Summary and Analysis
Part 5: The Whistler:
Sketches
Summary
Max works on a book about his life. Liesel sees it beside him while he is sleeping and opens it. She sees sketches of Hitler conducting a crowd of people and another of a man and woman standing atop a pile of bodies beneath a swastika sun. Max wakes up and startles Liesel. She says, "You scared me, Max."
Analysis
Max's illustrations provide a visual representation of how Hitler and his Nazis are controlling the minds of so many people, and how under Nazi control, dead bodies pile up. Liesel's words, "You scared me, Max," take on a double meaning in this chapter; he startles her when he wakes, and his pictures also scare her. He offers Liesel a glimpse of the true horror occurring in the outside world.