Part Five: The Whistler – Guidelines for a well-structured summary

“The Floating Book” (Part I)

1. What announcement does Death make about Rudy Steiner?  Why would Death characterizes the announcement as “small?”

2. What does Death foreshadow regarding Rudy’s death? How does Death feel about Rudy’s death?

“The Gamblers (A Seven"Sided Die)”

1. Why do you think the symbol of a seven-sided die is selected by the author? 

2. List the seven sides of the die.

3. Death explains his own interests to the reader.  How does that explanation support the idea that the point of view matters to the theme and overall power of a novel?

4. Max asks Rosa to cut his hair, but she is unable to find the scissors.  As the scene plays out, what does it reveal about life in the Hubermann household?

5. What is Liesel tempted to tell the mayor’s wife?  Why?

6. What bonded Erik and Hans?  What bonds LIesel and Max?  Explain.

7. What inspires Max to draw the picture of himself and Liesel walking the tightrope to the sun?

8. Why does Max exercise?

9. As Max becomes stronger, he imagines he is boxing Hitler. How do the rules the referee states mimic the reality of life in Germany?

10. What does Hitler shout to the audience watching the imaginary fight?  What does he ask them in his rhetorical tongue? How does the  audience  respond? What does this symbolize?

11. Who is the last individual to enter the ring? What does this symbolize?

12. How does Death relate Max’s dream to the well-recognized joke, “There’s a Jew  and a German Standing in a basement, right?” Do you find the reference powerful? Explain.

13. Why is the seven"sided die an appropriate symbol for this story?

14. What does the mayor’s wife give to Liesel? How does Liesel respond?

15.What form does Liesel’s subconscious take when she is verbally attacking the mayor’s wife?

16. How does Liesel feel after her verbal assault of Frau Hermann? Explain.

“Rudy’s Youth”

1. What three problems characterize Rudy’s young life? Explain.

2.The story flashes forward two years, what does Liesel long to do?  What does Liesel come tounderstand about her, and Rudy’s experiences with the Hitler Youth?

“The Losers”

1. Briefly identify Viktor Chemmel on the character grid.

2. Compare Viktor Chemmel and Arthur Berg as leaders. What parallels  might  you draw between their leadership styles and leaders from this historical period?

3. On what terms do Viktor and Rudy separate?

“Sketches”

1.Max spends his time writing a book for Liesel.  He intends the book to be an autobiography, but that is not what emerges.  What inspires Max’s writing? How does the book change?

2. What happens when Liesel sneaks a peek of Max’s sketches?

“The Whistler and the Shoes”

1. Why does Rudy tell Liesel, “I need a win, Liesel.  Honestly.”?

2.Liesel decides that stealing something, more specifically, stealing something back, would be the best way to improve Rudy’s spirits?  From whom does Liesel choose to steal? What Does she realize when the opportunity to steal presents itself?

3.Hearing  someone walking on the floor above her, Liesel finds the book, goes  out  the window, and she and Rudy run away. What does Liesel realize has been left behind? What does Rudy do?

4.What indication does the reader have that Liesel has become as attached to Rosa as she has to Hans?

5. What “official title” does Liesel receive in October of 1941? By whom?

“Three Acts of Stupidity by Rudy Steiner”

1. List the three acts of stupidity that Death provides.

2.Why is Rudy’s behavior so dangerous?

Why  does  Rudy  behave  so  dangerously? What  is the result of Rudy’s behavior?

“The Floating Book (Part II)”

1. When and how does Rudy finally get his victory?

2. Why does Rudy remain in the freezing water longer than necessary?

3. Does Rudy finally get his kiss? 

Part Four: The Standover Man – Guidelines for a well-structured summary

“The Accordionist (The Secret Life of Hans Hubermann)”

1. Which two questions does Max ask Hans Hubermann? Why do you believe Max asks these two questions?

2. Death remembers Hans from World War I and states that they never had  a scheduled meeting. How did Hans avoid meeting Death during World War I?

3. What “small but noteworthy note” does Death offer the reader in this  chapter? 

Do you feel that this might embody a theme for the novel? Why or why not?

