In the very beginning of The Book Thief the reader meets a shy little girl named Liesel. She is struggling with the fact that her brother just died. Her mom decides to send her away to live with the Hubermanns. When she gets to the Hubermann’s house she refused to get out of the car. She is sad and upset that her mom sent her away and at that time she did not know why. She feels abandonment from her mother. Rosa Hubermann was yelling at her to get out, so Hans walked over to her and got her out of the car. The reader can sense that she is going to be closer to Hans than Rosa.
Another conflict that Liesel struggled with was that she wanted to fit in at school with the rest of her peers. She could not do this because she does not know how to read or write. So Hans decides that he is going to teach her every night on how to read and write. She looked up to Hans as being a father figure towards her considering she grew up without a father. Hans gain Liesel’s love and trust. Liesel started to take more responsibility when Rosa gave her the job to pick up the washing from the rich people.
Liesel does not like that fact something happen to her mother considering her mother was not writing back any letters to her. Her foster parents would not tell her the truth on what happen to her mother. Liesel figured it out what happen to her mother when she went to Hitler’s birthday celebration. She told Hans that she blames Hitler for her mother’s disappearance. Hans slapped her across the face for saying that. She realizes that she cannot speak badly about Hitler. She has to ‘Heil Hitler.’
A Jew showed up at the house named Max. Hans told Liesel that she had to keep a secret about Max living with them. I think that is a lot of responsibility for a young girl to keep a secret. She was not allowed to tell anyone about Max. Hans told her if she would tell anyone her foster parents and Max would be taken away from her.
I really liked this character because she is a very strong girl considering everything she went through. It amazes me how quickly she learned how to read and write by Hans writing the alphabet and the words down.
Liesel can easily be argued as the most interesting character in the book because we get to see her evolve. She went to the Hubermann's as a quiet, skinny, and uneducated little girl and now she is coming into her own. She's a great reader and writer and has developed people skills that can only be learned with time. Her stay so far at the Hubermann's has been nothing but beneficial and was basically life changing for her.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely hard to transition from one life to another. I defintely agree that Liesel is very srtong mentally and physically. Especailly during hard times its very crucial to her to stay strong and continue on, but still have memories to reflect on.
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