Mortality

             The first book Liesel steals is The Grave-Digger’s Handbook. It reminds her of her brother who died in front of her, and frankly it’s a morbid subject: how to bury a dead body. The author obviously chose each book for a reason, and this one is meant to signify a depressed, scared, death-filled time in Liesel’s life. One of the next books she gets is The Whistler, which is about a murderer. When she finishes it, Hans remarks that it’s pretty dark for her to have been reading. It reminds you of how living in Nazi Germany and having lost her family has taken her innocence too early. In some aspects she is still an innocent child but she has seen more death than she ever should have and in that aspect she is less innocent than she might have been growing up in a happy, healthy home all her life. The murderous subject creeped her out, but it didn’t scar her. It also keeps us focused on death, which is a primary subject of the book. The Book Thief is even narrated by Death, which is another way the author reminds us that these characters are constantly avoiding death, which is a very real thing. Humans are as mortal as it gets, and sometimes people die. That idea is constantly present throughout this book.