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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Book Thief (Continued)


I am currently about halfway through The Book Thief and a lot of new characters have been introduced. For example this character is known as “the new Arthur Berg” because he replaced the former leader of Liesel and Rudy’s stealing clan. His name is Viktor Chemmel, a ruthless, snotty and greedy rich boy is named the new leader of the fruit stealing boys; plus Liesel of course. Viktor refers to Liesel as “whore”, for example he says things like; “He then turned his casual focus on the girl. ‘Who’s the little whore?’” (Zusak 273). Just from that simple phrase I completely dislike this character. The author then goes on to describe him more in comparison to the old leader, Arthur Berg. “Last year, she knew that is she was stuck in a tree, Arthur would come back for her, despite claiming otherwise, This year, by comparison, she was instantly aware that Viktor Chemmel wouldn’t even bother to look back,” (Zusak 274). So Viktor is nothing but a selfish little devil, in my opinion at least. Stealing has become a fundamental part of survival for Rudy and Liesel; times were rough and they both are starving. So it’s important that they get enough to eat. However, they only get one apple to share between the both of them, and Rudy argues with Viktor so he kicks them both out of the little stealing group.

As Rudy’s death is still foreshadowed I am waiting achingly for the moment to come. Will he starve? Will he get beaten to death? Those are just some of the questions I’m asking myself as I go on to read about this marvelous character Rudy Steiner. He goes to a place called Hitler Youth and always gets in trouble so his teacher makes him do extra work. Hitler Youth is kind of like a military school so basically like a gym class. He comes back with cow poo on him and that’s the last straw for Rudy Steiner. He claims that he needs “a win” which means he needs to steal something. Liesel decides that they can steal from the mayor’s house. The mayor’s wife did fire her mama and Liesel was so furious about this that she yelled at the poor mayor’s wife. This was a huge turning point in the book and for Liesel’s character. It shows the round character she was become. She says, “’You think you can buy me off with this book?” then later she goes on and says, “its about time that you do your own stinking washing anyway. It’s about time you faced the fact that your son is dead. He got killed! He got strangled and cut up more than twenty years ago! Or did he freeze to death? Either way, he’s dead! And its pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it. You think you’re the only one?’”  (Zusak 262). The mentality and brutal words that spread out of Liesel’s mouth is unlike anything I’ve ever heard her say before and it really shows how she has changed and developed emotionally as a character. She used to be such a sweet, quiet, innocent girl and now she is yelling at an adult who let her read and kept her secret of stealing books. What is to come of her next? What will happen if someone finds out she has been hiding a Jew?

2 comments:

  1. You did a great job explaining the book so far. From what I have read in your blog, The Book Thief is next on my books to read. I liked how you summarized what you have read so far in the book and I also like how you state some of the questions you ask yourself as you read through the book. Keep up the good work!

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  2. I really liked your voice in this post, especially because you talked about the questions you had while summarizing. I can tell you that all of your questions will be answered and I really hope you enjoy the rest of the book!

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