Book Thief # 4

After the first air raid, Max disappeared. At first, I wondered why he had left the safest place. I then realized that at that point, for him, it was the best decision. He had lost and sacrificed so much, that his life couldn't get any worse. He had hit rock bottom. There was nothing else left to do, but let the soldiers kill him. I guess the situation was sort of the same with Liesel. She had suffered everything. Losing her brother by accident, but losing her mother by choice. She had lived such a rough life so far. She could have been at a breaking point, just like Max was. And maybe she was, BEFORE SHE MET MAX, but once he came into her life, she was eternally changed... and then he disappeared...

I believe that Hans is a very opinionated character, in a good way. He stands up for what he knows is right, no matter what. I'm sure standing up in front of his whole town, and standing up for a Jew was a really tough thing for him to do, but he did it anyways. He helped the Jew, even though he knew he would get punished for it. And he did get punished. They shipped him off to war, simply for being a good person. Probably one of the hardest things for Hans in this whole book was seeing who he thought was Rudy die. Rudy was practically like a son to him. I can not imagine how hard that would be, watching someone you love die. Not only someone you love, but anybody! Luckily, it was NOT Rudy, but it would still be hard.

Rosa is a truly significant character aswell. Throughout the book, she mentions how she somewhat dislikes the accordian. After Hans leaves for war, Liesel finds Rosa sitting in the living room, playing the accordian. It is very symbolic. It's sort of like the accordian was the only piece she had left of Hans, and she couldn't stand to lose that. I kind of disliked Rosa at one point in this section. When she washed away all of Max's drawings, it made me mad and upset. She knew how much he meant to Liesel and it probably extremely upset her to lose the only piece of him she had left. It would be like Liesel taking away Hans's accordian from Rosa. It wasn't fair, and she really shouldn't have done that to Liesel.


The section leaves off with Hans at war with the body of the 13 year old boy.