What is the significance of the books liesel steals

A man brings him carrots, stale bread, and a piece of fat, and tells Max he may have gotten him an identity card. When the man leaves, Max eats a portion of the food and resumes his wait. She finds a book on the shelf with the name Johann Hermann written inside. Frau Hermann tells her that he was her son, and he died on the battlefield during World War I. Liesel tells Frau Hermann she is sorry for her loss.

When she is not reading with Hans or delivering laundry, Liesel plays soccer with Rudy. Because of wartime rationing, Rudy and Liesel rarely have enough to eat and are hungry all the time. They fall in with a gang of kids who steal apples from an orchard on the outskirts of town. The first time they steal apples, Liesel eats six in a row, and later gets sick, though she considers the upset stomach worth it.

Frau Diller mocks them for only being able to afford one small piece of candy, which they share, lick for lick, outside the shop. Meaning, it leads to Liesel losing two of the most important people in her life. When Liesel is writing, Hans is back home, but Liesel doesn't know if Max is alive. The use of the dictionary definitions in this section highlight the fact that Liesel is searching, anguishing over the right words to use in telling this most painful part of her story.

As you'll notice, sometimes the words and the definitions fail. When Max leaves the house, there is " Schweigen —Silence" Fair enough, but it's with the "Related words: […] calmness, peace " Again, we see her awareness of words and their nuances sharpening as her character deepens and becomes more defined. So, in addition to a gesture of friendship, Ilsa Herman is giving Liesel tools to pursue her calling as a word shaker when she gives her the dictionary. There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if he were empty.

That's a quote from The Last Human Stranger. We don't know much more about it other than that it's the last book that Liesel steals from the mayor's library. Of course, the title and the quote do tell us plenty. They sum up how Liesel is feeling as the number of days since Max left pile up, and as she finally lets go of the nightmare of Werner.

She's frustrated with her world and is having trouble keeping up hope. Each Jewish person walking is a stranger—surrounded by people but all alone. Similarly, people publicly resisting—even with something as small as a crust of bread—are strangers in a crowd of indifference.

Being strange in this context means being alone, being lonely, being alienated, being hungry and cold, as so many people are during these times. But, being strange also means looking for unusual ways to cope in the strange world. But what does it mean to be the last human stranger? We think it could mean a few things. First a hopeful one—once the last human stranger is no longer strange, no human will be strange to any other human.

But there's another way you could look at it. Assuming that all humans are strangers, when the last human stranger is dead, there will be no more humans. Put another way, if Hitler succeeded in killing all the people on his current strange list, he would make another list, and then another, until nobody's left. The complexity of this book's title alone alludes to the growing complexity of Liesel's way of looking at and living in the world, in addition her loneliness and alienation.

It almost always conjures images of Max. The book prepares her to make contact with him, at all costs, when she sees him marching to Dachau after being captured by the Nazis. In that scene, we see Liesel risk her life when she tries to follow him. This is a complicated moment for her. On the one hand, she's being brave and making a stand against injustice.

On the other hand, her behavior could have cost her and Max their lives. Luckily, Rudy intervenes. The irony here, of course, is that Max survives the war and Rudy does not. The Book Thief is the name of the book Liesel writes over the period leading up to the bombing of Himmel Street. It's the book Death rescues from the garbage and returns to Liesel when she dies. It's the book that literally saves her life. If she hadn't been editing it in the basement on the night of the Himmel Street bombing, she would have died along with everybody else.

The concentration Liesel summons points again to her strength of character. Her ability to find a positive outlet for her emotions also says a lot about her. Of course, she didn't just decide to write a book all on her own. She has a little help from Ilsa Hermann. This points to the irony of the title. Ilsa gives her the blank book after Liesel has given up book thievery and books in general.

Though we're sure she reads again, her book marks her graduation from reader to serious author. She walks home, the book still burning against her chest. The book burning against Liesel's chest acts as a symbol for the physical effects that words can have.

Words burn themselves into the mind, and they can incite a person to action. The fact that three books survived the bonfire symbolizes for Liesel that, no matter how extreme the Nazi Party's actions are in trying to rid the world of words and ideas they do not agree with, those words and ideas will always survive and are worth fighting for.

She starts to mature emotionally and to be kinder and more understanding of those around her. This change is highlighted by her friendship with Max. She becomes his caretaker, and again we see this role symbolized by her relationship with books: She often reads to him, using books as a way to comfort him. On the other hand, when Frau Hermann stops using Rosa to do her washing and Liesel feels powerless to do anything, she begins stealing books from the Hermann library as a way of reclaiming the power she feels was taken from her and her family.

Ultimately books become a refuge for Liesel and a way for her to exercise some control of her own in the midst of the highly controlling Nazi regime and the chaos of war.

Liesel, however, grows her own tree and takes shelter in it. Nobody can chop it down, but Max is able to climb it and take shelter there with her.