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Personification
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
The Book Thief is primarily set in the fictional town of Molching, Germany (near Munich) during World War II. Molching is like any regular German town in this era. It has streets like Grande Strasse, where rich people live in large houses with libraries, as well as streets like Himmel Street, where residents struggle to make ends meet. The social stratification is already severe when Liesel arrives there in 1939. It only grows more severe over time, as the war disproportionately strains the resources of the poor. Liesel, Rudy, and other children begin stealing from the rich and even from other poor people in order to stave off hunger. Still, many of the adults in the novel are convinced by Nazi propaganda that Jewish people, not rich government officials, are to blame for their poverty. In the later years of the war, they watch as Jewish prisoners are marched to nearby Dachau to be tortured and likely killed.
