essay on the book thief

The Book Thief

Markus zusak, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Markus Zusak's The Book Thief . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Book Thief: Introduction

The book thief: plot summary, the book thief: detailed summary & analysis, the book thief: themes, the book thief: quotes, the book thief: characters, the book thief: symbols, the book thief: theme wheel, brief biography of markus zusak.

Historical Context of The Book Thief

Other books related to the book thief.

• Full Title: The Book Thief
• When Written: 2002-2005
• Where Written: Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany
• When Published: 2005
• Literary Period: Contemporary Fiction
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Setting: Fictional town of Molching, Germany, 1939-1943
• Climax: The fire-bombing of Molching
• Antagonist: Adolf Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust
• Point of View: First person omniscient, with Death as the narrator

Extra Credit for The Book Thief

Bread. Zusak was inspired to write The Book Thief by a story his mother told him, which involved a boy giving bread to a starving Jew who was being marched to a concentration camp. A Nazi soldier noticed and whipped both the boy and the Jew. This scene is recreated in The Book Thief with Hans Hubermann in the place of the boy.

Rudy. Zusak's favorite character from any of his books is Rudy Steiner, Liesel's best friend.

Historical Context

The book thief, by markus zusak.

Markus Zusak's 'The Book Thief' was written following the events that happened in Germany from 1939 - 1942 during the second world war.

Article written by Ugo Juliet

Former Lecturer. Author of multiple books. Degree from University Of Nigeria, Nsukka.

It was written to show the horrors of war, the ill treatment of the Jews by the Nazi army and even touched on the holocaust, one of the most gruesome events in human history.

The Book Thief is set in Germany during World War II and the time of the Holocaust, where six million Jews were killed died. The leader of the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler, rose to national power in 1934 and started enforcing his anti-semitism policies and German aggression, which led to World War II. Some of the events that directly affect the story are the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany in 1941 and the Allied fire-bombings of Munich, Stuttgart, and the fictional town of Molching in 1942 and 1943.

In the book, one day Liesel hears a Nazi spokesperson speaking about the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler’s rule. The spokesperson mentioned that all Jews and communists will die. She then remembered that her father was accused of being a communist and now she can’t find her father. She also tried to write to her mother after she learned how to write but none was replied. She then concluded that her mother had died. And so she blamed Hitler for the death of her father, mother, and brother.

The Book Thief is a genre of literature classified as historical fiction. This means that even though it is fiction and in this case, it is set in the fictional town of Molching, which is near Munich in Germany; it is still set through historical periods. The story is set and told through historical accurate events like the Holocaust, Jews marching to the death camps, Kristallnacht, burning of books, and others.  A major theme of the book is Liesel’s interest in the book and a major event that happened in the book was the book-burning by the Nazis.

The events in the books were either exact replicas of the Holocaust or similar to all the things that happened. The Holocaust was majorly religious against the Jews and to show Nazi supremacy over others. The Book Thief used places, events, and people in the book and tried to capture all the events that happened in Germany during the set period of 1939 to 1945. Many of the things that were captured in the story were based on true events since the author was inspired to write from the story he heard from his parents.

So the story was not based on present events or accounts or even modern-day conflicts. Markus Zusak’s parents were both immigrants from different countries of Europe and had witnessed what happened during WWII. They told their children stories from what happened in their homeland before they left. An example is a story that Markus’ mother told him about a boy who took pity on the marching Jews and gave bread to a particularly weak one. For that action, both of them were whipped by a soldier.

Publication and Legacy 

The novel was written and published in Sydney, Australia in the year 2005. The tone of the novel is casual and relaxed, with the narrator (Death) at times interrupting himself or interjecting reactions to the narrative. Though his voice employs humor, the overall sense is of sorrow and sadness.

The Book Thief celebrates the legacy of words: the power of words to do good, to do bad, to raise low and raise high, to create a Hitler, to allow a Hans Hubermann to exist, in essence, the power of words to change worlds. The book showed that words, indeed, rule the world.

The novel was adapted into a film that was released on 8 November 2013 and filmed in Görlitz, Germany. The script of the film was written by Michael Petroni, and directed by Brian Percival. The film starrs Ben Schnetzer as Max Vandenburg, Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson as Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Nico Liersch as Rudy Steiner, and Sophie Nélisse as Liesel Meminger. John Williams wrote the music soundtrack.  

