Hates Hitler
Is in love with Liesel
Idolizes Jesse Owens the black american athlete at a time when being black is considered “bad”. He idolizes and respects Jesse Owens so much that according to Liesel he purposely lost one of the races so that he wasn’t as good a Owens. This is hugely important because Rudy is the perfect Aryan child, blue eyes, blonde hair, smart, athletic but he disagrees with everything that he represents in Nazi society. Rudy’s innocence is what makes him dangerous
Rudy changes from a small immature boy into a more sensible and intelligent teenager. Throughout the text he dreams of kissing Liesel and he dies without fulfilling his wish. Rudy comes from a large poor family and so is always hungry.
“He was eight months older than Liesel and had
bony legs, sharp teeth, gangly blue eyes,
and hair the color of a lemon.
One of six Steiner children, he was
permanently hungry.”
Stood up for Tommy Muller even when it put himself in harms way during Hitler youth. This lead to being tortured by his Hitler youth leader, Frans Deutscher,
Confident
Strong willed
Rudy was included in the text to show that no matter how hard Hitler tried to convince the nation he was right he still wasn’t able to convince children who are usually the easiest to influence.
Rudy brings humour and fun into Liesel’s life when she first arrives in Molching which is a stark contrast to the death that Liesel has recently experienced.