The Strongest Land-A connection between Liesel and a Korean proverb

The land that is stormed upon the most is the firmest at the end of the day.

In other words, suffering makes us strong. This is a Korean proverb that I've often heard, and it holds true for many things in life. It also applies to The Book Thief.

Throughout the book, Liesel and her family are constantly plagued by loss. Liesel's close companion, Max, has to leave because of a mistake Hans made that also got him assigned to the LSE, forced to confront directly the horrors of the war. Hans loses his seemingly ever-present dignity as he gets drunk prior to his first day of LSE service. This in itself is a crushing loss-somehow it's tragic when a man falls far enough that he does something that is contrary to his nature. Liesel's friend, Rudy, loses his father as well, and their shared misery makes everything worse, as neither of them have a friend to comfort them. Liesel's whole family is based on a balance between Hans, Rosa, and herself, and when Hans leaves, something in the household seems cold, and wrong, without the presence of Hans. Even the seemingly iron willed Rosa feels the effects, sitting on the edge of the bed holding her husband's accordion, late at night. And of course, Liesel's original family. With a brother dead from disease and exhaustion, her mother in a concentration camp- presumably also dead- and a father unknown, everything seems tragic, at first. For Liesel to be isolated from her real family, to be united and happy with a new one, only to lose that family as well combines with the rest of the tragedy in this book. As she states on 427, her heart is tired.

But all is not lost. While it may not seem like it during the change, it's worth it. Suffering does make us stronger. And it appears to affect Liesel in an interesting way. She does become stronger, as well as more mature. She is not as afraid; she even throws bread to the Jews with soldiers present; she does what she knows is right. This is the culmination of her maturation. She is able to rise above; while an earlier Liesel may have buckled under the pressure and the sequence of events, the present Liesel does more than hold herself up under the pressure; she holds up Rudy, her neighbors in the bomb shelter, and she holds up her family.