The Book Thief Exam Topics

Below, youll find 7 possible topics that youll be expected to examine. Throughout
the weeks leading up to the test, youll have some opportunity to discuss the
topics with your classmates and I encourage you to do so. However, may of these
questions require your opinion that can only come from you! So, make sure to set
time aside to prepare your thoughtful, specific, and evidence-supported thoughts
for each one. Trust your intelligence!
1. Discuss the symbolism of Death as the omniscient narrator of the novel. What
are Deaths feelings for each victim? Describe Deaths attempt to resist Liesel.
Death states, Im always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly
and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both (page 491).
What is ugly and beautiful about Liesel, Rosa, and Hans Hubermann, Max
Vandenburg, Rudy Steiner, and Mrs. Hermann? Why is Death haunted by
humans?
2. Abandonment is a central theme in the novel. The reader knows that Liesel feels
abandoned by her mother and by the death of her brother. How does she equate
love with abandonment? At what point does she understand why she was
abandoned by her mother? Who else abandons Liesel in the novel? Debate
whether she was abandoned by circumstance (necessity) or by the heart.
3. Compare and contrast the lives of Liesel and Max Vandenburg. How does Maxs
life give Liesel purpose? At what point do Liesel and Max become friends? Max
gives Liesel a story called The Standover Man for her birthday. What is the
significance of this story?
4. Death says that Liesel was a girl with a mountain to climb (page 86). What is
her mountain? Who are her climbing partners? What is her greatest obstacle? At
what point does she reach the summit of her mountain? Describe her descent.
What does she discover at the foot of her mountain?

5. Liesel Meminger lived to be an old woman. Death says that he would like to tell
the book thief about beauty and brutality, but those are things that she had lived.
How does her life represent beauty in the wake of brutality? Discuss how Zusaks
poetic writing style enhances Liesels story.

6. When discussing Hans survival of World War I, Death says He was either too
lucky, or he deserved to live, or there was a good reason for him to live (page
174). Which one(s) do you think is(are) right? How does fate play a major role in
this book?
7. Respond to the following passage. Interpret Deaths analysis of his role in WWII
Germany and the nature of human life/death. Do you agree or disagree? Relate
the quote to some part of your own life or to the world around you.
Its probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitlers reign, no person was
able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me. A human doesnt have a heart like
mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the
endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of
this is that Im always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly
and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they
have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die
(page 491).