“For a symbol is like a rock dropped into a pool: it sends out ripples in all directions, and the ripples are in motion.” (John Ciardi) The Book Thief author Markus Zusak has three older siblings and German and Austrian parents. Currently, he lives in New South Wales, Australia. Many of his inspirations started during this childhood. He grew up hearing stories about World War II, and his parents told him about bombings in Munich and Vienna. They told him about the red sky, which he incorporated in his book. Once, his mom saw a boy try to help a Jewish man by giving him bread, but a soldier caught them, took the bread away, and whipped them both. Zusak put a scene similar to this in his book when Liesel and Rudy were caught sharing bread with the Jews when they marched by. He also included a lot of symbolism in the story. Markus Zusak uses symbols such as the accordion and books as well as using colors to further express his feelings and explain the story of The Book Thief.
The first example of Zusak’s symbolism is the accordion which puts some light at the end of the tunnel for Liesel and her foster father, Hans, however it then becomes a reminder of Hans and her loss after he is killed. Because Hans often plays the accordion for Liesel, she’s now associated it with him. “Papa sat with me tonight. He brought the accordion down and sat close to where Max used to sit. I often look at his fingers and face when he plays. The accordion breathes. There are lines on his cheeks. They look drawn on, and for some reason, when I see them, I want to cry. It is not for any sadness or pride. I just like the way they move and change. Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.” (pg. 527) When Hans plays the accordion, Liesel feels comfort because of her foster father's patience and acceptance of her. It distracts her from all the negativity around her and lets her focus on the soothing notes of the instrument. The accordion also makes her feel safe; she knows that when the accordion is around so is Hans, who protects her. Hans leaves for Essen and leaves the accordion behind, which becomes a symbol of Hans to Rosa. “It took longer than she expected for her eyes to adjust, and when they did, there was no denying the fact that Rosa Hubermann was sitting on the edge of the bed with her husband’s accordion tied to her chest. Her fingers hovered above the keys. She did not move. She didn’t even appear to be breathing.” (pg. 428-429) Even though Rosa seems mad and angry with Hans, this shows that she truly cares about him. The accordion serves as a reminder of gentle, loving Hans for Rosa. When Liesel finds the accordion after the bombing, it is a reminder of loss, but it also holds many memories and stories. “And I can promise you something, because it was a thing I saw many years later-a vision in the book thief herself-that as she knelt next to Hans Hubermann, she watched him stand and play the accordion. He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses and played the accordion with kindness silver eyes and even a cigarette slouched on his lips. He even made a mistake and laughed in lovely hindsight. The bellows breathed and the tall man played for Liesel Meminger one last time as the sky was slowly taken from the stove.” (pg. 538) Every time Liesel will look at the accordion she will be saddened by Hans’ absence but will be comforted by the good times she had with her foster father. She will be reminded of all the times that she was calmed by the accordion during times of suffering. It also gives her hope because, like Liesel, it survived the bombing. The accordion continuously came up throughout the book to demonstrate the mood of what was going on and was there through the good and bad times.
The next meaningful symbol is the books which demonstrate resistance, relates to the people reading them, and most importantly brings joy. One example of this is when Max discovers the key for Hans' house in Mein Kampf. “In front of him, he read from the copy of Mein Kampf.” (pg. 157) “ The key was still taped to the inside cover.” (pg. 158) Max and Hans are resisting the Nazi party, and this is shown through the book that they use to hide the supplies that Max needs to travel to the Hubermanns. It is ironic that they use Mein Kampf, since it is the book that Hitler, the leader of the Nazi regime, wrote. Books continue to show resistance when Max paints over the words and creates a story, kind of like he’s painting over the Nazi rules and making his own story. As Liesel and Hans were walking home, Liesel was able to sneak a book from the pile of burned Jewish belongings. “The Germans loved to burn things. Shops, synagogues, Reichstags, houses, personal items, slain people, and of course, books.” (pg.84) For the Nazis, books are symbolic of the people reading them, and therefore, they destroy Jewish books like they destroy Jewish people. It makes them feel powerful and better than they really are. By Liesel stealing one of these books, it shows she is against the Nazis and their ideas. Isla Hermann, whom Liesel picks up laundry for, oftentimes allows Liesel to come into her library and read. “She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen. With wonder, she smiled. That such a room existed!” (pg. 134) Whenever Liesel went to Isla Hermann’s house and read books from her library, she found pleasure in this time of darkness. She’s able to read about other people’s difficulties and accomplishments and escape from reality. They also took her mind off of any stresses she was having and focus on the book she was reading. Books clearly are a large part of this story since they’re in the title, and they connect the book being read to what is happening in the story.
