Injustices

Rudy Steiner: The Just Thief Compassionate. Courageous. Contumacious. These are characteristics that not everyone has. These are characteristics that set people apart from the rest. These are the characteristics that make little Rudy Steiner capable of challenging the injustices going on in his small world. In the novel The Book Thief, set in the of time Adolf Hitler's reign during World War II, by Markus Susak, Liesel Meminger moves to Himmel Street and befriends Rudy Steiner, one of the six Steiner children, ultimately becoming best friends and partners in crime. Throughout his childhood, Rudy is witness to various instances of injustice and decides to stand against them; making him one of the characters that most effectively challenges injustices. As a young boy living in Munich Germany at the time of Hitler's rule, Rudy must attend the Hitler Youth, like every other German boy of that time. During one of his Hitler Youth sessions, his class is practicing their marching for an important event coming up when Tommy Muller, Rudy's friend and class mate, falters in his step and gets punished due to this small blunder he committed near the end of the rehearsal. Rudy reminds their Hitler Youth leader, Franz Deutscher, that Tommy has had severe ear problems after getting lost in the snow as a child that prevents him from hearing all the orders he is given and causes him to falter in his steps. Deustscher did not like this, seeing it as an act of defiance, and made both Tommy Muller and Rudy run laps around the field outside. In order to provide for themselves, Rudy joins a gang of thieves along with Liesel. After their original gang leader, Arthur Berg, left, Viktor Chemmel was the person to take over. Arthur Berg and Viktor Chemmel were complete opposites: Arthur being generous in the giving everyone a fair share of stolen goods and looking out for the rest of the kids in the gang as to Viktor being a bully to the kids, especially Rudy and Liesel. Chemmel was