A Book Within a Book

The chapter "Pages From the Basement"(p223-238), serves mainly to illustrate Max's gratitude towards the Hubermanns and also Liesel. He had spent many days carefully tearing out the pages of Mein Kamf, painting them white and drawing and writing on them again. In the previous chapter Death states that, he often imagines Max wondering what he could offer Liesel for her birthday. Max must have thought long and hard, because he had so little to offer to Liesel, while Liesel could offer him her company and sometimes a crossword, almost every day. Max has so little to offer Liesel for her birthday, but he still finds something of value to give to her. He also adds a book to Liesels tiny collection, which is a present in itself. So, for a man who is living in a cot in a basement surrounded by paint, Max found a meaningful way to express his gratitude towards Leisel.

This chapter also shows the poor state that Max is in, not only through the moving story of his book, but also through the lack of fresh paper. He must tear, paint and dry pages of a book he despises to create a book as a present. Max's willingness to tear the pages of a book, shows his hatred of Hitler. However this hatred is not unwarranted, because Hitler was to blame for the horror that Max had to live in. The book says that he was so scared that "[Max] tried not to sleep because [he] was afraid of who might be there when [he] woke up." Living in this constant fear will definitely create a hate for the man who caused it.