Liesel's Emotional Journey Through the Book Thief Anonymous

“It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery” (Zusak 5). And of course, there is Death. Set in Nazi Germany during the 1900s, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is told in the first-person point of view of Death as he narrates the unforgettable story of Liesel Meminger. Liesel is a young German girl who faces the inevitable pains of growing up in a time of war. Her emotional journey is one that begins with a journey. It is to thirty-three Himmel Street, Molching where a new life awaits her. Naturally, everyone changes in some way during an emotional journey, and Liesel is no different. There are three main components in Liesel’s emotional journey that will change her significantly; friendships, deaths, and words.

When Liesel first arrives at her new foster parents’ home on thirty-three Himmel Street, she is friendless, desolate, and possesses only a small suitcase and a stolen book. “Liesel knew that.{...} No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment. Nothing changed the fact that she was a lost, skinny child in another foreign...