Survivors Guilt

In The Book Thief, both Liesel and Max suffer from nightmares every night. Liesel's nightmares are about the train her brother's death took place on. Max has nightmares about the day he said goodbye to his family (Zusak 220). Max and Liesel both suffer from survivors guilt. "I'm so selfish," explained Max, "leaving my people behind. coming here. Putting all of you in danger" (Zusak 218). Max clearly has the feeling of guilt. Other than the death of Warner, Liesel doesn't too much express her guilty feelings.

I've never personally experienced survivor's guilt but I'm very close to a person who has. My mother still suffers from guilt in her past. About ten years ago my aunt Kellee which is my mothers sister died. Kellee suffered from severe depression during her lifetime. My mother and aunt were very close sisters. My mom still loves to tell us stories about their childhood together. The way my mother tells it, my aunt was sort of like the boy who cried wolf. Kellee threatened to kill herself numerous of times until my mother eventually disbelieved her. The next thing she knew she had gotten a phone call that her sister was dead. It took a while for it to register and for her to believe what she was hearing. Come to find out, my aunt Kellee committed suicide and all my mother could think was "she should have known." For the last ten years my mother has blamed herself for the death of her sister. She knows that if she would have just listened she could have saved her sisters life.

Work Cited:

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.

Young Thieves

In The Book Thief Liesel and Rudy are involved with two young boys named Arthur berg, and Otto Strum. Arthur Berg is the leader of a thieving group of young boys (Zusak 150). Liesel and Rudy get involved with Arthur because they know the group of boys don't go hungry for long. Rudy's hunger and Liesel's love for her friend drove them to thievery with the group of young boys (Zusak 150).

Otto Sturm is a boy from Liesel and Rudy's school (Zusak 162). Rudy and Liesel noticed Otto doing the same exact things week after week. For a month they watched Otto ride his bike to church carrying goods to the priest (Zusak 162). They decided to set him up. "All those priests are too fat anyway," Rudy explained, "they could go without a feed for a week or so." Liesel could only agree, she was just as hungry as Rudy (Zusak 162). It was a frosty week in October when Rudy poured water on the road right where Otto turned the corner. Their plan to set up Otto for his goods was successful. As soon as Otto turned the corner he fell face down on the road (Zusak 163). Rudy went strait for the goods. The goods they retrieved were bread, eggs, and ham and they were very much grateful.

I do believe it's possible for people to be bad and good at the same time. For instance, the kids in The Book Thief are stealing food simply to survive their own hunger. At the same time, they're also taking from someone else. I can't necessarily relate to these young thieves. I've never had to steal for survival. I can definitely put myself in their shoes, and I can surely understand their ways.

Work Cited:

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.

The Mayor's Library

Liesel clearly has a strong love for books and reading throughout The Book Thief. In this chapter of the book (The Mayor's Library), Liesel hesitated to take the washing to the Mayor's house because she knew that the Mayor's wife witnessed her stealing a book (Zusak 131). Once she returned the washing a few times to the Mayor's home and nothing was said, Liesel was very relieved (Zusak 132).


The next time Liesel went to to deliver washing to the Mayor's wife, she motioned Liesel to come in, when Liesel refused the Mayor's wife told her to "wait." When the Mayor's wife returned she was holding a stack of books in front of her. As Liesel followed, all she could think was she would be tortured by the woman (Zusak 133).


"Jesus, Mary," Liesel said aloud when the Mayor's wife opened a door to a room filled of books (Zusak 134). "It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel had ever seen" (Zusak 133). "Liesel ran her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernails gliding across the spinal cord of each book. It felt like magic, like beauty, as bright lines of light shone down from the chandelier" (Zusak 135).
Liesel couldn't believe her eyes, or the excitement she felt as she let each book glide across her hand.


