany and his
father was born in Austria (Which leads to his
interest in the Holocaust and reasoning for
writing
The Book Thief)
He studied English and
History at the University of South Wales, and
has a BA in English and a diploma of Education.
He teaches English at his old high school on
occasion.
Date of Publication: _____2005__________________
Genre: ___Fiction/Historical Fiction_____________
Historical Information about the period and place of
publication – what was happening in the world the
author lived in and how might that have influenced
him?
Like I said earlier, Zusac’s parents’ history led to his
writing of
The Book Thief,
but being born in the 70’s,
WWII was still quite a hot topic, as it still is today. Not
too many impacting things happened when Zusac was
growing up, so his influence was mostly of his parents
childhood years.
Characteristics of the Genre
Characters are generally ordinary people who
did or could have lived in said time period.
Time is generally a specific historical period,
and place is where that period took place. The
tone is usually set so that the reader can
connect with and feel that this actually
happened.
Plot Summary
The book thief is set in Germany, more towards the end of the war. It starts out with main character Liesel
who is on her way to meet her new Foster parents. On her way Liesel’s only brother dies and they have to
bury him, this is when she steals her very first book, a book about being a good grave digger. The story is
narrated by death, who comes to see Liesel when her brother dies and continues to see her throughout
the novel due to the many deaths that occur around her. Due to the narrator being Death personified,
there is foreshadowing that Liesel will continue being surrounded by it. Later in the book a Jew named
Max comes to hide with Liesel and the Hubermann’s, and he teaches her how to read, these teachings
pursue Liesels career as a book thief, she starts to steal books from the Mayor and his wife, however the
wife knows so she leaves the window open for Liesel. In the end, a bomb drops on their neighborhood
and only Liesel survives. So she goes to live with the mayor and his wife, and later in life she meets Max
again as he survived though he was brutally treated as he was captured as a Jew.
Describe the author’s style
An example that demonstrates that style
The author uses personification, a lot of
foreshadowing, and emotion in his
writing. He engages the reader so that
they feel for the characters. He uses a lot
of symbolism in his writing, such as colors.
Also he has many motifs in his novels too.
He has foreshadowing of using the narrator death to show
that hi main character will always be around it. He
personifies death, who foreshadows by telling people how
that character will die, so he gives minor hints. As well as
that Death also says what color he saw when a person dies,
using that symbolism, he shows what type of person they
were.
Memorable Quotes
Quotation
Significance
“I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.” IT shows Death’s opinion on what humans are like, which is an
important opinion because he has seen everything, so he knows
how this may escalate.
“They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.” Death briefly interrupts the story of Liesel to show the reader
that not only were the Jewish people dying, but it was everyone,
nobody was safe in the war.
“You could argue that Liesel Meminger had it easy. She did have it easy compared to Max Vandenburg. Certainly, her brother had practically died in her arms. Her mother abandoned her. But anything was better than being a Jew.” This shows how horrible situations really were in that time
period, for compared to a regular person now, Liesel does not
have it easy. So knowing what we as people go through, her
situation sucked, but compared to Max, and what he had to go
through with concentration camps, she was living the high life.
Characters
Name
Role in the Story
Significance
Adjectives
Liesel
Main character, protagonist,
The
book thief.
She has a thirst for knowledge,
so when she learns how to read
she then steals many more
books to continue learning.
Witty, Sneaky,
Tom-Boy, Smart,
Loving, Scared.
Jewish stowaway, main
character, protagonist, Liesel’s
brother figure
He is a brother figure to Liesel,
he teaches her how to read and
creates her favorite book.
Gentle,
Caring,Smart.
Narrator, Sardonic, sort-of
antagonist (Because he is
death), Dark Sense of humor.
Follows Liesel because she is
surrounded by death, finds
interest in her and her thieving.
Dark, Sardonic,
Mysterious,
Intuitive
Liesel’s stepfather, protagonist,
main character.
He is Liesel’s father, he helps
her cope with her fears, he
plays the accordion to help her
to rest.
Caring, Silver
eyes, loving,
paternal.
Max
Death
Hans Hubermann
Rosa Hubermann
Rudy Steiner
Liesel’s stepmother, protagonist
(with anger issues), professional
curser, main character.
Liesel’s best friend, Main
character, static.
She is very cold and tough, the
complete opposite of Hans, but
she is maternal to say the least.
She fights for what she believes
in and will not let that go.
Rudy is always there for Liesel,
even when she wants it the
least. He is in love with Liesel,
Maternal, Angry,
Stubborn.
Athletic, Smart,
Funny,
and all he wants is one kiss
from her. HE is a well rounded,
good kid.
Setting
Liesel lives in a town called Molching which is withing
Germany. The time period is within WWII, more
importantly the Holocaust. The setting is always ashy
and gloomy for there are always fires and bombs going
off around Molching. There is also much poverty going
around the town, many shops are being closed, and
people are scrounging to get food for they never seem
to have enough, so the setting is quite depressing.
Stubborn,
Loving, Caring.
Significance of opening scene
When death tells us of the colors he sees each
time he sees Liesel when picking someone else
up, these colors are: Red, White, and Black.
These are the colors of the Nazi flag. So this
starts our book off knowing that there will be a
lot of death in the book, and that it will be
based around one little girl in the midst of the
Holocaust.
Significance of ending/closing scene
Symbols
1. Hans’ accordion serves as a symbol of debt to Eric,
which is why they risked their life to save Max.
The ending scene is a tear jerker! She leaves
behind her book at the scene of the rubble,
which Death quickly rescues. In the end she
dies of old age and when Death comes to pick
her up, she greets him with open arms, and he
shows her the book that he has been carrying
around for all of these years.
Old AP Questions
2. The colors that Death sees- they represent that life
and what was going on at the time.
Leave Blank for Now
3. Bread- sharing bread meant selflessness, which Hans
had, and Rudy because they gave bread to Jewish
prisoners.
4. Books- they were mostly all banned, which made
Liesel want them more, it showed her thirst for
knowledge and rebellion.
5.
Possible Themes
1. The power of words
2. How death affects peoples lives
3. What it feels like to lose everything