The Truth In The Story

Author’s Note: I wrote this to analyze the historical events within the book, The Book Thief, which make the book historical fiction and if the historical events in the book stay true to what actually happened.

What makes historical fiction, historical fiction is true facts and references throughout the book or story. The novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is an example of historical fiction. The book is a made up story, but it has accurate references and facts from history. The Book Thief is about an orphan, Liesel, who falls in love with books, but is very poor so she must steal books in order to read them.  This story talks about Liesel’s life and things that are going on around her and how these things are affecting her life. The novel makes true references to actual facts and events in history, which is what makes it historical fiction, and it does a good job of staying true to what actually happened.

One example of true facts and references that the author used to make this book historical fiction is when the author refers to Adolf Hitler. Many times you will hear the characters say, “Heil Hitler,”(50) or questions like, “What does our fuhrer say?”(273) Adolf Hitler was a dictator in Germany in the time that the story takes place, and he was a very important person in history and affected the way this story was told majorly.  Throughout the book the author stayed true to the events, and made true references about and involving Adolf Hitler.

Not only did the book stay true to the facts and events in the time when talking about Adolf Hitler, but also when the author talks about Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens was a famous black Olympian for track and field. The quote, “Jesse Owens had just completed the 4x100m relay and won his fourth gold medal,” (56) shows how the author stayed true to facts about the time that the book took place in. The Author used real facts and events about Jesse Owens to help create a made up part of the book and made sure to stay true to the facts and time frame of the book.

Although the author talked about Jesse Owens and his story, and made sure to stay true to the facts, he also talked about how many Nazi’s boycotted and vandalized Jewish businesses. Throughout the book the author talked a lot about how Jewish businesses were being vandalized by Nazi’s and how they were being boycotted because they were Jewish businesses. The quote, “the Kaufmann Shoe Shop was reduced to broken glass, and all the shoes were flung aboard a truck in their boxes, (61)” shows how the book refers to this. Also, it shows how the author stayed true to what was constantly happening throughout that time and place. The author did a good job of staying true to what was happening in the time in history  that the story took place.

In conclusion, many times throughout this book the author proves to stay true to the time by writing about actual events and people in history. When readers read historical fiction novels, that stay true to the time and place, it seems that they typically get more engaged in the story. I believe that this happens, because they read about the true events and people from history in a new way, with a new story while  not changing what actually happened in history.