The Book Thief by Marckus Zusak
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
The Book Thief by Marckus Zusak
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
In The Book Thief Lisel Meminger is living with a foster family - struggling to get by on what she steals - hiding from bombing raids - in a war that makes powerful adults feel helpless - still she shares with her neighbors - and helps the even more powerless Jewish man hiding from the Nazis.
In The Wolf Brother Torak sets out to avenge his father by destroying the demon bear who killed him. Along the way, he receives assistance from allies.
These two books illustrate the various ways children appreciate, power, authority, peer relations and obligations to assist those who are more helpless than they are. They also help children understand how to receive with grace as well as how to give with gratitude.
One of the first lessons a child learns is to respect their parents loving authority. As their circle of experience expands, they learn that there are people who have power, and use it despite a lack of authority to do so. As anyone who ever encountered a bully knows, the ability to dominate a situation does not require authority, only power. Like the Nazis in The Book Thief and the demon bear in Wolf Brother there is no “authority” granted by the governed. The people in these books are dominated and bullied by outside forces that seized control rather than earning the right to lead. Wolf Brother is the first book in a series of six books entitled The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. In introduction it states
"Six thousand years ago, Evil stalks the land. According to legend, only twelve-year-old Torak and his wolf-cub companion can defeat it. Their journey together takes them through deep forests, across giant glaciers, and into dangers they never imagined. Torak and Wolf are terrified of their mission. But if they do not battle to save their world, who will?" — Wolf Brother. .
The story takes place in Europe, six thousand years ago before the establishment of agricultural society. When Torak is only twelve his father is killed by demon who possessed the body of a bear. Before his death, his father makes him swear to make a quest to ask help from the World Spirit. Viewed in this respect the demon bear has power, but the world spirit is the overlying authority.
Narrated by Death himself, The Book Thief opens when Lisle Meminger is only a nine-year-old child. At the start, her brother dies on a train as her mother is taking them to live with a foster family. The familial separation is necessary because of how her parents’ politics are affected by the political tides of the times. At the funeral, she steals her first book as a memento of her brother and the funeral. She and her family and most of society, have no control of the circumstances at this time. The power in their lives and country was seized by political forces beyond their control and Lisle acts out by stealing the book. The theme of power and authority continue though out the story as the plot develops. Lisle steals her first book at her brother’s funeral. Later on, she steals others in response to constraints put upon her not to borrow books from a woman who would otherwise willingly lend them to her. The woman has the authority to lend the books to her, but the power to employ Lisel’s foster mother is taken away in response to political pressures. In response, Lisel’s foster mother refused to allow Lisel to borrow books. Lisel reacts by covertly stealing what would otherwise be openly offered and received. This is just the start of the many conflicts between power and authority in this book. During the course of the story, World War II bears down on Lisel, her foster parents and their immediate society as the World in engulfed by what seems to be a clash between good and evil. With both sides acting on the premise that if they can seize power they then get to declare themselves in the right and claim the authority to govern as they see fit.
The themes of class and justice run through both The Wolf Brother and The Book Thief. Children learn early on that sometimes Life is just not Fair. They see other children who are born into families that have higher status then they do and seem to get all the breaks; those children who are said to have been “Born with a silver spoon in their mouths.” Conversely, most also are people who have less or more than others do, know people and frequently have friends who are born in situations where they have very little and although they are good natured and try hard the deck seems to be stacked against them.
In The Wolf Brother Torak is of the Wolf Clan. When Torak meets a wolf cub at the outset of his quest he recognizes the relationship and they become allies and in time friends. As the story progresses they are captured by the Raven Clan where they meet a teenage boy named Hord, a girl called Renn and Oslak, an adult man. There is conflict among the adult leadership in the Raven Clan that is rendered moot when Torak escapes. This establishes a tension between the classes of wolf, the children and the adult classes of leadership.