Is The Book Thief historically accurate?

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a category of literature known as historical fiction. This means that it is a fiction story, but one that is told through historically accurate events and time periods. It has elements of historical events like the Kristallnacht, the Jews marching to the death camps, in it.

Why is The Book Thief a historical fiction?

Historical fiction is a literary work in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past. What makes The Book Thief a historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions, and other details of the depicted period.

What books did Liesel steal?

Here are the books that Liesel steals in The Book Thief : First is The Grave Digger’s Handbook, which she stole at the graveyard when they buried her brother. Next is The Shoulder Shrug, Mein Kampf, The Whistler, The Dream Carrier, A Song in the Dark, and The Last Human Stranger.

What year is The Book Thief set in?

Most of the stories in the novel took place in the fictional town of Molching, near Munich in Germany during the years 1939 – 1945. This is the period that the world witnessed another world war popularly known as World War II. Adolf Hitler, the German ruler, and leader of the Nazi party, rose to national power in 1934 and began enforcing his policies of anti-Semitism and German aggression, which led to World War II.

What inspired The Book Thief ?

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was inspired by the stories the author heard when he was young. His parents were migrants from Europe so they witnessed the events of the Second World War and they told him the stories when he was a small boy. An example is a story his mother told about a boy giving bread to a weak Jew.

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About Ugo Juliet

Juliet Ugo is an experienced content writer and a literature expert with a passion for the written word with over a decade of experience. She is particularly interested in analyzing books, and her insightful interpretations of various genres have made her a well-known authority in the field.

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The Book Thief

80 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Before You Read

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 8

Chapters 9-24

Chapters 25-32

Chapters 33-40

Chapters 41-48

Chapters 49-56

Chapters 57-64

Chapter 65-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Books come in all shapes and sizes in the novel. Pick two. Describe their physical characteristics and their meaning to the characters. 

Describe Death’s personality as it can be inferred from his narration. 

What is the significance of Hans’s accordion? How does it connect various characters in the story? 

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Coping with Death

30+ of the best quotes from "The Book Thief"

In Markus Zusak's haunting novel, an orphan girl discovers the power of courage, empathy, and words amid Nazi Germany’s horrors. Read 30+ quotes about humanity, grief, and love from "The Book Thief."

Set in the small town of Molching, Germany, during World War II, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is the coming-of-age story of Liesel Meminger, an orphan girl who recently lost her only brother. Death is the novel’s omniscient narrator, which provides an unusual perspective on Hitler’s actions and the Holocaust. Liesel is sent to live with foster parents, the kind Hans Hubermann and his stern wife, Rosa. Seeking comfort from grief and the turmoil and brutalities around her, she turns to stealing books–even though (at first) she can’t read them. She shares her books and other treasures with Rudy Steiner, the young neighbor and classmate who later becomes her best friend, and Max Vandenburg, the Jewish man whom Hans offers to hide in their basement. Along with mortality, the novel explores the human capacity for both exceptional kindness and staggering cruelty.

Affirming the power of reading to foster empathy and understanding, The Book Thief remains profoundly relevant. Below are 30+ insightful quotes from the novel.

The best quotes from The Book Thief on pain and love

"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship."

"The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you."

“Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.”

"If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter."

The best quotes from The Book Thief on suffering and resilience

"Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day."

"Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. 'I'm okay' we say. 'I'm alright'. But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can't get it off."

"Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness."

“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”

“It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on.”

"So much good, so much evil. Just add water."

"He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry."

"She took a step and didn't want to take any more, but she did."

"Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands."

"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know?”

The best quotes from The Book Thief on books and the influence of words

“As always, one of her books was next to her."

"I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life."

"You can't eat books, sweetheart."

"I like that every page in every book can have a gem on it."

"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

"She was the book thief without the words."

The best quotes from The Book Thief on human nature and mortality–from the perspective of Death

"I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me." 

"I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it." 

"I'm 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."

"I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate."

"A human doesn't 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."

"One opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death."

"If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive."

"Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."

"It kills me sometimes, how people die."

"Even death has a heart."

The Book Thief

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“Gay the Pray Away” is the beloved narrator's YA story about finding the freedom to live and love as a queer teen in a religious cult.

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Who Plotted to Sell Graceland? An Identity Thief Raises His Hand.

A person using an email for the company seeking to foreclose on the former home of Elvis Presley says his ring was behind the threat to sell the beloved landmark.

