“It's just a little story, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordion player, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish boxer, and a quite a lot of theft” (Zusak 5). And of course there is Death. Set in Nazi Germany during the 1900s, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is told from Death's first-person point of view as he tells the unforgettable story of Liesel Meminger. Liesel is a young German girl dealing with the inevitable pains of growing up in wartime. His emotional journey is one that begins with a journey. She is at number 33 Himmelstrasse, in Molching, where a new life awaits her. Of course, everyone changes in some way during an emotional journey, and Liesel is no different. There are three main components to Liesel's emotional journey that will change her significantly; friendships, deaths and words. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayWhen Liesel first arrives at her new adoptive parents' house at Himmelstrasse 33, she is friendless, desolate, and possesses only a small suitcase and a stolen book. “Liesel knew it.{...} No matter how many times she was told she was loved, no one recognized that the proof was in the abandonment. Nothing changed the fact that she was a skinny little girl lost in another foreign place, with more foreign people. Alone” (Zusak 32). Despite this, it isn't long before Liesel begins to accept her new surroundings and make new friends. From the beginning, Liesel is immediately loved by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, even if they both show it in a strange way. For Rosa it involves hitting Liesel with a wooden spoon and words at various intervals. For Hans it was the act of not leaving. And it's no surprise that Liesel immediately warms to her new father. “{...}he imagined the smell, imprinted on his father's clothes. More than anything, it was the smell of friendship{...}.”(Zusak 72).Hans Hubermann was a painter by profession, an accordionist by heart and, above all, he was an honest and moral man. “In 1933, 90% of Germans showed unwavering support for Adolf Hitler. That leaves 10% who didn't. Hans Hubermann belonged to the 10%. There was a reason for that” (Zusak 63). That is, a Jew had once saved his life and he couldn't forget it. Namely, he was a man named Erik Vandenburg who had a son, Max, before he died. And as the terror of the Jews worsened turbulently, Max's only hope became the help of the Hubermanns. During the time he hid at the Hubermanns' house, Max and Liesel became friends. Even though one was a Jewish boxer and the other a German book thief, Max and Liesel quickly realized that they had things in common. “Liesel, in the act of watching, was already noticing the similarities between herself and this stranger. Both arrived agitated on Himmelstrasse. They both had nightmares” (Zusak 206). They are also both victims of Hitler's hatred, because Liesel's parents were communists and they both had a loving respect for words. However, Liesel's greatest friend is Rudy Steiner, her neighbor, accomplice and, ultimately, her lover. «Rudy was always destined to become Liesel's best friend. A snowball in the face is definitely the perfect start to a lasting friendship” (Zusak 48). Through the friendships of Hans Hubermann, Max Vandenburg and Rudy Steiner, Liesel changes significantly. Each of these people taps into Liesel's emotions and influences her view of the world. Hans shows Liesel that it takes courage to stand up for something you believe in, knowing that there are consequences. Max made Liesel empathetic towards people in need and gave her a purpose in life because he helped herunderstand the power of words. Finally, Rudy shows her what true companionship and love is. Overall, each of them has given vital knowledge that changes it for the better. Another component that has a considerable impact on Liesel is death, particularly the death of her family and friends. With Death as the narrator and World War II in the background, it is evident that death is a central theme in the novel. The constant threat and fear of death, as well as its reality, were omnipresent in that period; and consequently, the omnipresence of death is also present in the novel. From the beginning of the book, our narrator foreshadows that Liesel's life will hold a great deal of adversity and loss. “I was about to leave when I found her kneeling there. A mountain range of rubble was written, drawn and erected around her.{...}I wanted to stop. Crouch down. I wanted to say to you: 'I'm sorry, daughter'" (Zusak 12-13). The mountain of rubble around Liesel symbolizes that she has many obstacles to overcome. In other words, Liesel “was a girl with a mountain to climb” (Zusak 86). One of the main obstacles that Liesel must overcome in the novel is the death of loved ones. “Of course, war meant dying, but it always shifted the ground beneath a person's feet when it involved someone who had once lived and breathed in the immediate vicinity” (Zusak 467). The first death Liesel experiences is that of her younger brother, Werner, as they sat on the train heading to their new adoptive parents' house in Molching. The unexpected death leaves Liesel devastated and tormented by nightmares for a significant period of time and causes her to lose some of her childhood innocence. Simply put, for the first time Liesel