The final symbol in the story is the colors. A few of the characters, especially Death uses colors as a distraction, to express the mood, and show the connection between a person’s death and the world they lived in. When Death is directly talking to us, he tells us the reason he looks in the perspective of colors is to distract himself. “As I've been alluding to, my one saving grace is distraction. It keeps me sane. It helps me cope, considering the length of time I've been performing this job. ”He especially likes to look at the colors of the sky and watch them change throughout the day. Death sometimes even tells the time by the color instead of the hour. By doing this, it appears that it helps take the stress off of his job when he sees things in color; it makes it seem less brutal. Liesel is on her way to her new home with her foster parents when Death narrates the mood of the girl. “The day was gray, the color of Europe.” (pg. 27) Gray is often associated with depression, which is probably the exact feeling that Liesel was having when she was preparing to meet her new parents. Death may also be foreshadowing that something may happen that’s depressing in the future. Gray also symbolizes sadness, which Liesel was likely feeling because her brother just passed away and she had to leave her mom and is going to live with people she’s never met before. Death foreshadows the end of the book and describes the colors he associates with Liesel.
(Look above)Red is for the Himmel Street bombing, and Liesel is the only survivor. "The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness." (pg. 12) White represents Werner, her brother, buried in white snow. "It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, foot-prints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice." (pg. 6) Black is symbolizing when Liesel and Rudy witnessed the plane crash and the pilot dying. "Next is a signature black, to show the poles of my versatility, if you like. It was the darkest moment before the dawn. This time, I had come for a man of perhaps twenty-four years of age. It was a beautiful thing in some ways. The plane was still coughing. Smoke was leaking from both its lungs." (pg.9) Color plays an important role in the story because the reader is able to look at the situations from a different view point.
Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, uses symbols such as the accordion and books as well as using colors to further express his feelings and explain The Book Thief. Zusak heard many stories about World War II and in his mind created symbolism, so the reader would get a better sense of his emotions and feelings about the characters. "Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt egerneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.” (Alfred North Whitehead)
The first example of Zusak’s symbolism is the accordion which puts some light at the end of the tunnel for Liesel and her foster father, Hans, however it then becomes a reminder of Hans and her loss after he is killed. Because Hans often plays the accordion for Liesel, she’s now associated it with him. “Papa sat with me tonight. He brought the accordion down and sat close to where Max used to sit. I often look at his fingers and face when he plays. The accordion breathes. There are lines on his cheeks. They look drawn on, and for some reason, when I see them, I want to cry. It is not for any sadness or pride. I just like the way they move and change. Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.” (pg. 527) When Hans plays the accordion, Liesel feels comfort because of her foster father's patience and acceptance of her. It distracts her from all the negativity around her and lets her focus on the soothing notes of the instrument. The accordion also makes her feel safe; she knows that when the accordion is around so is Hans, who protects her. Hans leaves for Essen and leaves the accordion behind, which becomes a symbol of Hans to Rosa. “It took longer than she expected for her eyes to adjust, and when they did, there was no denying the fact that Rosa Hubermann was sitting on the edge of the bed with her husband’s accordion tied to her chest. Her fingers hovered above the keys. She did not move. She didn’t even appear to be breathing.” (pg. 428-429) Even though Rosa seems mad and angry with Hans, this shows that she truly cares about him. The accordion serves as a reminder of gentle, loving Hans for Rosa. When Liesel finds the accordion after the bombing, it is a reminder of loss, but it also holds many memories and stories. “And I can promise you something, because it was a thing I saw many years later-a vision in the book thief herself-that as she knelt next to Hans Hubermann, she watched him stand and play the accordion. He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses and played the accordion with kindness silver eyes and even a cigarette slouched on his lips. He even made a mistake and laughed in lovely hindsight. The bellows breathed and the tall man played for Liesel Meminger one last time as the sky was slowly taken from the stove.” (pg. 538) Every time Liesel will look at the accordion she will be saddened by Hans’ absence but will be comforted by the good times she had with her foster father. She will be reminded of all the times that she was calmed by the accordion during times of suffering. It also gives her hope because, like Liesel, it survived the bombing. The accordion continuously came up throughout the book to demonstrate the mood of what was going on and was there through the good and bad times.
