Lazarillo de Tormes is a book about religious hypocrisy and the amorality of society. However, Lázaro’s story goes further than this, as his character transformation reveals the stark outcomes of such a society. The theme of corruption and hypocrisy is inextricably bound with the picaresque genre, which features young, impoverished protagonists (rogues) who mature while bouncing from one master to another. The genre’s purpose repeatedly illustrates the main theme of the book: that the religious elite are hypocritical, and that unjust aristocratic ideologies (like noble birth) lead to empty, corrupt lives.

Through each master, Lázaro is continuously victimized by nefarious and immoral men, and shocked by the emptiness that comes with the concept of noble birth. As time passes and he ages, Lázaro begins to accept these traits as inevitabilities and becomes like the very people he once despised, ridiculed, and served. The story argues that the corruption of the wealthy and the religiously powerful begets further corruption, tyranny, and hypocrisy, as do unjust cultural ideas like nobility and aristocracy. For all that Lázaro detests those who starved, hurt, or shocked him, he becomes just like them.

The picaresque genre allows the author to create numerous examples of these truisms.