Rudy
At the beginning of the text he is a 10 year old boy.
He is the perfect aryan race boy. With light blonde hair, blue eyes and reasonable height. His appearance is the Nazi ideal.
His personality is very cheeky and daring. He is constantly wanting to test the rules as such eg painting himself black and pretending to be Jesse Owens. Rudy hopes to be a great athlete always wanting Liesel to race him down the street. Rudy constantly is hungry so does daring acts such as stealing food from a boy dropping it at the church. He also steals things from people’s houses and farms. Rudy is also very confident within himself as he constantly tries his luck asking Liesel for a kiss. On the first day he meets her he says if he wins a running race against her he gets a kiss. Rudy is very caring though trying to protect Liesel from bullies at school and helping her steal books from the mayor’s house. He is very trustworthy when Liesel tell him about hiding max, a jew he doesn’t tell anyone and keeps it a secret for her.
Rudy’s Likes include- Football, food, running, Jesse Owens, Liesel
Rudy has a desire to kiss Liesel as he likes her, He has a desire to be an athlete like Jesse Owens, at the end of the story he has a desire to help some Jews and he also has a desire to kill Hitler.
Rudy is a character that likes to be involved in everything but also has a strong desire to stand up for what he believes is right. Rudy stands up for Tommy Muller in the Hitler youth camps because he gets in trouble for not listening to commands due to him being deaf in one ear. Rudy stands up for Tommy telling him he has a hearing problem only causing him to get himself in trouble and have to run six laps of the field.
Rudy also shows bravery and stupidity in the text as when he tries to steal food he goes for the biggest and most daring acts. Rudy tries to steal the biggest potato from the local grocer only to be caught by the grocer but manage to get himself out of trouble by lying about how poor he is. Rudy is so against hitler and the youth camps he pretends to forget hitler’s birthday when a Youth leader asks him so he has to run laps. Then a few days later he throws rocks at the youth leader showing his stupidity ending in a black eye, cracked ribs and a terrible haircut. Rudy ends up skipping Hitler youth meetings all together causing people to become suspicious and send letters home to his parents getting him in even more trouble for standing up for what he believed in.
Rudy was also determined as he trained very hard in order to win his running races. He would run lots of laps around the fields and up and down the streets to be the best he could be. He was determined to win all his running races at the carnival. This showed his commitment to being the best out of everyone
Rudy’s dislikes include- Hitler, People who bully Liesel, being hungry, war, Nazis, The youth camps.
Rudy has some frustrations these include- Hitler taking his friends in war, being bossed around at the youth camps, Liesel not wanting to kiss him, not being able to complete at the olympics or dress like Jesse Owens.
Rudy has many hobbies which include- Running, stealing due to his hunger, Football, chasing Liesel around.
What does Rudy represent- Rudy represents innocenece in the story. He is Hitler’s ideal race with Blonde hair blue eyes perfect aryan. But Rudy shows us how a child who is the perfect idea in Hitler’s morals can struggle due to hunger and his father being taken away due to war. He also shows us that a child who has everything going for him can develop their own morals that he hates what Hitler is doing, will put himself in danger to give bread to the Jews and go against Nazi camps. In Hitlers eyes Rudy is an example of who is the ideal German child who is sporty, intelligent and perfect looking but spiritually he follows his heart and doesn’t believe everything that Hitler tells him. Rudy has morals which are very strong as he could have picked the easy life and gone along with Hitler but instead he is willing to be daring and challenge his leader. At the end of the text Rudy also represents that a child who is the perfect German will still get killed due to his leaders actions as he is bombed and killed.
But in Rudy’s families eyes he is not the perfect child. He is living in a time of poverty and danger when at anytime he could be killed due to bombing and warfare. Rudy’s family are constantly afraid of what will become of them due to the war as his father becomes taken away, and Rudy can be taken away due to his perfect German looks and sporting ability. They wish that rudy had not been alive at this time as they love him but he is in constant danger. They are scared for him because they know his personality is outgoing and he will paint himself black. This makes them worried as he is vulnerable to the Nazis as he will go against there ideals and they dont want him to become caught.