{"id":256,"date":"2011-03-17T07:00:20","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=256"},"modified":"2011-03-13T23:07:43","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T06:07:43","slug":"mark-reads-the-book-thief-chapter-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/03\/mark-reads-the-book-thief-chapter-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Book Thief’: Chapter 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh chapter of The Book Thief<\/em>, life under the rule of Rosa is not easy for Liesel. However, she does begin to find some solace in school and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou guessed it\u00e2\u20ac\u201da single book. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Book Thief<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that the single sentence that opens up chapter seven accurately describes what follows it:<\/p>\n

Those first few months were definitely the hardest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Understatement of this blog. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve reached the longest chapter yet and this shit is DEPRESSING. Right off the bat, Death shares with us the fact that Liesel had nightmares every night<\/em>. Nightmares about her brother:<\/p>\n
On the other side of the room, the bed that was meant for her brother floated boatlike in the darkness. Slowly, with the arrival of consciousness, it sank, seemingly into the floor. This vision didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help matters, and it would usually be quite a while before the screaming stopped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh god, they left her brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bed in the room? UGH THIS IS SO SAD.<\/p>\n
A remarkable thing happens though, a silver lining that is completely unexpected:<\/p>\n
He came in every night and sat with her. The first couple of times, he simply stayed\u00e2\u20ac\u201da stranger to kill the aloneness. A few nights after that, he whispered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shhh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d After three weeks, he held her. Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gentleness, his thereness<\/em>. The girl knew from the outset that Hans Hubermann would always appear midscream, and he would not leave.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to suggest that a person needs a reason beyond simply being awesome and caring, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious about why Hans has gravitated so instantly to Liesel. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wonderful and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad she has him, but his affinity is so immediate and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand why. I get a better sense of his motivation as the two of them grow closer. Hans begins to play his accordion for Liesel and each time, Rosa would yell at Hans to stop. Then:<\/p>\n
He would wink at the girl, and clumsily, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wink back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hmmm. Maybe Hans likes that Liesel is on his side? What I mean is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6if you look at a lot of chapter seven, we see that Hans and Rosa don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily seem to get along or be on the same page or show each other any sort of affection. Now, obviously this is only a rough theory at this point, but perhaps Hans enjoys that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone who can also be there for him in a way. Someone who is not<\/em> of the temperament of his wife.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just an idea.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some silliness to their relationship because this chapter is far<\/em> from being silly. The accordion is a sign for Liesel that someone is in her life to bring her joy. The only other thing that is this important to her is the book she stole on the day she buried her brother. As Death points out, despite that she cannot read the book at all, the book holds a very important meaning to her. It marks a very specific moment in time.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
The last time she saw her brother.<\/strong><\/li>\n
The last time she saw her mother.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The book will represent something else to Liesel, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to that soon.<\/p>\n
Liesel goes to school! I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect that so soon. Things are made even harder by the fact that Liesel cannot read or write at all and gets stuck with younger children, smaller than her, and, like most things in her new world, it makes her feel even more alone. Her new foster parents aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much help, as neither of them got out of grade school, so she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on her own to learn the alphabet.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6the best Liesel could do was speak the alphabet under her breath before she was told in no uncertain terms to keep quiet. All that mumbling. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until later, when there was a bed-wetting incident midnightmare, that an extra reading education began. Unofficially, it was called the midnight class, even though it usually commenced at around two in the morning. More of that soon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Aw, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tease me with this, Death! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll comment more when we get there (and maybe tell a story!), but a lot of my book obsession was late at night, my blankets providing a tent (and protection in case my mother found out), and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d take adventures far away when I should have been sleeping.<\/p>\n
More of that soon.<\/p>\n
Liesel is enrolled in the Bund Deutscher M\u00c3\u00a4dchen<\/em>, a German girls school under the Hitler Youth, and Liesel attended twice a week. And she does it, walked there by her Papa, and they do it quietly, unspoken. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much more information about the schooling, but I get the idea that Liesel and her foster dad just obey. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing that needs<\/em> to be said about it. They do what they are told. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the unspoken part, the fear that they live under. Zusak doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to spell it out for us.<\/p>\n
