In the heart of Nazi Germany, a young girl develops a love of words and books and, having no other way to access them, resorts to thievery to acquire them. 500 miles away, in Warsaw, a young Polish Jew is forced to steal just to provide for himself, though he manages to feed his foster family and others. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli are amazingly similar on many different levels.
Both novels feature young thief protagonists, both are set deep inside Nazi territory, and all of each book's events are influenced majorly by the Holocaust. However the two books aren't exactly the same. Misha Pilsudski from Milkweed, depends on thievery for survival in the Warsaw ghetto whereas Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief steals for her own pleasure. Both the lives of Liesel and Misha are turned upside down by the holocaust. Misha, being both a Gypsy and a Jew, is persecuted, humiliated and finally left for dead all because of the extreme hatred and prejudice for Jews. Liesel's world is shaken up by the arrival of Max Vanderburg. As the hunt for Jews intensifies, Liesel and her family face torture and death for keeping a Jew under their roof.
I believe that Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed is similar to The Book Thief because of the main actions and ideas of the populace of Europe that wasn't part of or allied to the Nazi. That is to say everything that these people did was resistant of the Nazis, thievery and impeding the Nazi war effort were popular actions. Both of these actions are accentuated in each of the novels to further show the struggle that the majority of Europe was entangled in with the Nazi party. Both novels do an exceptional job of translating the actions of resisting the cruelty and prejudice of the Nazis into the powerful works of literature that they are now, which further highlights the similarities that exist between the two WWII narratives.
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Hey Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in your juxtaposition (ha!) of The Book Thief and Milkweed, two books that we studied extensively. I have read a number of books that strive to tell the story of the people who suffered in WWII, and at one point or another, they all share a kind of hope. Whether it's hopefulness, hopelessness or just plain HOPE, it's always there in the people, their surroundings, and their thoughts. I really like how you observed that both books are alike on different levels too. Another characteristic that both books share is the way they portray emotions or situations. I find sometimes I have to just take a break from that kind of book so I can collect my thoughts!
~Andrea