Sunday, March 8, 2009
Week 2- Setting
The setting of The Book Thief is in Nazi Germany, but it is not centered around a Jew's life in a concentration camp. The setting of The Book Thief is a normal German neighborhood in the period of the Holocaust. In order for someone to understand this book, they need to know some history of the Holocaust and how some non-Jews sacrificed their life in order to help the suffering Jews. Liesel's family is holding a Jew hostage to keep him safe from the Nazis, but the setting impacts her family if they were not surrounded by people saying, "Heil Hitler", all the time, it would be easier for the family to keep their secret. It is quite easy to visualize the setting just because i have learned so much about the Holocaust and seen many pictures. But in my opinion, i like that the setting is more focused on the German's who help the jews rather than just the Jews. I like this because it seems more suspenseful than an ordinary Holocaust book about Jews where you most likely know what is going to happen to them. The setting is so suspenseful because i don't know what is going to happen to these German's and even if they aren't Jews, they could get the same punishment as Jews did if they were caught keeping one in their basement. Overall, i really enjoy the setting of the book and i think it keeps the plot a lot more interesting and unpredictable.
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Thank you -so- much Hannah for bringing up the fact that you don't see the perspective from a kind German's eyes, very often. Germans who were protecting Jewish people during the Holocaust had probably had gone through just as much fear and hesitation to live every second, as Jewish people had dealt with. We honestly and truly don't know if Liesel's family will have to face some sort of punishment in the end for helping Max. What happens, happens, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about how different it was to be looking at it from the perspective of a German. I'm not sure that people really need to know background about the holocaust to understand this book though. I though that it was more a book about people, and not as much about events. If that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI think I disagree that this is a more suspenseful holocaust book because of the perspective is from a German point of view. You don't know what will happen to the character even if he is a Jew. Will he get away or sent of to a holocaust camp, there is no more certainty either way in my mind.
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