What he does spell out is the fear that Liesel has to experience after her mother abandoned her. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become attached to Hans, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anxiety,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as Zusak says, whenever he leaves. I was reminded of the end of Mockingjay<\/em> and Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s similar fears, that at any point those she loved could be taken away from her, that her own happiness could have been seized by total strangers. I feel like this is similar, that Liesel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own fears are related directly to her past. But then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also the problem of Rosa.<\/p>\n
Rosa has her ways of communicating with the world around her:<\/p>\n
She was constantly arguing and complaining. There was no one to really argue with, but Mama managed it expertly every chance she had. She could argue with the entire world in that kitchen, and almost every evening, she did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hello, Rosa. Have you met my mother?<\/em> I mean, seriously, that is my goddamn mother. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what growing up with her was like. A constant stream of arguing and negativity and one-sided rants and MY HOUSE WAS SO LOUD. (FYI, the infamous Kasper has met my mother and can confirm that this is indeed 100% factual and correct and made up of all the facts<\/em>).<\/p>\n
We get to know more of Rosa, too, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad Zusak doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t focus entirely around Hans. Liesel spends some of her days after school walking around town with Rosa as she picks up and drops off the laundry and ironing that she does for the richer part of town. What we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given is a long string of that very complaining, as Rosa imparts her wonderfully negative opinions about the people she works for. Not that what she has to say is incorrect or anything, but Rosa really does seem to exist solely on complaining.<\/p>\n
It was like a roll call of scorn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I must use this in the future. I must!<\/p>\n
The only thing I want to note from this section is that Zusak focuses a bit on the house at 8 Grande Strasse more than anything else. It belongs to the mayor and his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153defeated\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wife. I wanted to point this out because I think we will return here. AND I JUST WANT TO PREDICT ONE THING RIGHT BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON.<\/p>\n
Moving on.<\/p>\n
When she finished berating the people she worked for, Rosa Hubermann would usually move on to her other favorite theme of abuse. Her husband. Looking at the bag of washing and the hunched houses, she would talk, and talk, and talk. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If your papa was any good,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she informed Liesel every <\/em>time they walked through Molching, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do this.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She sniffed with derision. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A painter! Why marry that Arschloch?<\/em> That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they told me\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmy family, that is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Their footsteps crunched along the path. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And here I am, walking the streets and slaving in my kitchen because that Saukerl<\/em> never has any work. No real work, anyway. Just that pathetic accordian in those dirt holes every night.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Again, are you my mother<\/em>. Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly the same, because I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize that Hans might actually be failing to contribute as much as Rosa might want, so she might actually have some basis for the way she treats her husband. Plus\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just how some relationships work. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know these people that well quite yet.<\/p>\n
Basically, I want to know more.<\/p>\n
It was a tradition for Frau Holtzapfel, one of their neighbors, to spit on the Hubermanns\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 door every time she walked past. The front door was only meters from the gate, and let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just say that Frau Holtzapfel had the distance\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand the accuracy.<\/p>\n
The spitting was due to the fact that she and Rosa Hubermann were engaged in some kind of decade-long verbal war. No one knew the origin of this hostility. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably forgotten it themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ok, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that feels that I might grow to like Rosa a lot, despite that she reminds me of the negative parts of my own mother, because she is feisty<\/em>. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a great sense of self-preservation to her. In the meantime, though, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left with Liesel having to clean Holtzapfel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spit off of their door each time she sends her saliva that way.<\/p>\n
Each night, Liesel would step outside, wipe the door, and watch the sky. Usually it was like spillage\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcold and heavy, slippery and gray\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut once in a while some stars had the nerve to rise and float, if only for a few minutes. On those nights she would stay a little longer and wait.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hello, stars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Waiting.<\/p>\n
For the voice from the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Or till the stars were dragged down again, into the waters of the German sky.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At least after all of this, Liesel still seems to have hope. And maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all one can<\/em> have in a situation like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the seventh chapter of The Book Thief, life under the rule of Rosa is not easy for Liesel. However, she does begin to find some solace in school and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou guessed it\u00e2\u20ac\u201da single book. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[23,46,45,44],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-book-thief","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-the-book-thief","tag-markus-zusak","tag-the-book-thief-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}