A Turn for the Worst

A lot of things have changed for the Book Thief and the Hubermann's. Liesel (The Book Thief) has built a strong friendship with Max, and they spend days together reading and drawing. Things are still very dangerous, and times are getting worse as the war progresses. During the winter Max got very sick, and the Hubermanns feared for the worst. Max would sleep for days at a time. During the duration of Max's sickness Liesel was burdened with guilt. She had brought a bucket of snow down to basement where max was to explain how it looked outside. She thought the snow was what got him sick. She stayed at his side reading to him every night. I think this showed a side of Liesel we have not really seen yet, how compassionate she can be. If Max died there would be almost no way of keeping it under the rug. It is not like you can just walk up the street with a dead Jew during this time. But miraculously he started getting better and everything went back to normal for a few months, or as normal as it would be with a Jew in your basement. Germany started getting bombed and the Nazi party started making certain houses as air raid shelters if there basements were deep enough. The party checked every ones basements. Luckily Max was not found when they inspected the Hubermann's basement. During all of this Rudy has changed a lot as well.

Rudy as enrolled in the Hitler Youth Group. His leader Franz Deutscher has it out for Rudy. When they first met Rudy was standing up for anther kid in the class and ever since Deutscher has out it out for him. Rudy ends up leaving the Youth group. He sets a goal to one day get back at Deutscher and show he is the better man. He gets that chance at the beginning of summer, the youth Hitler games. He had been practicing for weeks for the 100, 400, and 1500 race. He was determined to win all three and prove himself. He also wanted to win all three just like Jesse Owens did in the Hitler Olympics. He started off with a victory on the 1500, he did not smile or show rejoice until he had trumped all three races. He barely won the 400 and seemed to be running out of steam for the 100. When it got to the 100 he was disqualified for false starting. Lisels was confused and asked what happened. Rudy's voice, "I did it on purpose.". I think he did it because he did not want to lose the last race, so he walked away with two. This showed to me that Rudy had a lot of pride and knew when to quit.

Then summer came and there are books that need stealing. Lately Liesel and Rudy have been taking books from the Mayors house. The Mayors wife used to let Liesel go and read in the library when she would drop of cloths for the dry cleaners and pick them up (A job her mom had her do). But once she was fired she did not want the Mayors, or his wife's pity of letting her read in there library as she described it. She mouthed off the Mayors Wife who was not a particularly strong women. And that firing her was the last money she was able to scrap up for her family. Leaving the Mayors wife in shambles she stormed off in uter rage. Now when Liesel needs a new book they take what they need from their library. They thought they were sneaky about it but ultimately were found out. One day when Rudy and Liesel were making there way to the Mayors house for a book, just outside there house was a tree with a book in it. They thought it was some kind of trap at first. After snatching the book and running off they found a note, on it read a message from the Mayors wife. She apologized for firing her and said she was not angry they were stealing the books. She said one day she hopes they will come take the books from the front door herself and not the back. The book in the tree was a dictionary, and throughout the book we get a word and definition protaining to events and characters feelings at certain times.

The section ends in a depressing way. There was a parade of Jews marching through Molching. A crowd of people formed to insult and attack them. An elderly Jew fell down and was being massacred by the crowd. Hans Hubermann was the only one how extended a hand to help him out. He was exiled by the community for this action. As panic struck him, he told Max he had to leave in case they searched the house. Max is gone he was supposed to meet Hans at a spot four days after his departure. He was no where to be found. My take on this is because he had thought they had already done enough. Now Hans waited for his punishment, or the Nazi's to come for him. The time waiting for them seemed like punishment enough. But his punishment came in good time. He's application to the Nazi party from years ago was accepted, he was drafted into the army. He got lucky and was not sent to Russia, rather Australia. And that is where i am at this point.

My prediction is Max will come back or in some way contact Liesel. They had to strong a bond for his part in the book just to be over like that. I think Hans will come home safe and unharmed from the war. My question is does death have a plan for Hans, Rudy, or Max?

More answers in my next post. Keep reading!