The next meaningful symbol is the books which demonstrate resistance, relates to the people reading them, and most importantly brings joy. One example of this is when Max discovers the key for Hans' house in Mein Kampf. “In front of him, he read from the copy of Mein Kampf.” (pg. 157) “ The key was still taped to the inside cover.” (pg. 158) Max and Hans are resisting the Nazi party, and this is shown through the book that they use to hide the supplies that Max needs to travel to the Hubermanns. It is ironic that they use Mein Kampf, since it is the book that Hitler, the leader of the Nazi regime, wrote. Books continue to show resistance when Max paints over the words and creates a story, kind of like he’s painting over the Nazi rules and making his own story. As Liesel and Hans were walking home, Liesel was able to sneak a book from the pile of burned Jewish belongings. “The Germans loved to burn things. Shops, synagogues, Reichstags, houses, personal items, slain people, and of course, books.” (pg.84) For the Nazis, books are symbolic of the people reading them, and therefore, they destroy Jewish books like they destroy Jewish people. It makes them feel powerful and better than they really are. By Liesel stealing one of these books, it shows she is against the Nazis and their ideas. Isla Hermann, whom Liesel picks up laundry for, oftentimes allows Liesel to come into her library and read. “She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen. With wonder, she smiled. That such a room existed!” (pg. 134) Whenever Liesel went to Isla Hermann’s house and read books from her library, she found pleasure in this time of darkness. She’s able to read about other people’s difficulties and accomplishments and escape from reality. They also took her mind off of any stresses she was having and focus on the book she was reading. Books clearly are a large part of this story since they’re in the title, and they connect the book being read to what is happening in the story.
The final symbol in the story is the colors. A few of the characters, especially Death uses colors as a distraction, to express the mood, and show the connection between a person’s death and the world they lived in. When Death is directly talking to us, he tells us the reason he looks in the perspective of colors is to distract himself. “As I've been alluding to, my one saving grace is distraction. It keeps me sane. It helps me cope, considering the length of time I've been performing this job. ”He especially likes to look at the colors of the sky and watch them change throughout the day. Death sometimes even tells the time by the color instead of the hour. By doing this, it appears that it helps take the stress off of his job when he sees things in color; it makes it seem less brutal. Liesel is on her way to her new home with her foster parents when Death narrates the mood of the girl. “The day was gray, the color of Europe.” (pg. 27) Gray is often associated with depression, which is probably the exact feeling that Liesel was having when she was preparing to meet her new parents. Death may also be foreshadowing that something may happen that’s depressing in the future. Gray also symbolizes sadness, which Liesel was likely feeling because her brother just passed away and she had to leave her mom and is going to live with people she’s never met before. Death foreshadows the end of the book and describes the colors he associates with Liesel.
(Look above)Red is for the Himmel Street bombing, and Liesel is the only survivor. "The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness." (pg. 12) White represents Werner, her brother, buried in white snow. "It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, foot-prints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice." (pg. 6) Black is symbolizing when Liesel and Rudy witnessed the plane crash and the pilot dying. "Next is a signature black, to show the poles of my versatility, if you like. It was the darkest moment before the dawn. This time, I had come for a man of perhaps twenty-four years of age. It was a beautiful thing in some ways. The plane was still coughing. Smoke was leaking from both its lungs." (pg.9) Color plays an important role in the story because the reader is able to look at the situations from a different view point.
Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, uses symbols such as the accordion and books as well as using colors to further express his feelings and explain The Book Thief. Zusak heard many stories about World War II and in his mind created symbolism, so the reader would get a better sense of his emotions and feelings about the characters. "Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt egerneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.” (Alfred North Whitehead)