Lisel has trouble adjusting to life with her foster parents, Hans Hubermann, a housepainter, and Rosa, his wife. Hans extends kindness when he sits with her every night and this eventually blossoms into friendship across the class of adult to child and foster parent to dependent. Lisel relishes there is another class level extant in the world, that of education, when Hans teaches her how to read. When the war starts, Rosa recruits Lisel to deliver the laundry hoping this will help retain customers who do not want to tell a child that they can no longer afford to employ her mother. It serves to acquaint Lisel with a broad range of society and classes beyond her previous experience. As the story progresses, at Christmas time Lisel meets her foster parents’ adult children, introducing a new level of class structure inside the family unit. In less than a year, Lisel has transitions from a traditional family unit with parents and a brother as the immediate classes to a foster family where there are older adult children. In her broader sphere of influence, she makes friends with a Rudy, neighbor boy her own age. Rudy is always hungry and they and begin stealing food for him. Lisel steals a book at a public book burning; the mayor’s wife sees her and invites her to visit her personal library. Lisel’s exposure to classes is expanding and grows even greater when Max Vandenberg, a Jew takes up a hidden residence in the Hubermann’s basement. The Hubermann family does this to repay Max’s father who saved Hans’ life during the World War I. Max arrived exhausted from his journey Lisel watches over him at night so he can recover. Hans’ kindness at the outside is paid forward by Lisel’s kindness to Max and the differences between the classes spirals upward by another level. When Max recovers, he writes a story entitled The Standover Man, about the people who will comfort and watch by your bedside as Hans did for Lisel and Lisel did for Max. The circle between the inter-family classes is complete; Max’s father saved Hans’ life, Hans became Lisel’s foster father, Lisel cared for Max in his time of need and Max responded by the gift of the story. In the winter of 1942 Max get seriously sick and it is Lisel again sits at someone’s bedside watching over them at night. Fortunately, Max recovers in time to avoid an official examination of the basement to see if it can be used as a bomb shelter, fortunately for the family it is decided that it cannot, saving them from future scrutiny on this issue. The family’s fortunes increase when Hans gets extra employment painting windows to comply with blackout requirements as the threat of bombing increases. Hans sends Max away because of his fear of the Gestapo At first he regrets this and then, as conditions worsen. Hans and Rudy’s father are drafted and air raids occur with increasing regularity. Lisel, now an accomplished reader helps her neighbors keep calm by reading to them during the air raids. A new character becomes significant in Lisel’s life because of this. A neighbor Frau Holtzpel arranges with Rosa for Lisel to read to her.
It takes a while for a child to mature enough to understand the full importance of how people grant their consent to be governed. One of the great social issues is the right of the populace to grant consent to their rulers. In a wartime situation, such as Lisel Meminger is growing up in it is obvious that the populace is subject to a governing situation beyond their control. Torak’s community too could be said to be at war with the demon bear and the allies he encounters along the way in his quest to avenge his father and assume his father’s quest to kill the demon bear are almost a personification of the more peopled world of Lisel’s Society. Torak does not consent to be governed by the adult leadership and escapes their control. In doing so, he holds true to his own personal quest and refuses his consent to be governed by their dictates.
