Passage 3Part 7: The Sky Stealer

The Accordion

Passage:

“When she turned the page, it was Rudy who noticed. He paid direct

attention to what Liesel was reading… Hans Hubermann came closer and called out,

and soon, a quietness started bleeding through the crowded basement… A voice

played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion... The youngest kids were

soothed by her voice… On the way up the stairs, the children rushed by her, but

many of the older people-even Frau Holtzapfel, even Pfiffikus thanked the girl for

the distraction.”

Response:

Liesel gives the people in the shelter a reprieve from their fear with her

words, just as Hans does with his music. The author described her reading: “she

hauled the words in and breathed them out. A voice played notes inside of her. This,

it said, is your accordion” (Zusak 381). The accordion here is employed as a

metaphor for the one thing you can master and call your own. Like her father, she

found something that she is good at in a method that no one else is. She exploited

her words to save a roomful of people in turmoil. The author compared that skill

and ownership to her father’s accordion because the readers already recognize the

feelings Liesel has about her father and her love and awe of his skill with music, so

saying that she found her accordion is much more powerful than saying she found

something she was good at, loved, and would be remembered for.