By Matt Stevens

The writer said he was an identity thief — a ring leader on the dark web, with a network of “worms” placed throughout the United States.

In an email to The New York Times, he said his ring preyed on the dead, the unsuspecting and the elderly, especially those from Florida and California, using birth certificates and other documents to discover personal information that aided in their schemes.

“We figure out how to steal,” he said. “That’s what we do.”

Recently, the writer suggested, the group had turned its attention to a major target: the estate of Lisa Marie Presley, which last week faced a threat that Graceland was about to be foreclosed on and sold by a mysterious company, Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC.

Media outlets often receive unsolicited emails from people who make outlandish claims. But this email arrived Friday in response to one sent by The Times to an email address that Naussany listed in a legal filing sent to a Tennessee court reviewing the foreclosure case.

In its email, The Times referred to the company’s claim that Ms. Presley had borrowed $3.8 million from it, using Graceland as collateral. In the responses, which came from the email address The Times had written to, the writer described the foreclosure effort not as a legitimate attempt to collect on a debt, but as a scam.

“I had fun figuring this one out and it didn’t succeed very well,” the email writer said. He said he was based in Nigeria and his email was written in Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda. But the filing with the email address was faxed from a toll-free number designed to serve North America; it was included in documents sent to the Chancery Court in Shelby County, Tenn., where the foreclosure case is still pending.

Since the news broke last week that a company was trying to sell Graceland — Elvis Presley’s former home and a beloved tourist attraction in Memphis — the Naussany company has been a persistent puzzle. It is difficult to find any public records that prove that the company exists. Phone numbers listed in court documents for the company are not in service. Addresses listed by the company are those of post offices.

In September, eight months after Ms. Presley’s death, Naussany Investments did file papers in probate court in California posting what it said was Ms. Presley’s debt from 2018. It included a deed of trust, with a signature represented as Ms. Presley’s, that put forward Graceland as collateral.

But Clint Anderson, the deputy administrator of the Shelby County Register of Deeds , said his office does not have on file a deed of trust or any other documents from Naussany Investments “to legitimize this company foreclosing on any other property in Shelby County.”

In its September filing, Naussany Investments said it would agree to settle what it described as the debt for a discounted $2.85 million, which would be paid by the Presley family trust. But the trust, now led by Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, the actress Riley Keough, did not view the debt as legitimate.

Naussany Investments then took out an ad in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, giving notice that it planned to auction Graceland in a foreclosure sale last week.

That led Ms. Keough to court last week, where she fought the foreclosure, declaring in a legal filing that the loan was a fiction, the company “a false entity” and the effort to sell Graceland a fraud. The signatures of Ms. Presley and of a notary public on some of the documents had been forged, lawyers for Ms. Keough said.

At a hearing on Wednesday , the judge blocked any immediate foreclosure on Graceland, saying that he needed to review more evidence.

No one representing the Naussany company attended the hearing. But shortly before it began, the court received a filing from a person identifying himself as a representative of the company, Gregory E. Naussany. The filing disputed Ms. Keough’s allegations, asked for time to present a defense and included an email address, [email protected], for further contact.

By the end of the day, though, Naussany Investments appeared to have given up. The Commercial Appeal and The Associated Press reported receiving emails from the company withdrawing its claims. Elvis Presley Enterprises, which operates Graceland as a tourist attraction, told The New York Times that a lawyer for the family’s trust had also received an email from a person purporting to be Gregory Naussany who said Naussany Investments did not intend to move forward with a sale.

Court records, however, do not yet list any motion by Naussany Investments to drop its claim.

A lawyer for Ms. Keough declined to comment on Tuesday.

In a bizarre case with so many unanswered questions, it is difficult to determine how much weight to place on the recent communications to The Times from the email address associated with Naussany Investments. While the writer says he is based in Nigeria, it is difficult to pinpoint his location.

The Bantu language used in the two emails to The Times is clunky in spots, according to a translator who reviewed the emails, while the English of the court documents the company has filed has been fluent.

NBC News is among several media outlets that have received other emails from people who suggested they have ties to the company, but it does not appear that those emails contained any acknowledgment of misconduct.

Naussany Investments has listed several email addresses in its court filings. Both emails received by The Times in recent days came from the address associated with Gregory Naussany that was listed in the company’s court filing. In each, the writer advanced the view that he was part of a sophisticated identity fraud operation that had particularly targeted Americans, who were described as gullible.

