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Boy In The Striped Pajamas

Decent Essays

“The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas written by John Boyne” is a story about a nine year old German boy named Bruno, who moves with his family from Berlin to a house next to Auschwitz, concentration camp that his father runs. Bruno develops a relationship with a Jewish boy of the same age called Shmuel, who is imprisoned in the concentration camp. The various settings in this book parallel Bruno’s (the narrator) growing awareness of what is happening to the Jews in the concentration camp. Bruno’s growing awareness can be paralleled with the changes in setting – Bruno’s change of house, the change in social status of Jews during the war time, and Bruno’s awareness of how the Jews are living as seen through his relationship with Shmuel. When Bruno …show more content…

In one part, the cook, Pavel, cleans Bruno’s wounds from a fall, and tells Bruno that he used to be a doctor. “‘Pavel is not a doctor any more, Bruno’ said Maria quietly. ‘But he was in another life before he came here.’” This is confusing to Bruno since he always knew Pavel as a family cook. The reader is left to draw the conclusion that Pavel was made a prisoner, as a result of the Jews being separated and imprisoned. The reader is more aware of the situation now than Bruno. Bruno’s ignorance is also shown when he thinks the soldiers are playing games with the Jews “The pyjama people all jumped to attention whenever the soldiers approached and sometimes they fell to the ground and sometimes they didn’t get even get up and had to be carried away instead.” The reader knows that Bruno is witnessing the horror of the concentration camps, but the true weight of the situation had not dawned on Bruno because of his age and …show more content…

Neither boy understands the situation he is facing, but Shmuel knows more because he witnesses the horrors every day. Bruno’s ignorance is reinforced by his wanting to visit Shmuel in the camp and suggesting he wears something different than the pyjamas in the morning if he doesn’t like them. During Bruno’s conversation with Shmuel, the reader learns about details of Shmuel’s life in the camp, the horrors Shmuel faces, while Bruno, gradually realises things are not right and chooses to dismiss most of Shmuel comments out of ignorance. As time passes, Bruno begins to wonder more and more why he and Shmuel live an opposite sides of the fence. As Bruno’s home life gets unhappier, with his Mum and Dad always fighting, Shmuel is getting sicker and skinnier. The reader sees the progression of Shmuel’s life in the camp is getting worse. The Camp is not what Bruno expected as the people were “looking horribly sad”. As Bruno sneaks into the camp, he becomes aware that there are two groups of people – the soldiers who are happy and laughing and the people in the stripped pyjamas who are crying and cowering. This shows that while Bruno still does not u nderstand the seriousness of the camp, but he does see the difference in the treatment of the people. In the tragic conclusion, as Bruno’s awareness reaches its peak, he is rounded up by the soldiers and put in a

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