MovieChat Forums > The Book Thief (2013) Discussion > the portrayal of the title

the portrayal of the title

posted 10 years ago by spyduck
4 replies | jump to latest

Contrary to the title, I don't think she can be actually portrayed as a "thief".
There is a difference between stealing a book to picking up an abandoned book or saving it from being thrashed/burnt.

I saw the movie only once, so can't actually count the incidents when the girl stole some books.

She does attend a school, so must have access to school books from the library I guess. Her interests were to read other books not possible to get from school.

I am not sure if we can portray her as a "thief". What do others think?

[–] BloodDoll 10 years ago

She trespasses into someone else's house to take books, and Rudy nicknames her "Book Thief" as a result. That's where the name comes from, tying in how important both books and Rudy are to her.

[–] Ithilfaen 10 years ago

She stole books from the Burgermeister's house after he found out about her coming to read and banned her from the house.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] jmhow 10 years ago

She considers herself to be a borrower, but we never see her return any books she took from the library of the Bürgermeister and his wife, even in the deleted scenes. One of those showed her finding a book and plate of cookies on the windowsill, so it would have been easy to show her leaving a book at that time.

For anyone who has read the book, does she return the books that she could?

www.freerice.com

[–] PurpleProseOfCairo 10 years ago

The first book was dropped by a gravedigger - she picked it up and kept it. Sorry - she's a Book Thief.

Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!