4. Briefly identify Erik Vandenburg on the character grid.

5. How does Hans gain possession of Erik Vandenburg’s accordion?

6. Summarize Hans Hubermann’s political conflict. Name his major mistakes.

7. What life"changing event occurred for Hans Hubermann on June 16,1939?

“A Good Girl”

1. What occurs in November 1940?

2. How does Liesel respond to Max’s arrival?

3. What do you believe is the “wild card” to which Death refers?

“A Short History of the Jewish Fist Fighter”

1. Who was Max’s favorite fist-fighting opponent? Where did Max train as a child?

2. How does Max personify Death? What is Death’s reaction?

3. In how many fights did Walter Kugler and Max engage over  the  years? Did they  remain friends?

4. How old was Max on the “night of broken glass” (November 9, 1938)? 

5. How did Max escape capture? What happened to Max’s family?  What is Max’s reaction?

6. What is written on the piece of paper that Max received from his mother? Why is that paper important?

7. Why does the fact that the Hubermanns have a child concern Max?

8. Who speaks first at the end of the chapter?

“The Wrath of Rosa”

1. What startles Liesel from her sleep?

2. What does Liesel find unusual about Rosa’s reaction to the stranger?

3.Explain the final line in the chapter? “Who are these people?”

“Liesel’s Lecture”

1. What important point about character does Death make in the opening paragraph?

2.How are Rosa’s actions and conversations different on this day?

3.What story does Hans offer to Liesel?

4. Of what promise does Hans remind Liesel? What does Hans tell Liesel will happen if shebreaks her promise?

5.How does Rosa uncharacteristically greet Liesel when she returns from her talk with Hans?

“The Sleeper”

1.How does Max spend the first three days with the Hubermanns?

2.What does Max say in his sleep?

“The Swapping of Nightmares”

1. Where does Max decide he belongs?

2. Behind what is Max hidden in the basement?

3. Why does Max want to get up and walk out of the Hubermanns’ home? What does he do? Why?

4. What catches Liesel’s eye when she finally goes into the basement? What does Liesel attempt to ask Max?

5. What is the only thing that Mama and Papa argue about after Max’s arrival?

6. What does Liesel learn about Rosa after Max’s arrival,according to Death?

7. What helps Liesel to maintain her sanity?

8. What comparison does Death make to Liesel reading in the mayor’s library and Max livingin the basement?

9. How does Hans and Liesel’s reading save Max’s life?

10. What change do the Hubermanns make in their routine in order to preserve Max’s health and safety?

11. How do new stories enter the Hubermanns’ home nightly?

12. What word does Max use to characterize himself? Do you agree or disagree with that characterization?  Explain your answer.

13. What prompts Liesel to tell Papa she does not need him to stay with her when  she has a nightmare? Why do you think Liesel tells Papa she no longer needs him to stay with her?

14. What gift does Liesel bring to Max daily?

15. What gift does Liesel receive for her twelfth birthday? How does she include Max in her special day?

“Pages from the Basement”

1. Why is Liesel kept from the basement?

2. How many pages does Max think he will need?

3. Comment on the book that Max gives to Liesel.  What do you feel is the importance of this book?

4. How does Max give the book to Liesel? How does Liesel react to the gift?

Part Three (Exercises' Answers)

The way home

1) Because she thinks he will tell Rosa about it.
2) He promises that he won't tell Rosa, but Liesel should promise him that she will keep a secret if he ever asks
3) Papa changes cigarettes for MKPF, a book wrote by Hitler.


The mayor's library

1) The mayor's house, because the mayor's wife saw Liesel stealing the book
2) She goes there, but tries not to look at the mayor's wife.
3) Liesel knows that because, as the mayor's wife brought her to her private library, she should know that Liesel loves books.
4) I think she isn't going to tell anyone, because she seems to be very amiable with Liesel and I think she likes Her interest for books.
5) Everywhere Liesel looked, she saw Frau Hermann with her strange smile. It was a new experience to Liesel to be in such a big private library
6) To say "thank you" to the mayor's wife





Enter the struggler 



1) To Sttutgart, because a new character, a Jewish called Max, lives there.

