Night And The Book Thief: An Analysis

The books Night and The Book Thief both reflect that The Holocaust was a time of suffering for Jews. The books both demonstrate that we remember the past to understand and in doing so understand sacrifice and bravery, understand suffering, and understand their perspectives. Both books demonstrate character bravery, demonstrate views of how Jews were being treated, and demonstrate beliefs and perspectives.
The Book Thief is a book about a girl named Liesel. Her mother was a communist and she was sent to go live with a different German couple. While she is with them, she gets in the habit of stealing books. After she has been there a while, her new father, Hans, tells her the secret that they have a Jew they are hiding in their basement. …show more content…
In The Book Thief the Jews were being captured and sent to concentration camps. One of the Jews was named Max. He lived in the Hubermanns basement for a long time until finally the Hubermanns had to ask Max to leave, due to an incident where Hans, Liesel’s dad, gave a Jew some bread. Afterwards Hans got captured and was beaten along with the other Jews. (Zusak) This is similar to what would happen during the time of the Holocaust. Jews were taken, captured, and sent to concentration camps. The connection between Holocaust events and the fictional events that occurred in The Book Thief can be seen throughout The Book Thief as it is read. Both Night and The Book Thief demonstrate this aspect of understanding suffering because their relation to what happened to all Jews shows the suffering that occurred during the time of the Holocaust. Suffering can also be seen in the book Night. In the book Night the treatment of Eliezer was cruel, as it was to many other Jews. The title, Night , reflects the darkness of the Holocaust. “The darkness of night wraps us in is the background that shows us at the same time the image of those who are gone, the totally unfamiliar images the survivor contemplates in the mirror, and also the image of the reader who is called upon to look at humanity and its resources from a new angle.” (Frunza 2) The Book Thief also shows the darkness of the time …show more content…
When reading the book Night I gathered that Eliezer believes that the Jews should not be persecuted. He himself experienced persecution as a Jew and therefore believed that it was wrong to kill Jews. Night opens the reader's eyes as to what Jews went through, as well as the evil mindset of Hitler. Additionally, The Book Thief also demonstrates the time of the Holocaust, though through different eyes. The view on Jews in The Book Thief though more subtle are still present in the book. When Liesel tells her foster father that she hates Hitler, she is told “You can say that in our house.” But “Never say it on the street, at school, at the BMD, never!” (Zusak 115-116) Though they were Germans they still believed that Hitler needed to be stopped. We need to tell future generations of this struggle, tell future generations what Jews went through, tell them the thoughts of those alive during the Holocaust. “Memory of the Holocaust acts as a protector, as a shield against despair and madness, as a reason to stay alive.” (Frunza 2) In Carl Evans Gleanings about Night, he answers the question of what gave Wiesel the ability to identify so completely with others (Evans 1) He addresses the impact that his teachers had on him as well as his experiences. When reading the book thief