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Part 3: The Mayor's Library
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Book Thief, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death
Words and Language
Books
Stealing and Giving
Color, Beauty, and Ugliness
Summary
Analysis
Death changes the setting of the story to a storage room in Stuttgart, Germany. There is a Jew named Max sitting on his suitcase in the dark, hiding for days and starving. Finally a door opens and a man gives Max a book with an identity card in it and some bread, fat, and carrots. Max eats the food slowly and keeps waiting, miserable.
The scene suddenly changes vastly, putting Liesel's world in perspective. She has experienced much loss and suffering, but she still has a good life compared to Jewish people in Nazi Germany, who are now in danger of death at all times.
Themes