2) The visitor brings food. I infer that he is a German that wants to help Max, because, as he is a Jewish, he have to be hide every time 

3) To Hans Hubberman. The book that was given to Max was MKPF
3) To Hans Hubberman. The book that was given to Max was MKPF

Summary (part two)

Summary (Part two)


Liesel is getting better. She is still having nightmares, but she feels more comfortable now, because Mama and Papa are very affable with her. She has a friend too, Rudy, who she likes to play with, and Papa gave to her two new books! But things aren't that good at the Hubermanns' house. The war is getting more of a reality, Rosa's client aren't asking her to wash their clothes because they are saving money to buy food and others things during the war. Rosa asks Liesel to do the service, because she thinks that people won't say "no" to a child.
The problem is that, as Liesel is the one who does the service,  she receives the payment, even if she has to give the money to Mama. Liesel miss her "true" mother, and decides to write letters to her. To send them, Liesel spends the money of the service. Rosa gets very angry with her.
Every day, Liesel checks the post box to see if her mother answered her question, but one day, the social assistant who was responsible for Liesel tells her that they've lost contact with her mother.
Days pass and Hitler's birthday arrives. People go to the front of the town hall, and to celebrate this date, Nazis burn books. Liesel tries to leave the crowd, when suddenly, she hears a voice. She knows this voice, but can't recognize it. She follows the voice and sees Ludwig Schmeikl, the boy who laughed at her when she tried to read for her class. He is hurt. Liesel doesn't like him, but feels that she has to help Ludwig. She brings him out the crowd, and the boy thanks her.
Liesel waits for Papa. When he arrives, they get into the town hall gates and watch the books burning. When Liesel sees that the soldiers aren't paying attention, Liesel picks a book which isn't burned completely. When she picks the book, she realizes that an old woman saw her doing this. Who was this strange woman?
...

Part Three: MKPF: Exercises

The Way Home

1. Why is Liesel afraid when Hans realizes she has stolen another book?
2. What happens to Papa when he discovers the book Liesel Has stolen?
3. What factors are involved?

The Mayor’s Library

1. Whose home has Liesel been avoiding on her laundry rounds? Why?
2. What happens when she can no longer avoid the home?
3. How does Liesel know that the mayor’s wife did indeed spy her stealing the book from the bonfire? Where does the mayor’s wife take Liesel?
4. Do you believe that the mayor’s wife plans to tell anyone about Liesel’s theft? Explain your answer.
5. What does Liesel find unusual about the library and Frau Hermann?
6. Why does Liesel run back to the mayor’s house?

Enter the Struggler

1. The story shifts setting. To where? Why?
2. What items does a visitor bring to Max? What might you infer from the man’s visit?
3. To whom does Max plead? Based on your answer, what book was given to Max?

Epilogue

Summary

Death says that the world is a factory run by humans, and he is a worker whose job is to carry their souls away when they die. He is very tired and will tell the rest of the story in as striaghtforward a manner as possible. He reveals that Liesel died “just yesterday,” at an old age, far from Himmel Street in a suburb of Sydney. She had three children and many grandchildren, as well as lots of friends, but always remembered Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and her brother. Death then flashes back to the events immediately following the bombing. Liesel, having no family and nowhere to go, is taken to the police, clutching Hans’s accordion. After three hours, the mayor and Frau Hermann arrive and take Liesel home with them. At the mayor’s house, Liesel sits in a room talking to her. She refuses to bathe and keeps the ash of the Himmel Street bombings on her skin through the funeral of the victims. Then she walks into the river where Rudy rescued her book and says her final goodbye to him, washing herself in the water where he rescued her book years before.

Months pass, and Liesel returns to Himmel Street to look for her lost books. Only rubble remains though. Rudy’s father, Alex, is given leave from the war and returns to the neighborhood. Liesel tells him about kissing Rudy’s dead body. After the war, Alex reopens his shop, and Liesel starts spending time there with him. They take walks to Dachau but are not allowed to go in. In 1945, Max finds his way back to the shop, and has an emotional reunion with Liesel. Death resumes his narrative and says that The Book Thief is just one of the many stories he picks up in his work. When he came to collect Liesel’s soul, he says, they went for a walk near a soccer field and he showed her the book he rescued from the trash the night of the bombing in Molching. Liesel was overcome that he saved her book for so many years and asked if he read it. He told her he read her book many times. When she asked him if he understood it, he was unable to answer her, and explained that he has difficulty understanding humans in general, how they can be capable of such generosity and at the same time such violence. His final words are delivered both to the book thief and to the reader: Death is haunted by humans.

