The Book Thief

The book that I'm going to write about is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This book shows many morals in all of the characters, because it took place in such a hard time these morals are easy to see. Each character has their own values that guide their lives and growing up during WWI and WWII, where there is so much hate, each characters have their own values they are easy to see in their everyday actions. For Liesel it is the way that she refuses to judge people or single them out because they might be different. Rudy, Liesel's friend,  shows his morals in a way that proves he knows that after a certain number of times, taking things that are not yours is wrong. Hans Hubberman, Liesel's adoptive father,  proves that his morals when he rejects the Nazi party and hides a Jew, Max, in his basement, he believes that he owes a friend and that because he helped him then Hans should help his family.

          Liesel Meminger believes in people being equal. As one of her morals she does not understand why, especially Hitler, people do not like each other because of who they are or what they believe in. When she discovers that her parents were communists and taken away by Hitler to the concentration camps she does not believe it or understand why, and she never gives up on trying to find her mother and never stops writing. She also does not understand why Hitler does not like the Jews and singles them out, she likes Max and when he stays with her she enjoys talking to him and reading to him. Liesel’s morals show how she believes that everyone is equal and should be treated that way.

          Rudy Steiner believes in standing up for his friends, like Tommy Mueller, when anyone tried to make fun of him because of his stutter Rudy stood up to them because he knew that pointing out other’s flaws in a mocking tone is wrong. Also he knows that stealing is wrong, he has only done it a few times and he knows when it is time to stop or it is too far. When he stole a potato from the grocery store he only took one because he had nothing else to eat, but when Liesel wanted to steal from the boy on the bike again Rudy stopped her because he knew that taking food from him a second time because it was easy would be the wrong thing to do.

          Hans Hubberman is a kind and decent man with excellent life morals. He disagreed with Hitler from the beginning when he started to target Jews. He did not believe that a certain race should be targeted and for that reason waited until a later point until he signed up for the Nazi Party, also why he never showed that much support for Hitler, when he bought a copy of Mein Kampf he bought a very old and used copy and never read it. Hans Hubberman strongly disagreed with Hitler’s views because it was a Jew who saved his life. During WWI in one of the battles, Han’s friend volunteered him to stay back and write letters for the general and on that day everyone died besides Hans because he was left at camp. He was always grateful to his friend, Erik Vandenberg, because he believed he saved his life and, with his morals guiding him, he told Erik’s wife that if she ever needed anything that he could help and he did help in the later years when Erik’s son, Max, went to Hans to hide from the Nazi’s in the Hubberman’s basement.

In a nutshell, I learnt a lot from this book. I really suggest that all of you read it too,

Shairashree