1. The Book Thief Vocabulary Project
Ms. Verge

2. Tyrannical: abuse of power
“Arthur Berg did not have a tyrannical bone in his body, whereas the new leader had hundreds of them”(274).

3. Context and Theme of Tyrannical
Context: In this section, Viktor Chemmel becomes the leader and he abuses his power. For example, he calls Liesel a whore and beats up Rudy.
Theme: Unchecked power leads to the abuse of power.
Because no one has the courage or strength to stand up to Viktor Chemmel, Chemmel is able to abuse his power. The children get little food and he calls Liesel cruel, offensive names and eventually chokes Rudy. Leisel cries out, “You’re hurting him” and he responds with a smile “Am I?” This proves that too much power leads to tyranny.

4. Withering: dying, decaying
“The sky is blue today. Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it’s stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun is like a yellow hole…”
Max, at that moment, knew that only a child could have given him a weather report like that. On the wall, he painted a long, tightly knotted rope with a dripping yellow sun at the end of it, as if you could dive right into it. On the ropy cloud, he drew two figures-a thin girl and a WITHERING Jew- they were walking, arms balanced, toward the dripping sun”(249).

5. Context of withering
Context: This photo shows the sun withering away leading to the dark night. Max too is withering away in the darkness of the basement, yet there is beauty created in the words used by Liesel. The power of her words gives Max joy and inspiration to paint a beautiful scene of their friendship on the basement wall.

6. Theme Theme: Friendship may develop between very different people.
Liesel and Max share a bond of friendship even though Liesel is only twelve and Max is twenty-four. Also Liesel is a German Christian, and Max is a German Jew. Liesel may enjoy the outside world playing soccer under the beautiful blue sky while Max must wither away hiding from Nazi persecution. On the surface, these two come from different worlds, yet they both love reading, words, nature, beauty. Both have lost people they love and have learned to love again as seen in the friendship the two share.