Lesson 8

The Visitor by Markus Zusak

Answer these questions:

Read these lines from the text and answer the questions:
1. Think Liesel-She had it. That’s it, she decided that I have to
make it real.
a. What was Liesel planning? Why?
Ans: Liesel was trying to come up with a plan to excuse herself from
the children’s game under some pretext and run back to her home and
inform her parents about the NSDP members coming down the street
checking the basements in every house to check their viability for being
turned into air-raid shelters.
b. Why did she have to make it real?
Ans: She had to make it real because if the NSDP members grew the
slightest bit of suspicious from her actions, they would turn their house
inside out and finally discover the Jew. Liesel realised that her best shot
was maintaining all resemblances of normalcy and somehow getting the
information to her father.
2. Papa was strict, ‘Nothing, Why don’t even go down there-not a
care in the world?
a. What was Papa’s plan to prevent the Nazi from finding
Max?
Ans: At first Mama had considered moving Max from the basement to
Liesel’s room but then there was no time for that because the NSDP
were already at their door. Papa told them the only plan, given the
situation should be to do nothing and receive the party members as
naturally and cordially as they could.
 b. Why do you think he wanted to pretend as though they did
not have a care in the world?
Ans: Papa wanted them to pretend like they did not have ‘a care in the
world’ so that the NSDP members who had come to inspect the
basement in their house would not suspect that the Hubermanns had
anything to hide.
3. Liesel could not ward off the thought of Max-hugging it to his
chest.
a. Do you think Liesel and the Hubermanns were fond of
Max? Or were they only worried about being punished for
helping a Jew?
Ans: Liesel and her parents were fond of Max. Her parents had decided
to shelter a Jewish man on principle and had also grown to be fond of
him. Of course, they also lived with the fear of discovery of their deed as
well but the fact that the child in the family could empathize with Max’s
fear and helplessness hiding in plain sight in a room with NSDP
members, shows the extent of their concern for Max.
b. Can you find more examples from the text to support your
answer?
Ans: We see the Hubermann concern for Max from the very outset. This
was ever since Liesel’s throat dried up when she saw the NSDP
members coming down the road checking basements in every house.
Papa’s immediate action and his act of maintaining a ruse with very high
stakes is again proof of their fondness for Max who had almost become
a family member.