Symbol of Books

As the title has already suggested, one major component of this novel centers on books. Books are the primary drive of the plot. Books are first mentioned when Death remarks that he saw the book thief three times.

The first time, one of the gravediggers- a fourteen year old boy- had accidently dropped his book on the cold snowy ground. Minutes later The Grave digger’s Handbook was in the possession of Liesel Meminger, marking the date as the start of her book stealing career. Although Liesel had no prior education since she had often skipped school in her younger years she had absolutely no knowledge of reading but yet she still stole a book. I believe that at that time, she didn’t steal for the sake of stealing but for the sake of having something. When her brother died, it was like Liesel was left with nothing but an empty void. She needed something to hold on to; something to fill in that empty gap. And so she took the book as her only possession. The book was the only thing she had and it was also a symbol of remembrance to her dead brother. At that time when she had nothing to remember him by, the book was the only object that connected him to her. The sight where she first stole the book was also the sight where her brother had been buried. To Liesel the book served as a treasured memory. Even if she couldn’t read, the book was an important part of her.

Books also symbolize Liesel’s passion to improve and her achievement in this area. When she had first arrived at the Hubermann’s doorstep she was uneducated and could not read nor write. But after the humiliation of being place in a younger class and the sudden need to be able to read The Grave Digger’s Handbook, she begins to slowly advance. Her passion for this is shown through how she always manages to stay up into the late of night just to have reading lessons with her father. We can clearly see Liesel’s love of reading and the books that she soon devours afterwards are the merits of attaining her goal. However though, books seem to also be the root cause of her crimes (apart from stealing apples or potatoes from farmers or ham and eggs from priests).

Liesel’s passion for reading goes so far that she would steal her second book from a Nazi book-burning. Liesel’s obsession with book stealing though is rather ironic considering her place in Nazi Germany. At that time, books were mostly condemned and many were burned. However Liesel instead obsesses over them. They are her most prized possessions. In a country where the Fuhrer was everything, there was a girl who only loved books, her family, and friends. Not only that, but Liesel finds a strange merit in stealing books. To her stealing them is a twisted way of rightfully earning them.
“She couldn’t tolerate having it given to her by a lonely, pathetic woman. Stealing it, on the other hand, seemed a little more acceptable. Stealing it, in a sick kind of sense, was like earning it.”