The book began in the earlier years of World War 2 so the younger characters started of as younger children. The readers know that from the beginning of the book to the end they came of age, especially Rudy and Liesel. The coming of age is becoming a mature person and fullfilling the responsibilities that come with growing up. In “The Book Thief” there are many examples of how this plays out in Liesel’s story and even Rudy’s which will be discussed. Like mentioned before, “The Book Thief” demonstrates the coming of age in the life of the characters. For example Liesel, she started off as a younger child, about 10 or 11. Liesel at the beginning of the …show more content…
For example, the Hubermanns hiding Max made Liesel value frienship and she being a German girl in Nazi Germany she did not discriminate Max based off of what everyone else saw him as. This is a big example of growing up because Liesel was surrounded by people everywhere who believed that Jewish people were not supposed to be treated as human beings. Everyone in this time were driven by hitler and his hatred for anyone who was german and Liesel being able to accept Max and protect him is a big act of …show more content…
He also developed himself to be a mature young man throughout the book. At the beginning the book introdcued Rudy by telling the story about the “Jesse Owens Incident”. Rudy ran down the street face painted in black pretending he was the track star Jesse Owens. Rudy was caught by his father and he was angry because Alex knew that if anyone else would have seen Rudy there could have been devastating consequences. Rudy was not aware of the dangers of his actions he told his father “I just wish I were like Jesse Owens, papa”. Like Liesel more into the book Rudy began to grow up, he was starting to develop his own beliefs as well. Rudy was in the Hitler Youth group but despite the fact that he was being taught to be pro-nazi he was not. He had said “I hate Hitler” which was a dangerous thing to say but Rudy was growing up and had his own