Sunday, March 1, 2009
Discussion #1 - Character.
So far, throughout the novel of "The Book Thief", my favourite character out of all of them is Rudy Steiner. There's a couple of stand-out points about him that make him a special and interesting character, when compared to some of the others. His asphyxiation with Liesel is confusing in the respect that, not very many boys have the type of "Ladie's Man" type attitude he has until middle school. In a way, Rudy is the comic relief character. Even though he is sort of a comic relief character in situations such as the "Jesse Owens Incident", he still has a bit of wisdom without him as well. He does not act with the discrimination that other children are raised to believe through their parents around WWII. Rudy is not seen speaking Anti-Jewish propaganda [YET- I'm only on age 80, my apologies.] and admires Jesse Owens even when he is black- Whereas the leader of his country refused to shake Jesse's hand for being black, which in itself is such a silly thing. Rudy's determination to be best friends with Liesel also reminds us that while throwing a snow/mudball at her in the beginning was not nice, he is now trying to make it up. We see that through Rudy telling Liesel to "not listen" to her classmates, when they call her Dumbkopf for failing her reading progress exams.
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I really enjoy Rudy and the character that he is. I agree that he brings comic relief to the novel in every way. It was very lighthearted when he made the bet with Liesel for an example, it let the mood of the novel change from depressing and down from the life at home, to uplifting and bright with the new friendship they have made.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's good to see you agree on that one, Maggie. :)The point of Rudy really lifting the spirit of the text itself was something I didn't think of either- I was more focused on the idea that... Boys in general love to make bets with girls, and because Liesel has a bit of a so called 'grudge' from that snowball, we get to see her being competitive and confident in herself when the two of them race- Two traits which she really did not demonstrate very often through what's occurred in the novel so far.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Rudy is my favorite character too! I love how he is not afraid to be friends with girls. Also, it really touched me when he stayed with Liesel when she was crying in the gutter. I think Rudy is a good person and will continue to be one of my favorites. :)
ReplyDeleteAww, that truly was a cute moment Brooke. :)
ReplyDeleteThere's something about characters that makes them about 10x more likable when they are genuinely good people- But I'm not sure what. And really, the ambiguous sentence in chapter one or so that said Rudy and Liesel would be partners someday, had me confused, but in a good way. Partners in crime or partners in romance?
Hmmm, I'm kind of hoping for both.
Cindy, I agree, it really shows the type of person Rudy is, how he seperates himself from all the bad during this time period, it really shows his maturity and responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI also really like Rudy. He's just a cool kid, you know? I'm just thinking about when I was in kindergarten, everyone had to get cooty shots to keep themselves safe. But he's just right up among all of the girls. I think he's going to grow up to be a super fun guy.
ReplyDeleteCindy, I also really like Rudy and I fully agree with you that he brings comic relief to the book. I also like your point about how he isn't racist like most people during that era, which is more mature than most adults during that time period.
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