Because of all this hard ship, Rudy became stronger, and went back to work harder. Rudy had it in his mind that he had to prove to everyone that he was smart and talented. Most of us these days still try to prove things to others in hopes that we will be accepted. Which was what Rudy wanted. Of course Rudy also wanted to play ball, but the deeper side to him, wanted the approval of his family. Rudy had an unbreakable heart it seemed, and everything that went against him, he used to his advantage. .
In his time, the boys wanted to be like their fathers, and to have them be proud. Rudy however wanted his dad to love him for who he was, and all the time was looking for support. Rudy did not understand that his father's actions was actually his father hiding because his son was different; because Rudy had a dream, and wanted to accomplish it.
Although Rudy's life seemed to be going well in South Ben, he had a lot of rough times to go through. He had many downs all related to one another. It's hard to actually pick out different things in his life that were "downs" because there he had so many problems and situations in his life which he to deal with, that seemed meaningless at the time. All of his "downs" reacted off of one another. For example, Rudy willingness to do horrible jobs to just to be associated with the Irish. His first job was grooming the field. Then Rudy tried to pose as a Notre Dame student to paint the helmets of the players and yet all throughout this time he was dealing with rejections from the university. Rudy was doing his best and it wasn't paying off. To make things worse, he didn't even have his family there to support him. Sure he had a couple of friends in South Ben, but Rudy wasn't satisfied. When he first got into the university and, made the "B" team he had to deal with the players beating on him, and giving him no respect on or off the field. It takes a bold person to endure what Rudy did.