Young Love

        Rudy has always been a lady's man. He knew the first time that he laid eyes on Liesel, that he loved her and they were going to be best friends. He shows's Liesel around, and always hangs out with her at school, when no one else will. When your reading the book, you feel like and hope that even though Liesel doesn't like Rudy back, one day she will. One day after school, they decide to race, but they bet on themselves. Since neither of them had any money, Rudy asked for a kiss if he won, and Liesel asked to be exempt from goalie duty in soccer if she won. It ended in a tie, but Liesel swore to herself that she would never kiss Rudy.
         Liesel finds Rudy to be a very weird person, sort of special. When you read his story, you feel his quirkiness, it radiates of the pages of the book. Rudy is such an important character that a whole chapter is dedicated to him and his characterization. When Rudy was younger, he learned about a black Olympic runner, who won the gold metal. He wanted to feel special like the runner, Jess Owens. He took charcoal and colored himself black and went to the park to recreate the track and field portion of the Olympics. When his father found him he had just "won the race." His father chastised him and told him that he shouldn't want to be anyone other than himself. He tells him that being white and having blond hair and blue eyes, makes him lucky at a time like this. You see, his father had joined the Nazi Party, in an effort to keep is large family safe. Rudy never understood what his father had told him, but as years passed he got older, and Hitler became more powerful, and her finally understood what his father had been telling him that summer night.