Name: Rudy Steiner
Book he is featured in: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Quote: “They were chanting Rudy Steiner’s name – and his name was Jesse Owens.”
I love Rudy Steiner, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. He is a truly wonderful character that you can’t help but adore, and I’ll try not to include any spoilers, but his story is heartbreakingly sad, because of what-might-have-been.
Rudy makes me laugh, and Rudy makes me cry. He makes me laugh because of the stupid things he does, like trying to steal the biggest potato from the local grocers, and the way he tries virtually every tactic possible in order to get a kiss. He makes me cry, because if he’d only been born into another time, he could have done anything he wanted to do. What I mean is, he had so many talents, and so much to offer, but because the times and fate were not on his side, he was greeted with so many failures.
Rudy is a genuinely caring person, even giving out bread to starving Jews when he himself is hungry. It’s actually quite hard to imagine someone so young could be so mature and selfless. He’s undoubtedly a good friend to Liesel, and if not for him, I really think Liesel would be an entirely different person. There is one moment in the book where I scream at her every time to “just kiss that boy!” even though I already know what happens.
Rudy’s parts in the book are amongst my favourites. I have read and reread the book many times, but I sometimes pick it up solely for the enjoyment of reliving the Jesse Owens Incident, in which Rudy paints himself black and runs across a field. It’s an odd image, but an amusing one, and certainly not one Hitler would have approved of.
I really cannot bring myself to say a single bad thing about Rudy Steiner. He remains my all-time favourite book character, and if you haven’t already read The Book Thief, I suggest you do, so that you can love him too. The book has been made into a movie, but I haven’t been able to see it, because it hasn’t been released in the UK yet, which is driving me slightly mad.
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