Analysis

Several of the themes that have been developed over the course of the book come together in the epilogue, through Liesel in particular. Liesel initially refuses to let go by not bathing and by holding on to Hans’s accordion, and those acts of mourning demonstrate her feelings of responsibility to the dead. By refusing to wash, she preserves that moment in a nearly literal sense and display her unwillingness to get over the deaths of the people she cared about. Eventually, in an act that symbolizes her letting go of the past and moving on, she bathes in the river. The act pays tribute to Rudy, who jumped into the river to save one of her books, and it recalls the Christian notion of washing away sin and spiritual rebirth through baptism. At the end of the novel, the theme of the power of words rises to the fore again as Death reveals to Liesel, who has passed away as an old lady, that he found and kept her book. That he kept her book of all the ones he’s undoubtedly come across suggests there’s something special about it, and it’s clear that it has informed the story he tells the reader. He has developed a connection with Liesel’s words, and the implication is that, in telling us her story, we have as well.

The role chance plays in survival again comes up as Alex Steiner, Rudy’s father, continues to wish he had sent Rudy to the Nazi training school, and as we find Max alive and well. At various times in the novel we’ve seen seemingly inconsequential acts result in characters avoiding death. Hans, for instance, was saved by Erik Vandenburg, who spared him from the battle that killed Hans’s platoon by volunteering him to write letter. Later he was saved when Reinhold Zucker forced him to trade seats in their transport truck. Here, Alex struggles with the knowledge that, had he allowed the Nazis to take Rudy, he might still be alive as he wouldn’t have been on Himmel Street when the bombs destroyed it. The irony of the situation is that Alex was trying to keep Rudy safe by not allowing the Nazis to take him, and in fact that irony underscores the inherent uncertainty of fate we see in the novel. Similarly, even though Hans thought he was dooming Max when he helped the Jewish prisoner, meaning Max had to flee, we find at the end of the novel that Max survived all his ordeals. Death sums the idea up when he says of Alex Steiner, “you save someone. You kill them. How was he supposed to know?” The suggestion is that people can never see what the full consequences of their actions will be.

At the end of the book, Death tells Liesel he is “haunted” by humans, and by that statement he suggests there is something unexplainable about the extreme duality people exhibit, a major theme of the book. Death makes the comment just after explaining that he wished he could tell Liesel about the glories and atrocities, wonders and horrors humans are capable of, and it’s clear that what haunts him most is humanity’s capacity for both extreme good and extreme evil. That duality, another major theme of the novel, manifests itself most notably in the tremendous cruelty we see the Nazis and their sympathizers engage in and the extraordinary kindness of ordinary Germans like Hans Hubermann who risked their own lives to help others. That Death chooses to say he is “haunted” indicates that this duality troubles him and lingers in his mind, and it suggests that Death views humanity as something like an unresolved paradox. That is to say, we don’t make any sense to Death. The statement is full of irony because it’s a feeling people often have regarding death. Death the narrator reverses it back onto us, meaning humans, making us the frightening and mysterious phenomenon.

Part Ten

Summary

Death relates that Himmel Street will soon be bombed and he will pay a visit to collect the souls of the victims, which will include Rudy, Rosa, Hans, and many other characters, but not Liesel. Liesel will be saved, Death reveals, because she will be in the basement of her house, reading over a book she’s written about her life. When the searchers pull her from the rubble, she will scream for Hans still holding the book she’s written. The narrative then goes back in time and describes the events leading up to the bombing. For three months, all is relatively peaceful in Molching, with the exception of more parades of Jews. Then, one morning Michael Holtzapfel is discovered to have hanged himself in a laundry. In his note, he asks his mother for forgiveness and says he is going to meet his dead brother in heaven. After the funeral, Liesel reads to Michael’s mother, Frau Holtzapfel, as usual.

After months of scanning every passing group of prisoners, Liesel sees Max in one of the parades of Jews through Molching. She cries out to him, then joins him in the parade. He tells her he was halfway to Stuttgart when he was caught by the Nazis. A soldier warns Liesel to get away from the Jews, but Liesel ignores him, and when the soldiers drag her from the group she fights her way back in and quotes from “The Word Shaker” to Max. The soldiers whip Max and Liesel. Rudy pulls Liesel from the crowd and Max continues on with the rest of the prisoners. After this, Liesel stays in bed for several days, then finds Rudy and explains to him who Max is. She shows him “The Word Shaker,” and he sees where he was described as a boy with “hair the color of lemons.” Liesel and Rudy come close to kissing, but again they don’t. Death interjects that Rudy will die in a month.

