Blog # 3 - The Book Thief

Liesel starts out in the story as a shy, scared little girl who feels abandoned by her mother, father, and brother who died on the train ride to Molching. As time goes by in Molching, we see Leisel develop as a person to where she forms strong bonds with people she had never had other than her mother. She becomes determined to learn to read and write and does so with the help of Hans Hubermann, her new father whom she loves and cares for deeply. She also develops a somewhat odd relationship with her mother, or rather a verbally abusive relationship that she grows to love. She learns how to play soccer and makes friends with Rudy Steiner who also obviously becomes sort of like her childhood sweetheart. She also begins to gather a collection of books from stealing. She stole a book from the book burning held in Molching and steals a few books from the Mayor's house. She also learns survival techniques such as stealing. Liesel and Rudy join Arthur Berg's thieving squad and become pretty craft thieves. She also realizes as she gets older why her mother had to leave her with the Hubermanns, because she was a communist being hunted by the SS. When she discovers this after writing multiple letters to her mom, she realizes that she hates Hitler and the Nazis but is told by Hans that she must never say that out loud.  She befriends Max Vandenburg when he arrives at her house on Himmel street and wonders what could possibly be so wrong with jews that they are being persecuted to this extent. Liesel's perspectives are unique because she is so caring and loves to learn and read, a quality not often found in children her age. I like Liesel because she represents something in Nazi Germany that was hard to find, compassion. She cared so much for her friends and family, and she was from hateful to anybody who was kind to her.

Blog # 2 - Maus Themes

While I was reading Maus, I came upon Prisoner of the Hell Planet. I felt that this section was very different because Spiegelman chose to illustrate humans rather than animals that had been consistent throughout the whole book. I feel that by doing this he is showing just how deeply he was injured by the suicide of his mother. He obviously blames himself for his mother's suicide and has or had tremendous internal turmoil that leads him to believe that everybody blames him. The fact that he shows himself behind bars shows but doesn't specifically say that he is behind bars in his own mind and that he is being put on trial by everyone around him. The dark borders and the menacing characters show the feelings he felt at the time and what he thought people were thinking about him. When I came to this part of the novel, it really let me get into the head of Spiegelman and experience what it would feel like to lose somebody close to you. The most important thing I noticed though was that he chose to use humans rather than animals. I think he did this so he could accurately portray just how terrible and emotional of a time this was in his life.