Topic: The Accordion in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Explanation:

During the time of Nazi Germany every moment was sacred. People lived there lives wondering when or if they were going to die. Some people were fortunate enough to have something they could hold on to and help them through their hard times, something they could turn to for anything. Acceptance, willingness, comfort, safety, fear, lonliness; emotions were everywhere and unpredictable. 

Acceptance and willingness plays a big role in The Book Thief.  Death, the narrator, is always reminding us that many individuals were poor and barely had anything and the only thing they could do was accept it and move on; he also shows us that many people were willing to accept the fact that they had nothing and lived a hard life. For Liesel and the Hubermann's they had that one sacred thing they clung to. It was the accordion that belonged to Papa. With they accordion, it made it easier for them to accept the life they lived. It allowed them to forget reality and escape for a short time and they were willing to take what they could get. 

The accordion also brought them comfort and safety, especially for Papa and Liesel. Death always tells us they when Papa played the accordion for Liesel it always made her feel a slight bit of contentment since happiness seemed to be a rare feeling. The accordionn also made them feel safe because, as I have already stated, it gave them an escape from reality and they could disappear to their paradise. 

Even though the accordion seemed to appear during a time you could consider happy, it also showed up  during times of fear and lonliness. Sometimes you wouldn't consider these emotions relatable but in The Book Thief,  with fear came lonliness. Toward the end of the book, Death constantly reminds us that Rosa would sit in Liesel's room or the living room and just hold the accordion. She was lonely without her husband. She also feared that he wouldn't come home from the war. Liesel shared this mutual feeling with her too. She missed her father and she had a hole inside, as if she were missing a piece of her. The accordion was the thing that helped them stay sane when they were up to their nose in fear and lonliness.

Works Cited

Zusak, Markus. "The Book Thief." Wordpress.com. 3Wordpress, 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://mrsehimmy.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-book-thief-markus-zusak.pdf>.

Acceptance and Willingness 

"On those evenings, at the end of the street, accordion case in hand, he would turn around, just before Frau Diller’s corner shop, and see the figure who had replaced his wife in the window." (29)

"They sat maybe thirty meters down from it, in the grass, writing the words and reading them aloud, and when darkness was near, Hans pulled out the accordion. Liesel looked at him and listened, though she did not immediately notice the perplexed expression on her papa’s face that evening as he played." (48)

"It took three hours and six drafts to perfect the letter, telling her mother all about Molching, her papa and his accordion, the strange but true ways of Rudy Steiner, and the exploits of Rosa Hubermann." (64)

"There was an accordion in their ears, a snowman in their eyes, and for Liesel, there was the thought of Max’s last words before she left him by the fire." (214)

"Whenever they had a break, to eat or drink, he would play the accordion, and it was this that Liesel remembered best." (242)

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"They would eat together, sitting on their cans of paint, and with the last mouthfuls still in the chewing stages, Papa would be wiping his fingers, unbuckling the accordion case." (242)

"At times, in that basement, she woke up tasting the sound of the accordion in her ears. She could feel the sweet burn of champagne on her tongue." (243)

"On his third night at home, he played the accordion in the kitchen. A promise was a promise. There was music, soup, and jokes, and the laughter of a fourteen-year-old girl." (337)

"None of them ate that night. Papa’s fingers desecrated the accordion, murdering song after song, no matter how hard he tried. Everything no longer worked." (347)

"Papa sat with me tonight. He brought the accordion down and sat close to where Max used to sit. I often look at his fingers and face when he plays. The accordion breathes." (353)

"Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes." (353)

"This one was sent out by the breath of an accordion, the odd taste of champagne in summer, and the art of promise-keeping." (356)

"Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion!
But his bellows were all empty.
Nothing went in and nothing came out." (359)

Fear and Lonliness

“ ‘Hitler takes Poland,’ ” he answered, and Hans Hubermann slumped into a chair. “Deutschland über Alles,” he whispered, and his voice was not remotely patriotic. The face was there again—his accordion face." (50)

“They’ll come for us,” Mama warned her husband. “They’ll come and take us away.” They. “We have to find it!” At one point, it seemed like Papa might have to go down to the basement and paint a flag on one of his drop sheets. Thankfully, it turned up, buried behind the accordion in the cupboard." (70)

"She didn’t dare to look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging on to her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out. A voice played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion." (258)

"He no longer played the accordion. His silver-eyed optimism was wounded and motionless. That was bad enough, but it was only the beginning." (281)

"It took longer than she expected for her eyes to adjust, and when they did, there was no denying the fact that Rosa Hubermann was sitting on the edge of the bed with her husband’s accordion tied to her chest." (290)

"One afternoon, she lifted the accordion from its case and polished it with a rag. Only once, just before she put it away, did she take the step that Mama could not. She placed her finger on one of the keys and softly pumped the bellows. Rosa had been right. It only made the room feel emptier." (296)

"She’d completed three more reading sessions with a devastated woman. On many nights, she’d watched Rosa sit with the accordion and pray with her chin on top of the bellows." (321)

"When morning came, the visions were gone and she could hear the quiet recital of words in the living room. Rosa was sitting with the accordion, praying." (322)

"An unhappy looking accordion, peering through its eaten case." (335-336)

"The accordion case fell from her grip. The sound of an explosion." (358)

Comfort and Safety

"The sound of the accordion was, in fact, also the announcement of safety." (28)

"People think he’s not so smart, and it’s true that he doesn’t read too fast, but I would soon learn that words and writing actually saved his life once. Or at least, words and a man who taught him the accordion . . ." (43)

"She didn’t see him watching as he played, having no idea that Hans Hubermann’s accordion was a story." (48)

"That was the first time Hans Hubermann escaped me. The Great War. A second escape was still to come, in 1943, in Essen.
Two wars for two escapes.
Once young, once middle-aged. Not many men are lucky enough to cheat me twice.
He carried the accordion with him during the entirety of the war." (121)

"Then there was his other savior. It was the accordion that most likely spared him from total ostracism." (124)

“Do you still play the accordion?”
 Of course, the question was really, “Will you still help me?” (125)

Again, Himmel Street was a trail of people, and again, Papa left his accordion. Rosa reminded him to take it, but he refused. “I didn’t take it last time,” he explained, “and we lived.” War clearly blurred the distinction between logic and superstition. (257)

“Could you look after my accordion, Liesel? I decided not to take it.” (287)

"For nearly an hour, she remained, spread out under the kitchen table, till Papa came home and played the accordion. Only then did she sit up and start to recover." (67)