The setting of the Book Thief is set in Nazi Germany. This is a fearful time period for people living there. Liesel, moves to a small town in Germany, and you can really start to see the affects of the war and Hitler’s laws. Many Stores are having a hard time getting business, because many people do not have money to spare. The "Jewish" street has completely emptied out, Liesel may not understand why, but as readers we know that it is because all of the Jews have been captured. Much of the Story takes place in the basement.
In the Beginning of the story the basement was the place where Liesel and her Papa would practice her reading. Liesel would paint the words that she did not know on the walls. Later this basement would house their new friend Max, who was hiding because he is Jewish. The basements turns into a secret place, with Liesel’s words and Max’s pictures painted on the walls. The basement is the easiest place for me to visualize in the book, I can just see the walls all painted over, and the tarp hanging over the hidden space under the stairs where Max sleeps.
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I never thought of how much the setting is centered around the basement but you're completely right. I don't know if you can see this, but for some reason i thought the little space where max sleeps was kind of like the space where Harry Potter sleeps in the first movie. I dont know, that's just what popped into my head while reading that part. hah
ReplyDeleteI agree, you can really just imagine the two together down there. Zusak is so descriptive in describing the beasement you almost feel like you would recognize it right away.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hannah, I didn't think of the basement for setting. Though that is partly because I haven't read about the wall painting yet. I tend to picture the outside, in the streets. how empty, bleak, and gray it looks.
ReplyDeleteNot so say the same thing over again, but I didn't even think about the basement while writing my post until you brought it up. I think the basement seems super cool in the book. With all of the words and pictures all over it just seems like a really fun place to be.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you all that it is easy to picture the basement as I read. I think that this is because it is such a key place in the book and so much goes on there that the author has chosen to give alot of information about how it looks so we can relate more to the Hubermanns and to what max has to live in.
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