When The Times sought further clarification on specific issues, the writer replied, “You don’t have to understand.” The writer did not suggest any reasoning for being so forthcoming in the emails beyond taking credit for what he described as the ring’s success in other cases.

“I am the one who creates trouble,” the writer said to open his first email on Friday.

On Thursday, the attorney general of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti, said his office would review Naussany Investments and investigate its attempt to foreclose on what he said was the state’s most “beloved” home. A spokeswoman for the office said Tuesday that officials were aware of the correspondence sent to The Times and that it would “continue looking into the matter.”

On Friday, even before the recent emails from the company had been sent, Darrell Castle, a Memphis lawyer who has worked frequently on foreclosures for more than 40 years, called the whole situation “extremely unusual to the point of being unbelievable.”

Mark A. Sunderman, a real estate professor at the University of Memphis, was struck by the audacity of such an effort, but also noted how vulnerable the system can be.

“They picked the wrong piece of property,” he said. “If this had not been such a high-profile piece of property, they might have gotten away with it.”

In this case, the person who took credit for the scheme in emails conceded in a mixture of Luganda and English that he had been outmaneuvered.

“Yo client dont have nothing to worries,” the person wrote, “win fir her.”

Then the writer added: “She beat me at my own game.”

Musinguzi Blanshe contributed reporting from Kampala, Uganda, Abdi Latif Dahir from Nairobi, Kenya, Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal, Jessica Jaglois from Memphis and Aaron Krolik from New York. Kitty Bennett and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Matt Stevens writes about arts and culture news for The Times. More about Matt Stevens

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The Book Thief

By markus zusak.

• The Book Thief Summary

Narrated by Death , The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger , a nine-year-old German girl who given up by her mother to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the small town of Molching in 1939, shortly before World War II. On their way to Molching, Liesel's younger brother Werner dies, and she is traumatized, experiencing nightmares about him for months. Hans is a gentle man who brings her comfort and helps her learn to read, starting with a book Liesel took from the cemetery where her brother was buried. Liesel befriends a neighborhood boy, Rudy Steiner , who falls in love with her. At a book burning, Liesel realizes that her father was persecuted for being a Communist, and that her mother was likely killed by the Nazis for the same crime. She is seen stealing a book from the burning by the mayor's wife Ilsa Hermann , who later invites Liesel to read in her library.

Keeping a promise he made to the man who saved his life, Hans agrees to hide a Jew named Max Vandenberg in his basement. Liesel and Max become close friends, and Max writes Liesel two stories about their friendship, both of which are reproduced in the novel. When Hans publicly gives bread to an old Jew being sent to a concentration camp, Max must leave, and Hans is drafted into the military at a time when air raids over major German cities were escalating in terms of frequency and fatality. Liesel next sees Max being marched towards the concentration camp at Dachau. Liesel loses hope and begins to disdain the written word, having learnt that Hitler's propaganda is to blame for the war and the Holocaust and the death of her biological family, but Ilsa encourages her to write. Liesel writes the story of her life in the Hubermanns' basement, where she miraculously survives an air raid that kills Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and everyone else on her block. Liesel survives the war, as does Max. She goes on to live a long life and dies at an old age.

The Book Thief Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Book Thief is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Characterize Rosa Hubermann. What kind of a character is she?

Rosa Hubermann

Hans' wife and Liesel's foster mother. A squat woman who makes some money doing laundry for wealthy neighbors, Rosa has a fiery attitude and frequently employs profanity, especially towards those whom she loves. Death describes Rosa...

Number of washing customers Rosa has left in Part 6

How Rudy become a giver instead of a taker in Part 8?