Liesel returns to the mayor’s house and lets herself in to the library. Overwhelmed by all the pain and loss of the past months, she begins ripping pages out of a book, making the connection in her mind between words and the current state of the world. When she is done, she writes a note for Frau Hermann apologizing for her actions, then leaves. Three days later, Frau Hermann comes to Liesel’s house and gives her a blank book, so

she can write her own story. She tells Liesel not to punish herself, and they have coffee together. Liesel begins writing her life story, starting with the death of her brother and the theft of the first book from the gravedigger. After Liesel has finished the book and is beginning to revise it, the night comes when the planes drop the bombs that flatten Himmel Street.

Because the air raid sirens come too late, most of the residents are asleep in their beds when the bombs drop, and are killed instantly. Death arrives and takes most of the souls, but is able to see that Liesel, writing in her basement, survived the bombing. After Liesel is rescued from the rubble, she finds Rudy’s corpse and kisses him on the lips. She sees the bodies of Rosa and Hans and reluctantly forces herself to say goodbye to them as well. Then she asks the workers for Hans’s accordion. She places the instrument next to Hans’s body and promises him she’ll never drink Champagne again. As the workers lead Liesel away from the bodies. She leaves the book that she was writing, the story of her life, which is called “The Book Thief,” in the rubble. The book is collected along with the rest of the detritus and thrown in the garbage, but Death sees it and rescues it from the trash.

Analysis

The survivor’s guilt that we’ve seen Hans, Max, and most recently Michael Holtzapfel struggle with finally overcomes Michael, causing him to hang himself. Throughout the book, many characters have wrestled with the responsibility they feel to the dead. Max, for example, was overwhelmed with guilt when he first arrived at the Hubermanns’ house for leaving his family behind. Hans felt guilty because he believed that Erik Vandenburg saved his life and so he owed it to Erik to somehow make it up to him. In this instance, Michael feels guilty simply for remaining alive when his brother didn’t and his own survival was entirely a matter of chance. As a result he feels he doesn’t really deserve to be alive. That feeling appears to have been eating at him since he returned home, and in his note he says he “can’t take it anymore,” indicating that his fight against his guilt has been an ongoing struggle.

The fates of many of the characters in the novel are revealed in this section, though the fates of two notable characters remain a mystery. The most significant event is, of course, the deaths of Rudy, Hans, Rosa, and many of the residents of Himmell Street, who die in their sleep when the bombs fall. Death has hinted at this tragedy before, even telling the reader outright that Rudy will die, and here we finally see how it occurs. On the other hand, it’s not at all clear what will become of Liesel. She has just lost her best friend, her parents, and her home. Practically nothing of her previous life remains. The other character whose fate is uncertain is Max. We see him with the other Jewish prisoners on their way to Dachau, which certainly doesn’t offer much room for optimism. But Liesel is at least able to confirm that he’s still alive. It’s at once a victory knowing he hasn’t been killed and a defeat knowing that the Nazis did manage to catch him. Perhaps the best the reader can hope for is that his emotional meeting with Liesel has provided him some strength, as he appears to take a great deal of encouragement from seeing her and her mention of his story. Despite the fact that he is weak and suffering and on his way to a labor camp, he manages to tell Liesel it’s a “beautiful day.” The statement shares the same irony as his affirmation early in the novel that MKPF saved his life.

After Michael Holtzapfel’s suicide and her encounter with Max, Liesel has a crisis regarding the pain and suffering she sees in the world and the role words play in it, and it’s only resolved when she begins writing her own book. Liesel’s sadness and frustration lead her to Frau Hermann’s library, where she thinks of all the terrible things she’s experienced as she looks at the books around her. She blames Hitler and his words for all of them, and this idea creates a contradiction in her mind in which she simultaneously blames words for the awful state of things and wants to find comfort in them. She calls them “lovely bastards,” indicating both how much she loves them and how she hates them at that moment. She tears the pages out of a book as a sort of symbolic revenge, and the act recalls the Nazi book burning from earlier in the novel. Liesel’s is different, of course: she doesn’t just want to destroy some words to protect her ideas; she wants to get revenge on all of them. Liesel leaves without having resolved her contradictory feelings, and in fact that resolution doesn’t come until after Frau Hermann gives Liesel a blank book. As she writes her own story, she finds a source of release and empowerment that, as Death says in narration, “brought her to life.” That book is also the reason she’s in the basement during the bombing, and it saves her life in the same sense that Max feels he was saved by MKPF.