Post #2: Setting

The setting of The Book Thief is in Nazi Germany at the time of World War II. The main character, Liesel Hubermann, and her foster family live in a small, poor German neighborhood. Their house is on Himmel Street, which sometimes is portrayed as a dark and eerie feeling sort of place, and sometimes is a bright and hopeful place like when all the children are outside playing.  This street is where most of the story takes place and is the only place that Liesel really knows. The Hubermann’s house is small with very few rooms, the most important of these rooms being the basement. This is where she learns to read which is very important to her and to the plot, because it is probably why she continues to steal books. The basement is also where max stays.

The book does not take place at all in concentration camps, which gives us a different view of the Holocaust than we normally see. I like this a lot because it is important to remember that not everyone that was affected during the holocaust were the people in concentration camps, and that there was also a lot of suffering outside of the camps. I am enjoying the descriptions of setting a lot and I think that they add an extra connection and understanding of the story.