The Library

[keelylipp]

Liesel learned to love reading and literature in the town of Molching, in her basement on Himmel Street and the library at the mayor's house. She grows to love and eventually hate, the words in the books. The narrator describes the room on page 134, "... the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Book everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving." (Zusak). How do you think the atomosphere of the library changed through Liesel's eyes over the course of the story?

[millaberemski]

At first when Liesel had just learned how to read, she was in love with words and books. They were like her best friend. She saw the library as her home because she could do what she loved in there feeling safe around the words. However, when Liesel started understanding what words could do, how they could hurt people, how they were the deadliest weapon a person could have, she stopped seeing the library as a home to her. She loved words and she hated words. Once she realized the power of them, it made her see the atmosphere of the library not a a home, but as a tool that could be used to either hurt or heal people.

[sophielowy]

Throughout the book the way Liesel viewed the library developed and shifted. In the beginning the library was Liesel's chocolate factory. It was a unknown paradise waiting for Liesel to come explore every page it held. The library became a safe place for Liesel to go and discover a new world around her. A world that at the start seemed glorious and perfect. Over time Liesel realized that the world of words was not so perfect as she thought. As Liesel discovered more and more about the negative aspects of words her view on the library changed. Now the library represented the choice of good or evil. Liesel discovered how large of an effect words can really have and how a few words from a powerful mouth can ruin millions of lives.