Rudy Steiner is Liesel's best friend since she moved in with her foster family. He's interesting because he doesn't seem to follow the rules of being a child. The book talks about how he makes a point not to be afraid of girls in order to break the mold. This is demonstrated when he tells Liesel that eventually, they will kiss. Even when Liesel says 'no', he's not phased. I thought he was interesting because of the "Jesse Owens Incident" in which he painted himself black with charcoal and ran around a track, in order to be like his favorite athlete. His father got mad at him for trying to stand out. The ease with which Rudy approaches different races and religions makes him one of the rare children of the Nazi party. His father tells him that he has "safe blue eyes" and for that, he should be grateful. Rudy is not grateful, however, to fit in. He shows, by his friendship with a ten-year-old girl in kindergarten, that he's not afraid to stand out. I think this is both an admirable, and dangerous quality in Nazi Germany.
~Eliza
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Rudy is my favorite character by far. It is so true that he loves to stand out and it is amazing how unfazed he is by anything that goes wrong in his little plans. I completely agree that his quality of wanting to be unique is very admirable, but I also think that it could end up backfiring on him someday.
ReplyDeleteI also love Rudy and agree that he is very opinionated and not afraid to say what he feels. Like you said, this may get him into trouble in Nazi Germany because a lot of people were too afraid to stand up and say what they actually felt. In my opinion, Rudy is a breath of fresh air and he keeps the novel very interesting.
ReplyDeleteRudy is also very determined; he keeps trying to get Liesel to kiss him. Whenever he gets the chance to ask for a kiss he does, so that shows his great determination and it also shows Liesel’s stubbornness and that she not willing to give him a kiss. I thought that it is hilarious about the Jessie Owens Incident; he obviously is a kid who dreams big!
ReplyDeleteI thought Rudy was a very interesting character too. He has his own thoughts on things and I like that he doesn't want to be like everyone else even though that's probably not a good thing during this time. I think that Liesel and Rudy will end up liking each other later because he seems to like her now by always wanting a kiss.
ReplyDeleteI like how you went with Rudy as your favorite character. I also agree that Rudy's friendship with Liesel could lead to troubles in the future. I am also wondering if his "safe blue eyes" will be able to save Liesel from an encounter with Death.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your last sentence very much, Rudy will probably get into trouble or Hans Huberman will with the Nazi party. I am afraid for Rudy and what will happen to him. Will he live or will something bad happen to him. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI think Rudy is very admirable. He is doing something most adults wouldn't even dare to do, especially during that time period. I also thought about what Anders just commented on...what will happen to him. Because he has such a risky personality, he might be put in danger.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how far you all are in the book but I'm just starting part 9. Since I wrote the first blog, Rudy has changed from being a fun-loving, relatively one-dimensional character to being harder and harder to understand. We really only get to see Rudy through Leisel's perspective. I'm even more interested in him and what's going on with his life and family now.
ReplyDeleteI like what Emma said about how most adults wouldn't dare to do what Rudy's doing. The only adult I can think of is Hans Huberman, because both Hans and Rudy gave out bread at the Jewish parade.