Justin Depina

04/14/14
The Book Thief

Words Can Change Your Life
Most people think words are just simple things used to communicate with others.
At times this is true but words can have power behind then, the power to change the lives of
people who hear them. In the book The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the power of words is
shown throughout the story and it affects characters in different ways, causing them to change
for better or worse. Words affect the choices each character makes in the book and how they
react to the people around them like the main character Liesel who lost her family because of
hitler's words , her father Hans with a kind heart, and even her friend Max who is a jew on the
run.
Liesel Meminger is affected by the power of words in many ways. Words cause
her to lose loved ones, but sometimes to gain new ones. Each word has an effect on her and
changes who she is,even when she doesn't notice it herself. In the opening of the book, Liesel,
her brother, and mother are on a train going to their new foster home. On the way there Liesels
brother dies suddenly and they have a funeral for him. During his funeral, Liesel sees a book and
takes it since this would be a last memento from her brother. The book gives her the strength to
keep moving on since before she was in disbelief of his death and refused to believe it, it seemed
she was on the brink of breaking down but it helped her through it.Still in disbelief, she started
to dig. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't(Zusak 23). Near the end of the
book, Liesel creates a friendship with the mayors wife Ilsa Hermann. Ilsa sees Liesel steal a book
from the Nazi book burning. Ever since that moment, they are connected and their friendship
grows. With good friendships, theyre always problems, but even through this they still are
connected. Toward the end of the novel, Ilsa gave Liesel a book to write her own words in. This
book and the words she would write in it ultimately saving her life. She survived because she
was sitting in a basement reading through her own life,checking for mistakes(Zusak 498). This
quote shows how while writing in the book given to her by Ilsa ends up saving her from the
bombing going on outside and without it she would have been killed.Words play a great role in
the life of Liesel. They show her the way when all seems lost to her, and even connect her with
people like Ilsa Hermann.
Another person who is affected by the power of words is Max. In this time, Max is a Jew
and because of Hitler, the word Jew causes much pain to people and Max himself. In the
beginning of the book, when Max is first being introduced, Death talks about how during the
start of the war Germans turned on the Jews living there and started taking them away because of
this, Max has to hide from the Nazis to aviod capture and possibly death. Knowing she couldn't
save herself, Maxs mom gives Max the address of Hans Hubermann, so that Max could save
himself. Because of the new meaning Hitler gives to the word Jew Max lost his family and
almost lost his life in the end. you find a small black room. In it sits a Jew. He is scum. He is
starving. He is afraid (Zusak 138). This quote shows that the power of the word Jew in this age
causes Max to hide in many places just to survive. Another time words plays a roll is when Max
is staying in Liesels basement then asks Liesel how it looks outside. The words Liesel tells him
about the outside world helps him stay positive and even helps the friendship between them
grow. You can see the growth because in the beginning it took awhile for Liesel to trust Hans
with her dreams and such but it only took about a week or so to talk about personal things like
their families.Could you go up and tell me how the weather looks? (Zusak 249). Even though
at times words can destroy what is around you and make you fall in a pit of despair, at other
times they can be the light to lead you to new people who will care for you.

The last person to be affected by the power of words is Hans Huberman. Hans is a good
hearted man who knows whats right from wrong. However, in this time the words of Hitler have
spread and become the words of the people. The words Hans tells helps people helps comfort
them, but to some others, it can be seen as something negative. In the beginning of the book,
Liesel has just arrived in her new home and she is very afraid. Hans can see how shes feeling
and tries to comfort her. In doing so, he finds out the she cannot read and offers to read to her
and to help her create her own words by teaching her how to read. Shes reading he said. Papa
handed Liesel a steadfast smile and a wink. With me. Im teaching her(Zusak 69). This quote
shows that after bonding over reading they become good friends smiling at each other like good
friends do. In that time the Nazi party was growing and so the hatred towards the Jews grew to.
Nazi party members would destroy Jewish shops and write hurtful things on their homes. Hans
sees the injustice happening to the Jews and asks if they need help. He decides to repaint over the
hurtful things but this would cause more problems in the future since if you're not part of the
party then life will be a lot more difficult. Hans moved closer and stuck his head inside. Do
you need some help (Zusak 181). This quote shows how after he sees what the Nazis did to a
Jewish shop owner, he offers to help him.. Even though you may think certain things are wrong
and you try to help change that, its never that simple. When people latch onto one belief, no
matter how horrible, it can overshadow your beliefs. But even though it overshadowed Hans
belief he still knows what path he wants to walk down, and he wont let anything change that.
The power of words can have great effects on peoples lives. Even though some people
can't see it now the power of words of other people or even their own words are helping change
how you think and feel about things. In The Book Thief characters have to deal with this reality
and walk down the path those words lead you to. They even bring new people into your life like
it brought Max to the Hubermanns. For characters like Liesel it can lead to loss but it can also
lead to a gain.