Summary and Analysis
Part 5: The Whistler:
The Floating Book (Part II)
Summary
On a walk home in December, Liesel and Rudy take an alternative route in order to avoid running into Franz and one of his friends. Liesel carries The Whistler with her. She likes the feel of the book in her hands. Near the river, they encounter Viktor Chemmel and his gang. Viktor takes Liesel's book and hurls it into the river. Rudy goes after it, gets it, and asks for his kiss. Again, he doesn't receive one.
Analysis
This is the scene that Death describes earlier in "The Floating Book (Part I)," but now Death tells us how The Whistler ended up in the river. Liesel and Rudy continue to be terrorized by leaders who embody Hitler's ideals: Chemmel and Deutscher. This attack of the bad upon the good, the dark upon the light, mirrors on a much smaller scale what is happening all over Germany and what is happening to Max Vandenburg, as has been forced to hide in the Hubermanns' basement.