Lisel’s family holds political views that are quite different from the Government’s. Lisel, as one of the most powerless members of that society is affected in a radical way. Lisel cannot change the situation, nor can the people around her. Certainly, they would not choose war; they had that thrust upon them. In her powerless state Lisel first acts out by stealing a book. When her night terrors keep her from sleeping her new friend and foster father helps by teaching her to read. This helps her control her reaction to being governed without her consent by opening up the world of education where she has control over her own mind. The issue of consent is brought home even deeper by the introduction of Max Vandenberg. Certainly Max would never consent to be ruled by a Government he must hide from. However, like Lisel and her families, he has no choice in the matter, powers beyond his control have seized authority and he must cope as best he can. Taking place as it does during World War II the greater portion of the population finds itself governed by forces seemingly out of control. Their responses differ however, at one point Rudy and Lisel leave bread in the path of the Jews being marched through town. Rosa holds a manuscript Max wrote until she feels Lisel is ready for it. Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife who could not employ Rosa leaves a book on the windowsill and later leaves out cookies for Lisel and Rudy when they come to steal books. Frau Holtzapfel sinks into depression when one of her sons is killed and another is injured in the war. The children extend kindness to a dying pilot in spite of the fact that a short time earlier he was dropping bombs to kill them and destroy their town. People die and get hurt in the course of the war. Bombs strike and kill. Max is captured and marched through town. Rudy controls Lisel so she does not betray her affection for a Jew and bring the wrath of the soldiers down upon herself. Lisel writes her own story about her wartime experiences. She finishes it by writing, “I have hated the words and I have loved the, and I hope I have made them right.” She names her book The Book Thief. The bomb shelter is hit but Lisel survives in her own basement where she was rereading her book. She is the only survivor on her street. Hans and Rosa are killed, so is Rudy and Frau Heltzapfel. Lisel’s book is lost to her but picked up by the narrator, Death. The Mayor and his wife Ilsa adopt Lisel. Lisel helps Rudy’s father in his new Taylor shop. As the story tumbles on the war ends, Max survives Dachau and reunites with Lisel in the Taylor shop. At the close Death finally comes for Lisel years later and shows her that he carried her book with him all those years. When she asks him if he could understand it, he responds by saying, “I am haunted by humans.” .
Separated, by thousands of years the events in The Wolf Brother and The Book Thief seem to take place in different worlds. It is hard to imagine that they both unfold in Europe, so much changed in 6,000 years. One unchanging element found in both stories is human nature. The Book Thief, relates to historically based modern events. Europe marches into World War II, Lisel and the people around her find themselves caught in the crossfire. She does not choose to get caught up in the conflict, but cannot avoid it. In the The Wolf Brother Torak chooses to fight to keep his promise to his father. He is older, and more adventuresome than Lisel, where she would rather avoid a conflict but cannot run from it, Torak marches in ready to do battle. They are clearly two very different people. The time and society are very different as well. Lisel lives in a world we can more easily relate to. She lives in post-industrial era Europe with cities we recognize, weapons we understand, modern governmental structures and events that took place less than 100 years ago. Torak’s Europe may or may not have existed 6,000 years ago. That portion of pre-agricultural history is lost in the mists of time; he believes in shamanistic magic and talks to his wolf cub brother; instead of historically accurate armies single characters personify forces and societies. Even the format of the books is different; Lisel’s story tumbles along rapid fire to fit every event into one book; The Wolf Brother is the first of a six book series. His book provides the lush detail we need to understand his world, Lisel lives in a world we can relate to. The landscape is changed, as is the social structure, but both are children. With this as a constant it is easier to understand how, even with these differences both of these books illustrate the ways children appreciate, power, authority, peer relations and their obligation to assist those who are more helpless than they are. They also illustrate a vital point; while you may not be able to control the situation, you do control your reaction to it.
References
Hunt, P., 1994. An Introduction to Children's Literature. s.l.:Oxford University Press.
OC Reading Group, 2010. Wolf Brother. [Online] Available at: http://orewacollegelibrary.blogspot.com/2010/03/wolf-brother-by-michelle-paver.html[Accessed 14 05 2013].
O'Malley, A. G., 2004. Using Children's Literature to Understand Civics Concepts. [Online] Available at: http://www.udel.edu/dssep/articles/annaomalley_article.htm[Accessed 13 05 2013].
Paver, M., 2004. Wolf Brother. s.l.:Orion Children's Books.
Thaker, D. C. & Webb, J., 2002. Introducing Children's Literature: from Romanticism to Postmodernism. s.l.:Routledge.
Zusak, M., 2006. The Book Thief. s.l.:Knopf Books for Young Readers.
Zusak, M., 2013. The Book Thief. [Online] Available at: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19063.The_Book_Thief[Accessed 13 05 2013].
