Characterization of Liesel

In The Book Thief by Mark Zusak, the protagonist Liesel Meminger is one of the most significant characters in the whole book. Liesel is significant because she shows everyone perseverance after dealing with the loss of her brother and leaving her mother to live in a foster home. Even though she wasn’t over this huge loss, she tried to forget about it by bonding with her new family, and making friends with other kids in her neighborhood. Liesel is the protagonist in this novel because she’s the main character and narrator at different points of the novel. Also, The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel herself, and the antagonist, the perspective of death, writes that her story is inspiring and begins the whole book with his views on Liesel. Through the perspective of death, we learn of Liesel’s story and her unfortunate losses. Liesel herself is a shy, skinny, German girl, at around 10 years of age. When Liesel was on the train to her new foster home, her little brother, around 6 years old, had died, which added to her sadness. When Liesel finally arrives into her new foster home, she was meant to go with her brother, but after he died, she was so scared since Liesel was facing this new family all by herself. After finally getting out of the car, she began to learn about and from her new foster family. Her new “Mama” was Rosa Hubermann and her new “Papa” was Hugo Hubermann. She quickly learns that Rosa is very opinionated and makes sure Liesel knows each of her opinions of everyone she passes by. Rosa is also strict, which is the opposite of her father. Hugo, on the other hand, is a carefree, happy go lucky kind of person. He doesn’t have a good relationship with his wife, but he still loves her. Liesel, at around page 90, meets a boy named Rudy Steiner, who she loves to play with. After all these new people in her lives, they’ve grown Liesel and made her a new person. She’s finally accepted death and learned about how hard it is to cope with loss, she’s learned to accept her new family, Rosa and Hugo Hubermann, and she’s learned to trust her new friend.