Liesel’s Gifts

            While Max is in a coma, Liesel brings him discarded items she finds. She gave him a ribbon, a pinecone, a button, even the image of a cloud. Her innocence and compassion are shown through these gifts; her innocence because only a child would think of such a thoughtful thing to do and believe that such an assortment would bring a dying man comfort, and her caring and compassion simply because she thought to give him anything at all. One item briefly mentioned is a toy soldier. “It was scratched and trodden, which, to Liesel, was the whole point. Even with the injury, it could still stand up” (Zusak 323). These two sentences reflect a significant theme in the book, that sometimes when someone has had misfortune, injury or misery in their life, they can still be happy because they don’t allow themselves to be beaten. The characters in this book, especially Max, have gone through a lot of hardship and misery, so this beat-up soldier that could still stand signified all of them- beat-up people, physically and emotionally, that can still live. Despite being impoverished, living in Nazi Germany, and having lost people they love, the characters are still able to get by and do so without wallowing in their misery. Hans Hubermann keeps painting and showing his daughter the world, Max stays in the basement without complaint, and Liesel steals books, plays soccer in the streets, and revels in the little victories of life. I thought it was profound the way Marcus Zusak dropped that in there and so quickly moved on, and it was brilliant how simply that theme was revealed using the thoughtful gift of a child to a dying man.

            This theme reminded me of Kintsugi, a Japanese method of repair where you fill the cracks in a broken ceramic piece with gold resin. The result is a beautiful bowl laced with gold lines. The idea is that the bowls are now even more beautiful because they were broken. There is such deep meaning to this idea, and it relates to this theme in The Book Thief. Even though misfortune befell these people and they were “cracked,” by healing the cracks in themselves they can become better than they were before. Just because you’ve been beaten doesn’t mean you can’t stand.
To read more about Kintsugi, visit http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/06/kintsugi-as-yoga-filling-the-cracks-with-gold-zo-newell/