A gender role in our society are behaviors that are deemed "acceptable" or "desirable" for one's gender. It's how people are expected to act, dress, and work.
Gender Roles in The Book Thief
In my opinion, in The Book Thief, the characters do not conform to gender roles. At the start of the book, Liesel, the protagonist, has to go to a new foster family, and has a missing mother figure.
Nurturing Figure
If this book conformed with gender stereotypes, the new nurturing character would be Liesel's foster mother, Rosa, however, Rosa is made out to be the more controlling one in the household. Liesel's foster father, Hans, becomes the more nurturing character. He
teaches Liesel how to read and he sits with her every night during her nightmares.
Liesel and her foster mother don't usually have the best relationship- they sometimes butt heads, and at the beginning Liesel misses her biological mother.
One of the themes of The Book Thief is family, and Hans and Rosa having their very different personalities and different ways of expressing their love makes the family more layered and interesting.
Liesel as a young girl
Liesel does not conform to gender norms at the time for young girls. She is often dirty from playing soccer outside with Rudy and the boys, she has nightmares about her past trauma, and she wets the bed at an age where most kids would have stopped. She also expresses her affection by swearing at people, something she picked up from her foster mother.
Max
In the book, Max is hidden downstairs in Liesel's basement, all day and all night. Although he is strong and stereotypically male at the beginning, he then expresses his emotions and cries in front of Liesel, which is definitely outside of gender norms as boys are usually supposed to "stay tough".
Connections with Themes
One of the biggest themes in The Book Thief is friendship. Liesel is only friends with boys in this book, unlike stereotypically, when she would be friends with other girls. I think her friendship with boys, such as Rudy, helped advance the plot by pushing her to do things outside of her comfort zone and helped her be more adventurous.
Do you guys think The Book Thief conforms to gender roles or no? Let me know!
Also, check out my friend Emily's blog for her opinion on how The Book Thief does conform to gender roles!
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