I didn't grow up having a strong love for something as Liesel did, but I certainly have been inspired to learn and try something new. As a young girl growing up I attended church and often heard the word fasting. I always thought it just meant to starve yourself, and never understood the real meaning of it. Recently my sister and I decided to do a little research on fasting because my question was, "why would God want us to starve ourselves?" Once we did some research, and asked different people what their understanding of it was, I had a big inspiration to try it myself. I learned that not only is fasting a self discipline act, but it's also the cleansing of your body and mind. Fasting is also an act to become closer to God. So far I've fasted once, for a period of 5 days. I do believe that it helps a great deal and will continue to fast in the future.

Work Cited:

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.

The Feeling Of Abandonment

Liesel feels a great deal of abandonment in "The Book Thief." I would definitely say Liesel was abandoned by circumstance and not by the heart.

Liesel's brother Werner died a sickly death. Liesel was in total disbelief of her brothers death (Zusak 23). The only thing Liesel could think while trying to dig up her brother is "he couldn't be dead," (Zusak 25). You can only imagine how the young girl felt losing her brother and having to deal with those painful burdens. She also fears moving to a new place and living with new foster parents. Their mother couldn't provide the children's needs, such as food and education(Zusak 25). I don't think Liesel's mother wanted to abandon her children but she knew what was best for them.

I've had the feeling of abandonment at a young age. I lived with my mother growing up and visited my father and step-mother occasionally. I used to dread having to visit my dad because of the way I was mistreated. Around this time my mother had to attend rehab for alcoholism. She had no choice but to send my siblings and me to our individual fathers house. I remember feeling so alone and angry at my mother for leaving me. The fact that I couldn't even talk to her made me feel worse, like she'd never come back for me. I know now that it was all for the best. I don't think I've had the feeling of being abandoned since.



Work Cited:
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.

Joseph Mueller's Survival Story

Joseph Muscha Mueller was born to Gypsy parents in Bitterfeld, Germany. He started his first year of his life in an orphanage. When Joseph was born there were about 26,000 Gypsies from different tribes living in Germany. Most the Gypsies were German citizens but still had to go through a great deal of harassment. When Joseph was a year and a half he was taken into foster care, which is the same time the Nazi party became powerful. When Joseph went to school he was physically and mentally harassed by students that were members of the Hitler youth movement. Joseph was taken from class by two strangers who said he had "appendicitis" which is inflammation of the appendix, they said he needed surgery right away. He disagreed and was beaten then forcibly sterilized and put in surgery. When he recovered he was planned to be sent to a concentration camp called Bergen Belsen. His foster father found a way to get him smuggled out of the hospital an hid him. Joseph ended up surviving the war by hiding in a garden shed for five months idcard.pdf(application/pdf Object) (United States Memorial Council).

Joseph's story really made me interested because I think it's amazing that a 12 year old boy can go through all these hardships and still find the strength to make it through. The fact that he had to hide out in a shed for five months is incredible to me. I knew that in World War II there were Gypsies that were also mistreated but I didn't realize there were that many. I definitely think I can come close to relating to Joseph's story.

Myself, And my two younger sisters that suffered the abuse

When I was about eight years old my younger siblings and I were mentally and sexually abused by a step-uncle. I remember being very afraid when my younger siblings and I had to visit my grandmothers house where he lived. I also had to be strong for my sisters because I knew they didn't know what was going on, and at the time I was threatened not to tell. My grandmother has been paralyzed since we could remember so she had no idea what was happening. This had been going on for maybe two months when I couldn't take it anymore, I told him that I was going to tell my parents and that this would stop. What scared me is that he laughed at me like it was a joke when I said it. The next time we visited, our grandmother had to go to the doctors and my stepmother was taking her. I knew that we had to hide or things would only be worse this time. I took both of my sisters to a crawl space in the attic and hid until I could hear my stepmothers voice again. We were hidden for about two and a half hours and everyone was confused as to why we were hiding and looked scared to death. After I told my parents everything that was going on my mother took it to court. My mother always told me I was a very strong, brave girl for protecting my sisters the way I did. I do not dwell on what has happened in my past or look for sympathy, I know that I simply survived!

Work Cited:
United States Memorial Council. "Identification cards" Division of Education Resources for the
       Classroom. USHMM.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum N.D. Web. 14 Sep. 2010.