Stealing as an Act of Protest in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief

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S. Lavanya

Abstract

Every individual has one’s own way of dealing with their grief. Coping with grief, loss of someone or something triggers many emotions in a person. Some people directly deal with their cause of grief and cope with it and many resort to defense mechanisms in order to avoid the trauma. Liesel Meminger of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief resorts to stealing books as her defense mechanism. Set in the wartime Germany, Liesel Meminger deals with her grief – her brother’s death, her mother’s separation, her problematic relationship with Max Vandenburg and Ilsa Harmann and finally the War and Politics – by stealing books. Stealing becomes an act of empowerment to her. The aim of this paper is to apply Freudian displacement concept to Liesel’s acts of stealing.

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