is exposed to the harsh and painful realities of life. Then, later, Hans Hubermann is accepted into the Nazi Party under the most unlikely conditions. However, it is soon followed by a letter stating that he will be drafted into the German army. Five days later, Alex Steiner, Rudy's father, discovers that he too has been sent to war as punishment for refusing to let Rudy attend a school that prepares boys to become Nazis. “'When they come to ask you for one of your children,' Barbara Steiner explained to no one in particular, 'you have to say yes'” (Zusak 419). Fortunately, neither Hans Hubermann nor Alex Steiner were sent to fight. Alex was sent to Austria where he mended uniforms, socks, shirts that needed mending. While Hans was sent to Stuttgart and then to Essen, where he was given one of the most undesirable posts on the home front? the LSE, otherwise known as Dead Body Collectors. Then one day in mid-February Liesel and Rosa receive a letter from their dad saying he was coming home because of a broken leg. For a while they rejoice. Dad comes home and all is well until October 7; the day Himmelstrasse was bombed and razed to the ground. That day, with the sirens and the cuckoo cry on the radio, it was too late. “Only one person survived. She survived because she was sitting in a basement reading her life story, checking for errors” (Zusak 498). When Liesel is rescued, she is desperate and overcome with grief over the deaths of her family and friends, especially her adoptive parents and the Steiner family. This is the point where she experiences a severe loss of innocence that causes her to grow up. He realizes that it's all about fate. Why should one person die and not the other? Why him and not me? The answer is simple. “No one expects these things. They don't plan for them” (Zusak 525). Later, when Alex Steiner returned home, he was wracked with remorse for not allowing Rudy to attend school. “Save someone. You kill them. How did he know?" (Zusak547). Thus, from the death of people dear to her, Liesel's thoughts mature substantially and she realizes that death is exclusively in the hands of fate. Finally, words are a crucial factor that changes Liesel on her emotional journey. Liesel is known as the book thief for a reason. I mean, he has an obsession with stealing books, and the first book he steals, The Gravedigger's Handbook, was stolen before he could even read it. Despite her inability to read, Liesel is determined. One night, Liesel has a bed-wetting accident and as Hans reaches to remove the sheets, he discovers her stolen book and asks her if she wants to read it. From then on, Dad teaches Liesel to read every night, one letter at a time, until she finally understands the meaning of the words. The second time Liesel steals a book is when she takes The Shrug from a bonfire on Hitler's birthday. “When she looked back, Liesel wasn't ashamed of having stolen it. Instead, it was pride that most resembled that little pool of feeling in his stomach. And it was anger and dark hatred that fueled his desire to steal it.{...}What was there to be angry about? In short, the answer traveled from Himmelstrasse, to the Führer, to the unfindable location of his true mother, and back” (Zusak 84). In other words, Liesel steals The Shrug as a way to get back at Hitler for stealing her parents. Hitler's act of theft was what caused the anger and dark hatred that fueled his desire to steal. The next book Liesel steals is The Whistler from Ilsa Hermann's library. Now, Rosa Hubermann washes and irons for some rich people in the city, including Ilsa and her husband who is the mayor. However, as times got tougher, Rosa began calling Liesel to pick up and deliver laundry in the hopes that her customers would be less likely to dismiss her with a thin, pale girl standing in front of them. In each case, one client after another abandons their services until Ilsa Hermann becomes the last client. Then, when Ilsa fires them too, Liesel feels immense anger and realizes for the first time how powerful words truly are. “'You and your husband. Sitting here." Now she has become spiteful. More spiteful and evil than she thought she was capable of. The hurt of words. Yes, the brutality of words. She summoned them from a place she only now recognized and hurled them at Ilsa Hermann. "It's about time ,” he informed her, “that you do your stinky laundry anyway. .}Cuts had opened and a series of wounds were emerging on the surface of his skin. All from Liesel's words” (Zusak 263). of revenge. Similar to The Shrug, Liesel does this as a way to take back something that was taken from her, namely her weekly access to Ilsa's library. However, not all the words Liesel had were One Christmas, after Max had left the Hubermanns' house because it was no longer a safe hiding place, and Hans was at war, Rosa decided that Liesel was ready and that it was time to give her Max's gift, The Word Shaker . From The Word Shaker, Liesel learns that words are what keeps the country under the power of Hitler and the Nazi Party. He concludes that the world did not deserve the beauty of words. “He tore a page out of the book and tore it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but fragments of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without words, the Führer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, there wouldn't be.