C. He gives bread to the Jewish

Study Guide for The Book Thief

The Book Thief study guide contains a biography of Markus Zusak, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Book Thief
• Character List

Essays for The Book Thief

The Book Thief essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

• Liesel's Emotional Journey Through the Book Thief
• Zusak's Death Breaks the Mould
• Guilt in The Book Thief
• The Toil of Good and Evil: Multi-Faceted Kindness in The Book Thief
• Stealing the Narrative: The Irony of Reading in The Book Thief

Lesson Plan for The Book Thief

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Book Thief
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Book Thief Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Book Thief

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From collapsed plea deal to trial: How Hunter Biden has come to face jurors on federal gun charges

Hunter Biden arrives for a court appearance, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, right, walks with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, to board Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Friday, May 31, 2024. President Biden is returning to Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - Hunter Biden arrives for a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 28, 2024. Biden attorneys are expected in court Friday, May 24, days before the president’s son is expected to stand trial on federal firearms charges in Delaware as his father’s reelection campaign unfolds. Biden is charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days in Delaware. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Hunter Biden, carrying his son Beau Biden, walks off of Marine One at Gordons Pond State Park near Rehoboth Beach, Del., Friday, May 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Hunter Biden departs after a court appearance, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. Biden was at the Delaware courthouse for a hearing days before he’s expected to stand trial on federal firearms charges as his father’s reelection campaign unfolds. President Joe Biden’s son is charged with lying about his drug use in 2018 on a form to buy a gun he kept for about 11 days. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son was in federal court, prepared to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. The culmination of a sprawling investigation, the deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutors was going to spare him a politically explosive trial in the middle of his father’s reelection campaign and likely prison time.

But it all fell apart .

Now, Hunter Biden is headed to trial on federal gun charges in a case brought by his father’s Justice Department at a time when America’s political and legal worlds are colliding like never before . Dogged for years by investigations, scrutinized over his troubled personal life and vilified by Republicans, the younger Biden is now also confronting the threat of felony convictions and time behind bars.

The case opening Monday with jury selection in Delaware is not about Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which have been the focus of the yearslong federal investigation and Republicans’ fruitless impeachment inquiry into the Democratic president. It’s about a gun Hunter Biden had for about 11 days — a .38-caliber Colt Cobra Special. Prosecutors say he bought it illegally in October 2018 because he falsely swore on a federal form that he was not a drug user. He never fired the gun, according to his lawyers, and it ended up dumped in a trash can.

The trial will lack details about his foreign business matters that Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt, but it is expected to feature deeply personal and embarrassing testimony about dark time in the younger Biden’s life. And it probably will provide new political impetus for Donald Trump’s allies, who are eager to distract from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s own legal problems after he was convicted of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial.

Allies of Joe Biden are worried about the toll the trial may take on the president, who already is concerned about the well-being and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch as that son’s darkest moments are relived in public. They also are worried that the trial could become a distraction as the president tries to campaign while facing anemic poll numbers and is scheduled to prepare in Wilmington for a June 27 debate with Trump as the trial plays out nearby.

THE DEAL THAT NEVER WAS

It once looked like Hunter Biden was going to avoid prosecution in the gun case altogether.

The deal was announced last June . Nearly three years earlier, Hunter Biden had confirmed the federal investigation into his tax affairs in December 2020, shortly after his father was elected.

The younger Biden would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses; prosecutors would have recommended two years of probation. There was also a “diversion agreement” that would have allowed him to escape prosecution on a felony gun charge as long he stayed out of trouble for two years.

But the plea hearing quickly unraveled .

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, quizzed both sides with concerns about the deal. To her, it seemed unusual and required her to be involved in the case in a way most federal judges are not. The lawyers huddled, trying to salvage the deal. At one point they could be heard yelling at each other.

“Well, we’ll just rip it up!” Chris Clark, Biden’s then-attorney, shouted as tempers flared.

“So what do we do now?” the judge later asked the lawyers.

“Then there is no deal,” prosecutor Leo Wise told her.

A few weeks later, Attorney General Merrick Garland named David Weiss, the Trump-nominated U.S. attorney in Delaware who was leading the investigation, as a special counsel .

Hunter Biden was indicted a month after that on three gun counts. They are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum and it is unclear whether the judge would actually give him time behind bars if he were convicted.

COURTROOM TENSION

The bitterness between prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s legal team is glaring. It’s likely to be on display Monday.

Clark withdrew from the case, saying he might be called to testify in a potential legal dispute over the now-defunct deal. Another defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has accused Weiss of caving to political pressure to indict the president’s son after Trump and other Republicans blasted the “sweetheart deal.” The defense has noted that charges related to gun possession by drug users are rare when not in connection with a more serious crime.

“Mr. Biden is not being prosecuted for any sin that DOJ (the Department of Justice) believes he has committed. He is being punished for the perceived sins of his father — the sin of opposing Mr. Trump’s election to the president,” according to court papers filed by Lowell, who also has represented Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the former president’s daughter and son-in-law.

