Everybody has morals that differ from one another. Each person has a definition of what is considered good and what is considered bad. What one person may consider a good moral, someone else may consider it as a bad moral. Whether a moral is good or bad is impossible to classify. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, he gives each character a set of morals that differ from each of the other characters. The characters he uses to display these differences include Liesel, Liesel’s birth mother, and Liesel’s foster father Hans Hubermann.
An instance where morality is displayed in Liesel’s life is when she steals the books. While attending the burial ceremony of her brother, Liesel discovers a book in the snow, The Grave Digger’s Handbook. It is here where steals her first book. This leads to the stealing of numerous books throughout the course of the novel and allows the audience to understand the moral standpoint of Liesel. Liesel also succumbs to the pressure of stealing food from the farmer, showing that she will do anything for the greater good of her and her family. Some may question this act and consider it as immoral. However, it contains good intentions as she is only trying to feed her family. Thievery is an illegal and immoral act, but with good intentions as she has for the act, some may look at it as a moral act.
Liesel’s birth mother puts her kids up for adoption in the beginning of the novel. As such an awful act as it may seem, she does this with good intentions. She does this act in order to keep her children safe from the Nazi party. Many people may see this as she does not love her children, but puts them up for adoption in order to save them and keep them safe.
Hans Hubermann contains a characteristic that may seem foolish to some. Hubermann does not agree with Nazism and their way of going about things. He paints over graffiti that is disrespectful towards Jewish people and takes a positive stance for their safety and rights. Going against the Nazi way, he hides a Jewish man in his basement for a period of two and half years, something that the Nazis would consider immoral. For Hubermann, this act of kindness is considered moral because he is doing a kind and generous thing for someone in need.
Zusak uses each character as a pivotal piece to his novel, The Book Thief, in order to display the differences between each of their morals. What one may consider as immoral, another may consider as moral with good intentions. There is no complete definition as to what is moral, for everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Zusak’s novel does a magnificent job to display the differences between people’s morals and beliefs and to show why it is impossible to characterize something as moral or immoral.
