I just started re-reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, after reading it in 5th grade and not really understanding it. So far, Liesel and her brother, who just died, are on the train to Munich where they're being adopted by foster parents. Liesel is sad because of her brother dying, and the discrimination because of Religion.
The mood of the book so far is just an overall glum grey fog. Obviously, after Liesel's brother dies she has every right to be sad, and was expected to be sad anyway. The snow doesn't engulf the town and make it glimmer, it just makes it cold and sad. "Somewhere in the snow she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. ... She was being dragged away. A warm scream filled her throat." I think this very accurately portrays exactly how Liesel and the rest of Munich must feel because of the oppressing and depressing rule of the Nazis over Germany. I think that with Hitler being the Führer, all of the people opposed to him were just sad, which made someone like Liesel, being Jewish, sad. I think this is why Liesel sees the world as cold and dark and sad, and isn't very saddened by seeing her brother die. I find Liesel to be in a sort of trance where she's just sad and is ready to accept more sadness to come. I think Hitler is the direct cause of this and though he hasn't been formally introduced in the book, because Liesel stated the time period as 1939 and that she's in Germany I can tell that Hitler is the Führer, and is clearly making Liesel pessimistic and see the world as a cold dark place where nothing matters.
I think in the real world this oppression still exists religiously. While there isn't severe persecution of one certain religion people still can look down upon one thinking that it's wrong or immoral. Even just being forced by a parent to believe something would be oppression, and this is still all nothing compared to Hitler hating one religion enough to attempt to kill them all. I think that The Book Thief is Historical Fiction although Liesel Meminger didn't exist (I think) but the time period and everything about Hitler and the Holocaust are true, but still relates to our world so much because these problems are still existent and still happen.
