Chapter 4 Assignment

Passage-Based Focused Freewriting
In the book thief, within the chapter "Liesel's Lecture", Hans is telling Liesel how important it is to keep Max a secret. Liesel is young and might not quite understand how serious the situation is. Can she really keep a secret from her best friend Rudy? With this being such a serious situation I think Liesel will need to vent herself to someone about it. Papa then tells her that if she told anyone about Max that they would be in big trouble and take him and Mama away from her. Was telling her this really good for her? If it were me, that would have made me nervous and scared. I don't think that was such a smart idea especially when things are so rough around Molching. The last thing you need to do is put fear and worry into Liesel's heart. Her knowing this man (Max) can bring so much danger and devastation to the family may give her more reason to tell someone. Liesel is so young and may not fully understand whats going on so I think that is why Hans went on to threaten her about her books. Papa told her that if she told anyone he would burn her every one of her books. Of course, because Liesel is young that hit home to her. I think that is what would have stood out the most to her because her books are so important to her. She loves those books and I'm sure she would not do anything that would result in them being taken from her. At the end of this chapter, Liesel is crying and torn up about the whole conversation and situation. Papa grabbed her and hugged her tight. When they got upstairs to where Mama was, she also grabbed Liesel and started holding her tight. Knowing the kind of person Mama is (mean, violent, not very sympathetic) this went to show how serious the situation was. Mama actually showed sympathy for Liesel. This whole chapter intensified the story because now the danger and the worry is coming into play.