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Similes
Part 1: The Jesse Owens Incident
Explanation and Analysis—Alex Steiner's Politics:
A motif in the novel is the situationally ironic way in which so many of the characters are kind, and yet most of them are members of the hateful Nazi party. In Part 1: The Jesse Owens Incident, Death uses the "contradictory politics of Alex Steiner" to explain this grim irony:
Point One: He was a member of the Nazi Party, but he did not hate the Jews, or anyone else for that matter.
Point Two: Secretly, though, he couldn’t help feeling a percentage of relief (or worse—gladness!) when Jewish shop owners were put out of business—propaganda informed him that it was only a matter of time before a plague of Jewish tailors showed up and stole his customers.
Related Themes:
Part 3: The Struggler, Continued
Explanation and Analysis—A Book Transformed:
In Part 3: The Struggler, Continued, Max travels to the Hubermanns' house with a copy of Mein Kampf that Hans has sent him as cover for the journey. Death comments on the situational irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Strangely, as he turned the pages and progressed through the chapters, it was only two words he ever tasted.
Mein Kampf. My struggle—
The title, over and over again, as the train prattled on, from one German town to the next.
Mein Kampf.
Of all the things to save him.
Related Themes:
Part 10: Confessions
Explanation and Analysis—Clueless Goodbyes:
In Part 10: Confessions, Liesel finally shows Rudy The Word Shaker and tells him about Max. Death ends the chapter on a note of both dramatic and situational irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Years ago, when they’d raced on a muddy field, Rudy was a hastily assembled set of bones, with a jagged, rocky smile. In the trees this afternoon, he was a giver of bread and teddy bears. He was a triple Hitler Youth athletics champion. He was her best friend. And he was a month from his death.
“Of course I told him about you,” Liesel said.
She was saying goodbye and she didn’t even know it.
Related Themes:
