Your Comments:
1) How and where is the book found? The Shoulder Shrug is pulled out of a mass book burning. The rescues it when about to leave after seeing the horrifying event. It is her first proper steal.
2) What is the book ‘like’ and what is it about? “Hot and wet, blue and red.” The book is about a Jew, he was presented in a positive light. He was a rich man who was tired of letting life pass him by, what he referred to as shrugging a shoulder to the problems of others.
3) What happens to the book over the course of the section it appears in?
Leisel reads it, a lot. Hans helps her read in midnight classes as she is still learning to read properly. Began the trips to the mayor's library as the mayors wife saw her steal the book, but instead of turning her in, she noticed Leisel’s need for words.
4) How does the “book” help us to understand key aspects of the novel? Jews were just normal not subhuman like Hitler portrayed them as. It was his propaganda which condemned then to the stereotype of a horrible race, really they are normal people, some kind, some normal,
Past Students' Comments
The Shoulder Shrug is written by a Jew about a Jew and was saved from the fire at the book burning. The title suggests indifference and ignorance as we shrug our shoulders either when we do not know something, or we do not car. Elie Wiesel, a real-life holocaust survivor suggested that the greates contributor to the success of the holocaust was indifference.
Liesel snatched the book from beneath a steaming heap of ashes” at the town square. It was too wet to burn and burnt around the edges – Liesel took it and hid it under her shirt (near to her heart?). It was“red and blue...embarrassed”...rather symbolising the guilt that survivors felt. “It was a blue book with red writing engraved on the cover, and there was a small picture of a cuckoo bird under the title, also red.” The cuckoo is a bird which lives in the nests of others – Max and Liesel both live in the home of other people. The bird is red – could it perhaps foreshadow Max, and the danger he brings? Birds tend to symbolise freedom, because of their power of flight.
The book, with its Jewish content, could also symbolise Max. The fact that it has survived means it symbolises both Max and Liesel; Liesel the rescuer – in this position represents the Hubermanns and those who rebel in small ways against the dictatorship of Fascism. The book also “bears witness” – it has the hallmarks of its “captivity” and the incineration of its fictional Jewish content foreshadows the incineration of factual Jewish humans in the death camp, Auschwitz. The book burning contrasts with all the books in the Mayor’s library – therefore certain people are permitted the privilege of a personal selection of books. However, we get the feeling now that there will be few remaining books with Jewish content. The book gives Liesel peace – a respite from nightmares – so is a comfort “she was soon pleased she was awake, and able to read .” (p 155) The book symbolises the enduring nature of literature, and the power of the written word, that it could survive against such odds. It is an insignificant book in content, but, like ordinary people can be heroic, the book assume heroic significance, just by dint of its survival.
Liesel snatched the book from beneath a steaming heap of ashes” at the town square. It was too wet to burn and burnt around the edges – Liesel took it and hid it under her shirt (near to her heart?). It was“red and blue...embarrassed”...rather symbolising the guilt that survivors felt. “It was a blue book with red writing engraved on the cover, and there was a small picture of a cuckoo bird under the title, also red.” The cuckoo is a bird which lives in the nests of others – Max and Liesel both live in the home of other people. The bird is red – could it perhaps foreshadow Max, and the danger he brings? Birds tend to symbolise freedom, because of their power of flight.
The book, with its Jewish content, could also symbolise Max. The fact that it has survived means it symbolises both Max and Liesel; Liesel the rescuer – in this position represents the Hubermanns and those who rebel in small ways against the dictatorship of Fascism. The book also “bears witness” – it has the hallmarks of its “captivity” and the incineration of its fictional Jewish content foreshadows the incineration of factual Jewish humans in the death camp, Auschwitz. The book burning contrasts with all the books in the Mayor’s library – therefore certain people are permitted the privilege of a personal selection of books. However, we get the feeling now that there will be few remaining books with Jewish content. The book gives Liesel peace – a respite from nightmares – so is a comfort “she was soon pleased she was awake, and able to read .” (p 155) The book symbolises the enduring nature of literature, and the power of the written word, that it could survive against such odds. It is an insignificant book in content, but, like ordinary people can be heroic, the book assume heroic significance, just by dint of its survival.