Prosecutors say Lowell’s contention is “fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”

“Contrary to his assertion, he has not established that the Special Counsel, appointed by and serving at the pleasure of President Biden and his Attorney General, is punishing the defendant ‘for the perceived sins of his father’ in order to capitulate to a former President because of his tweets,” Weiss’ team responded.

Weiss has said “political considerations” played no part in the investigation. He told lawmakers behind closed doors last year that that no one at the Justice Department prevented him from pursuing charges or taking other necessary steps, disputing claims from two IRS whistleblowers that the department improperly interfered in the tax investigation.

A DARK TIME

The case stems from a period where, by his own admission, Hunter Biden was addicted to crack.

In his memoir “Beautiful Things,” he described becoming consumed by drugs and alcohol after his older brother, Beau, died in 2015 at age 46 from brain cancer. The brothers were very close, having survived a car crash when they were young that killed their mother and baby sister.

Hunter Biden has said he has been sober since 2019. But prosecutors intend to use his memoir to make the case that he knew he was addicted to drugs when he denied it on the form that every person must fill out when buying a gun. They plan to show jurors text messages, videos and photos of Hunter Biden smoking crack, as well details about cocaine residue that authorities say was found on the pouch he used to hold his gun.

“I’m a liar and a thief and a blamer and a user and I’m delusional and an addict unlike beyond and above all other addicts that you know and I’ve ruined every relationship I’ve ever cherished,” Hunter Biden wrote in one text message weeks after he bought the firearm, according to prosecutors.

Jurors are expected to hear testimony from his ex-wife and other former romantic partners, including Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden, with whom Hunter Biden had a relationship after his brother’s death. Hallie Biden found the gun in Hunter Biden’s truck and threw it in a trash. It was found by a man collecting recyclables who gave it to the police.

The defense has suggested it will attack the credibility of the gun shop employees, noting there were changes to the gun-purchase form after the sale. Prosecutors say there were minor additions unrelated to the parts Hunter Biden filled out. His lawyers have suggested they may argue that Hunter Biden did not see himself as an addict when prosecutors say he checked “no” to the question on the form.

“The terms ‘user’ or ‘addict’ are not defined on the form and were not explained to him,” the defense wrote in a recent filing. “Someone, like Mr. Biden who had just completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and lived with a sober companion after that, could surely believe he was not a present tense user or addict.”

The case is expected to last a couple of weeks. He also is scheduled to stand trial in September in California in the case where he is accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years.

Associated Press writer Colleen in Washington contributed to this report.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Book Report — The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: the Power of Words

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: The Power of Words

• Categories: Book Report Literary Criticism

About this sample

Words: 778 |

Published: Mar 19, 2020

Words: 778 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Prompt examples for "the book thief" essay, "the book thief" essay example.

• Character Development: Explore how the characters in "The Book Thief" are shaped and transformed by the power of words, including Liesel, Hans, and Max.
• Literary Devices: Analyze the literary devices used by Markus Zusak to emphasize the significance of words in the narrative, such as metaphors, symbolism, and imagery.
• Impact of Storytelling: Discuss the role of storytelling and literature within the novel, examining how it serves as a form of resistance, escape, and connection for the characters.
• Moral and Ethical Questions: Examine the moral and ethical questions raised by the power of words in the story, including the themes of propaganda, censorship, and the responsibility of language.
• Universal Themes: Reflect on the universal themes regarding the power of words, their ability to heal or harm, and the lasting impact of stories and literature on individuals and society.

Works Cited

• BBC News. (2018, May 26). Abortion: All you need to know about the UK law. BBC News.
• BBC News. (2019, May 15). Alabama abortion ban: Should men have a say in the debate? BBC News.
• Catholics for Choice. (2019). Access to abortion.
• National Abortion Federation. (2021). Facts about abortion: US abortion statistics. https://prochoice.org/abortion-facts/
• Pros and Cons. (2021). Abortion. https://www.prosandcons.org/social-issues/abortion/
• Sanghani, R. (2019, May 23). Are men really allowed to make decisions about abortion? BBC News.
• Smith, M. (2020, March 4). Abortion roars back as 2020 issue. Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/04/abortion-issue-returns-121905
• The Guardian. (2019, May 16). Alabama abortion ban: Republican state senate passes most restrictive law in US. The Guardian.

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