Book+Theif-Mai

** Welcome To The Book Thief ** Individual Assignment #1: 1-3 Due Friday, March 9

#1: The major characters of this story are as following:  *The narrator: I believe that the narrator is Death itself. I think the author used the idea of death, and made it into a conceptual form of being instead of just a 2-dimentional thought. I find that by using Death as the narrator created an eerie tone and a very dark humor when it comes to Death's own thoughts and feelings, like when it scoffs at humanity's idea of the grim reaper.  *Leisel Meminger: A thin, athletic girl who experienced the death of her little brother on a train when she was about ten years old. Teased for being dim, Leisel develops into a strong, willful girl who is willing to prove that she can read. She continuously wakes up at 3 in the morning with chronic nightmares of her brother's death. Alone in the world except for her dear foster-father and her friend, Leisel seeks to find something that will fill the emptiness her mother and brother left with her. She becomes the book thief.  *Hans Hubermann: Leisel's foster-father. A house-painter and accordion-playing man, Hans is talented beyond compare in the Arts. However, he struggles along Leisel to read and be intelligent. His wife often bashes him because he is not smart and she regrets she married him. Hans loves Leisel more than anything in the world and is always there for her when she needs him. He loves to smoke as well. He is often not very noticeable.  *Rosa Hubermann: Leisels foster-mother. A vulgar, mean woman who possesses the talent to completely aggravate anyone she met. She often swears at Hans and Leisel although she dearly loves them both. Rosa does laundry to help the family along in the times, however, as the days are getting harder and the checkbooks thinner, people cannot demand the services they once had. Her cooking is atrocious, as well as her language.  *Rudy Steiner: A gangly, blonde child with blue eyes, and an odd child who loves to run, as well as he loves the African American runner, Jesse Owens. He wants so much to be like him that he paints himself in charcoal black and runs the 100 meters, while acting like him. He loves Leisel, and they are the best of friends. He is quite the ladies' man and is constantly trying to get that kiss from Leisel.

The minor characters are as follows:  *Sister Maria: Leisel's teacher who often has to beat her because of her bad behavior and uncooperative acts. Sister Maria firmly beleives that Leisel cannot and will not be able to read. Loves discipline.  *Pffiefer: A rotten old man with language worse than Rosa Hubermann's. He has a slim, hunched body that becomes alert and poised when yelling at people, and long white platinum hair. He loves to run after children and yell at them and scream obscenities at people. An utterly inappropriate man, he once yelled at Leisel, "You little slut!" even though she was only at the young age of 10.  *Tommy Meuller: A slow child that suffered illness from ear infections and surgeries done to help to fix them. A very bad soccer player he was.  *Frau Diller: Owns a store and just smells of "Heil Hitler." She's a strict woman with a large body and a scrunched pursed face to dissuade people from stealing her store's possessions. She has a sign promoting the Nazi party and you may only buy from her if you say "Heil Hitler". Rudy and Leisel try to aviod her at all costs.

The minor character affect the major characters because they add to the setting of the story. The people around them are not all too bright and cheery and that adds a very cold feeling against the main characters. The children Leisel knows like to make fun of her and tease her, and she often in reprimanded in class by her teacher. The people around town add a cold, heartless feeling and express the sadness Leisel has in her heart about her brother and her mother.

#2: I personally disagree with Leisel's mothers decision. I think that it was wrong of her to leave her daughter with people she didn't even know. I think that for a mother, it could have been a hard decision that was based off of her longing for the best for her daughter. However, the family Leisel was forced into is not a sound or solid one that any mother would choose for her child. I feel that while her mother felt like she had to leave her daughter, it may not have been the wisest decision after the girl's brother died. It left Leisel a little alone and empty inside. I feel that the mother made a decision in a time of despair and couldn't fix herself or the family. The story, so far, does not have very much information about Leisel's birth mother, but I feel like it skips this information because we cannot know a lot about her mother if Leisel didn't know all too much about her mother. If the mother ends up being dead or had been taken away, Leisel couldn't know, anyways.

#3: This story changes my thinking about what I have and how much I should appreciate the things I have. Leisel lost her mother and her brother in a very short period of time and had to completely adapt to her brand new surroundings. She didn't know what was going to happen to herself or who she was going to be with. I feel grateful for my family, for having a solid home that does not have to constantly worry about when the next time they would get some money, and for having friends and being blessed with smarts. I feel like by losing her mother and brother created a hole inside of her. She needed to find something to fill that. I think that after she learns to read, she is going to become the book thief and fill her gap with reading and art and knowledge. I think she has a need for knowing things because she didn't know what happened to her brother the day he just keeled over and died and also still does not know what had happened to her mother when she left.

You have done a fabulous job of analyzing the characters and their relationships. Some grammar/conventions mistakes, but not overly disruptive to the overall responses.

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