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Relationship Between Leisel And Rudy In The Book Thief

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In the "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, Death has a story to tell. In the book the reader follows Liesel Memiger through her journey in the 1940s. Liesel is moved into a foster home after she is separated from her mother, She moves to Himmel Street where she makes many new relationships. Probably one of the most interesting relationships between Liesel and her neighbor Rudy Steiner. Through many events, their relationship evolves. On Leisel's first few days on Himmel street she was hit on by Rudy in the typical 10 year old boy fashion. Which included being mean to Leisel in different ways such as sticking her as the goalie or throwing a snow ball at her. Even though their relationship started off a little rocky it gets better through the …show more content…

Rudy and Leisel did many things that proved that they were friends such as how they would play soccer in the street with the other kids on Himmel street. Another thing that proves their friendship is how Leisel didn't see Rudy any differently even though he coated himself in black charcoal and pretended to be the black Olympic athlete Jesse Owens. Even though he did this Leisel was still his friend. Rudy did the same for Liesel when she was at school and no one would go near her or talk to her because she was slower at learning and the students thought she was stupid. When Leisel stayed friends with Rudy after the incident, Rudy was still friends with Leisel even though people called her stupid. In part one death narrates "At school, Rudy made a special point of seeking Liesel out during the break. He didn't care that others made noises about the new girl's stupidity" (51). This quote shows even though kids thought Leisel was dumb or stupid Rudy stayed with her and hung around …show more content…

Around the end of the book Liesel and Rudy get into a gang of some older kids who steal fruit and potatoes from farmers. When they start doing this their friendship becomes even stronger than before. The two friends eventually steal a book from the mayors library because Liesel got upset with the mayor's wife. One quote that shows both Liesel and Rudy's desire for crime is "She also realized is was most likely these sodden days at the Hitler Youth that fed his, and subsequently her own, desire for crime." This quote shows that when Rudy was gone at the youth camp it fed his disregard to steal and therefore Leisel's desire to steal

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