|
Have questions?
Contact us
Already a member? Sign in
|
Get every literary device explanation for The Book Thief
Plus so much more...
Sign up for LitCharts A+
Get instant access to every literary device explanation, plus so much more...
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—The Smell of Cookies:
In Part 9: The Next Temptation, Liesel and Rudy return to Ilsa Hermann's house only to find that she has left a plate of cookies for them to find on the desk. Death uses imagery to describe the cookies and their effect on Liesel:
They were Kipferl left over from Christmas, and they’d been sitting on the desk for at least two weeks. Like miniature horseshoes with a layer of icing sugar, the ones on the bottom were bolted to the plate. The rest were piled on top, forming a chewy mound. She could already smell them when her fingers tightened on the window ledge. The room tasted like sugar and dough, and thousands of pages.
The cookies are stale, but they are nonetheless incredibly enticing to a child who lives on a regular diet of watered-down soup. Before even touching the plate, Liesel can imagine trying to pry the bottom layer of sticky cookies off the plate. She can imagine how the rest of them will have fused together into a "chewy mound." Ilsa Hermann would probably never serve cookies in this state to visitors entering through her door. However, to Liesel, they are a dream come true. Even after they have been sitting for two weeks, the smell hits her at full force when she hoists herself through the window. She even tastes "sugar and dough, and thousands of pages" in the room without ever biting into a cookie.
This last image more than anything suggests that Liesel's delight in the cookies has more to do with her imagination than her tangible reality. It takes a powerful smell to activate the sense of taste. The smell of sugar and dough has likely dissipated by now. The idea that Liesel can literally taste "thousands of pages" in the air is even more difficult to believe. However, the image helps convey the intensity of Liesel's desire for books. She hungers for them in the same way a starving child hungers for cookies. Ilsa Hermann's office smells like cookie dough and "thousands of pages" because it represents abundance beyond belief for a girl who lives a life of scarcity.
Monthly
Annual (Best Value)
$595USD/mo
Charged $71.40 USD every year
Quote explanations & citation info
Every PDF download
Printable PDFs for every guide
"Would not have made it through without the printable PDFs. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!"
– LitCharts A⁺ user
One-page Quick Lit Guides
Understand key basics—fast
Printable, one-page guides that cover the plot points, themes, and ideas you need to know.
Detailed chapter analysis
Get what happens and what it means
Targeted analysis next to the summary ensures you’ll understand more than just the plot.
Line-by-line poetry analysis
Get the meaning in every line
Never feel lost reading a poem again with clear and in-depth analysis of each and every line.
Literary & poetic device analysis
Decode the author’s language
Quickly find and understand the key devices in whatever you’re reading.
Unlimited quizzes
Unlimited quizzes and feedback
Boost your learning with quizzes that pinpoint and address knowledge gaps.
Advanced search
Find exactly what you need
Refine your search using advanced filters like genre, time period, literary movement, author context, grade level, and more.
Ask LitCharts AI
Ask LitCharts AI
Instant answers to all your lit questions. Powered by LitCharts content and AI.
Theme comparisons across books
Compare and contrast
Identify similar themes across books, making comparisons fast and simple.
Highlight, take notes, & save guides
Make LitCharts your own
Add highlights or notes, save guides for easy access later, and request new titles.
Teacher$795USD/mo
Charged $95.40 USD every year
Quote explanations & citation info
Find the perfect quote
Then understand it perfectly. And get the citation, too. For all 35,000+ quotes we cover.
Every PDF download
Printable PDFs for every guide
"Would not have made it through without the printable PDFs. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!"
– LitCharts A⁺ user
One-page Quick Lit Guides
Understand key basics—fast
Printable, one-page guides that cover the plot points, themes, and ideas you need to know.
Detailed chapter analysis
Get what happens and what it means
Targeted analysis next to the summary ensures you’ll understand more than just the plot.
Line-by-line poetry analysis
Get the meaning in every line
Never feel lost reading a poem again with clear and in-depth analysis of each and every line.
Literary & poetic device analysis
Decode the author’s language
Quickly find and understand the key devices in whatever you’re reading.
Unlimited quizzes
Unlimited quizzes and feedback
Boost your learning with quizzes that pinpoint and address knowledge gaps.
Advanced search
Find exactly what you need
Refine your search using advanced filters like genre, time period, literary movement, author context, grade level, and more.
Ask LitCharts AI
Ask LitCharts AI
Instant answers to all your lit questions. Powered by LitCharts content and AI.
Theme comparisons across books
Compare and contrast
Identify similar themes across books, making comparisons fast and simple.
Highlight, take notes, & save guides
Make LitCharts your own
Add highlights or notes, save guides for easy access later, and request new titles.
Teacher editions
Save time with in-depth organizers
"THE best teaching resource I have ever used. My students love the handouts."
– LitCharts A⁺ User
Printable classroom resources
Cut prep time in half
Essay prompts, discussion questions, and comprehension checks—easy to print and ready to use in class.
Discussion question generator
Discussion question generator
Instantly create discussion questions that get people talking, through the power of LitCharts analysis and AI.
Essay prompt generator
Essay prompt generator
Quickly create thought-provoking essay prompts that will get your students writing, powered by LitCharts analysis and AI.
Quiz question generator
Quiz question generator
Effortlessly generate targeted quiz questions, powered by the world’s best literary analysis and AI.
Literature Guide PDFs
LitCharts PDFs for every book you'll read this year.
Instant PDF downloads of all 2259 LitCharts literature guides and of every new one we publish. Try a free sample literature guide.
"Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!"
Quotes Explanations
Find the perfect quote. Understand it perfectly. Then rock the citation, too.
For all 50,383 quotes we cover.
For all 50,383 quotes we cover.
Teacher Editions
Close reading made easy for students.
Time saved for teachers.
For every book we cover.
Time saved for teachers.
For every book we cover.
Teacher Edition Contents
|
Close Reading Organizers |
|
Character Analysis Organizers |
|
Symbol Analysis Organizers |
|
Theme Analysis Organizers |
|
Quote Analysis Organizers |
Common Core-aligned
""
Try a free and complete sample Teacher Edition.
PDFs of modern translations of every one of Shakespeare's 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 3 longer poems.
Every translation available to download as a PDF.
Try a free sample Shakespeare translation.
"Every teacher of literature should use these translations. They completely demystify Shakespeare. Students love them!"
Literary Terms and Devices
Definitions and examples for every literary term and device you need to know.
Plus a quick-reference PDF with concise definitions of all 136 terms in one place.
Plus a quick-reference PDF with concise definitions of all 136 terms in one place.
Try a free sample literary term PDF.
Advanced Search
Refine any search. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more.
Related Themes
Comparing and contrasting texts? Find where any theme occurs across all of LitCharts in seconds.
Poetry Guides
Line-by-line explanations and analysis of figurative language and poetic devices.
For every lyric poem we cover.
For every lyric poem we cover.
