In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak there is a girl named Liesel who lives with her foster parents in Nazi Germany. The book is about the experience of the war from a young girl’s view. Most people would say that The Book Thief is about world war two, but there are many other issues in the book. For example the book portrays sexism in the 1930s and 40s. The book shows how women weren’t involved in politics. Men thought women didn’t have a brain or an opinion. Also, people always thought that women were kind and nurturing, while men were hard and cold. This issue continues to be an issue even today.

            The women never talk about politics with the men. For example when the protagonist’s foster father (Hans)’s birth son was a Nazi and Hans wasn’t the son cut off communication with his parents. However Hans’s daughter didn’t have an opinion of her own, even though she later proved her faithfulness to the Nazis. Their daughter just hid in the corner, and didn’t offer her own opinion. The actions of Hans’s daughter show how men didn’t think of women as equal, and then women started believing it. They felt that their opinions didn’t matter because they thought that they didn’t matter. What men said women believed. There is also the stereotype that women are nurturing while men are cold. For example a man named Max wrote the Liesel a book about how he feared men but Liesel was kind. In the book Max wrote, “All my life I’ve been scared of men standing over me.” In this quote he specified that he was scared of men, not women. He wrote later in the book that it was only men he was scared of, and Liesel was an exception. This was how people, not just men, thought back then. Max wrote another book later on, where there was a girl who grew a tree. In the book there were many men who wanted to cut down the tree. The girl nurtured it while the men were cruel to it. “Slits were made into the trunk, and the earth began to shiver.” This quote is from the book Max wrote. Before this part of the book there were many soldiers trying to cut down a tree. Many men devoted time to destruction. Max showed how people in the world see men as people who are strong and heartless, and women as weak and nurturing. When this quote states, “the earth began to shiver” the reader is shown how much power the men have. Women were kind and powerless, while men were harsh and powerful. These examples from The Book Thief show how sexism was in the 1930s and 40s.

            This made me think deeper about humanity because everyday, people think sexist things, and don’t realize it. Men think things, and make women think them too. Before we know it, it becomes true. When Hans’s daughter didn’t voice her opinion everyone around saw it as her being weak, and not having a brain, while she probably thought she didn’t have a brain, so she shouldn’t voice her opinion. When these things get started it’s just an endless cycle down until the world becomes nothing.