The Book Thief is about a young girl's life in Germany during World War II. Liesel lives with her adoptive parents on a street named Heaven Street. She becomes best friends with the boy next door, Rudy. Her biological mother had to give her up because she couldn't keep her safe, as her mother was labeled a communist. In the beginning she could read or write. She is taught by her adoptive father, Hans, by reading a stolen book titled "The Gravedigger's Guide." In the basement of their home they shelter a Jewish refugee, Max, whom she soon sees as an older brother. She finds comfort in books; books that she has stolen, or as she explains, she just "borrowed" them. .
Cahn defines worldview as "the way one interprets the world based on how they were socialized at home, their place of worship, and school." (Cahn, 2014, p.298) Cahn also describes it as a "composite of all the cultural values, beliefs and rituals you hold, which assists you both in describing what you see and in prescribing what you should do." (Cahn, 2014, p. 298) Throughout the movie, Liesel starts to realize that she and her adoptive parents share a worldview that is different than the worldview that Germany demanded of it's citizens, and that her values and beliefs are in conflict with those that she is being told at school. After talking with Max and seeing the injustice her beliefs have changed dramatically. This causes Liesel a lot of anxiety ("a tension that occurs when people perceive danger in a situation."(Cahn, 2014, p. 57)) because she knows if anyone found out that her worldview clashed with Hitler's worldview, she would be in danger.
Adolf Hitler had a worldview (or as the Germans call it Weltanshauung) that had a belief that Germany had the ability and should have been a world power. He believed that the German people were superior to others. In fact, he believed that the perfect human being had very specific characteristics; they were blonde, blue eyed and German.
