“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
In the beginning, Bruno was a young boy who came from a Nazi household. Even though he didn’t quite understand everything at the time, he had dreamed of becoming a soldier just like his father. Shmuel was a young boy as well, who happened to be Jewish. Although the two came from rather different backgrounds, they both had a few things in common: They were born on the same day, they were very lonely, and they were forced to leave behind everything they had ever known. As they had gotten to know each other, they learned that they weren’t so different after all. Bruno had started to realize that he had more in common with Shmuel than he ever did with his old friends back in Berlin. Eventually, the fence between them had started to disappear as the two came together, despite any differences they ever
For, in Berlin Bruno has quite a more normal and homely life with friends and family always at his fingertips, and all of his favourite places has, and all of which set in a vibrant and happy city. Whilst his life at Auschwitz is lesser than that, as he is unable to do even half of the things he could back in Berlin, making his time there very bleak to him. These sorts of feelings are felt all throughout the novel through Bruno again and again by his constant repetition of comparison about these locations. We see this setting and theme as being a way to highlight the feelings the Jews must have felt, being moved from their luscious life of being free to the tough and death ridden. Whilst the Germans have all of the riches and pleasure of a normal life, while the Jews are forced into a life of death and pressed labour. We the reader take this on to give further division of the races, making any action to break such a boundary to be very prominent and clear to their meaning.
One day, Bruno is looking out the window and asks his mother if he could “play with the children on the farm.” This is where the audience learns Bruno’s Harmartia, or tragic flaw, of his age. Children at Bruno’s age are innocent, kind, curious, and are often hidden from the evils of the world. Unknowingly, he moves close to a concentration camp, but due to his innocence, he believes the prison is a farm. He describes the “farmers” as looking “strange”
After that day, Bruno goes to the forest every day to find Shmuel. One day, Bruno saw Shmuel in his house polishing the glasses for his father’s birthday. He holds Shmuel’s hand and said "Our hands, they 're so different. Look!"(167). When Bruno holds Shmuel’s hands, immediately he noticed the differences between them. One is healthy, fat hands but certainly not fat for a nine year old and the other hands just talk about other stories,that is about how hard of a Jewish people at Auschwitz.At Auschwitz,Jews live in a really rough living condition,they need to live in a confined space.Despite their visible differences, Bruno still accepts Shmuel as a friend. However, although they accept each other’s different physical features, but there are more struggles waiting in this friendship.
“Hello,” said Bruno “Hello,” said the Boy.)At this point of the book Bruno had crossed the line with his exploration, he had went much further his father and mother would ever approve, he comes face to face with an Auschwitz prisoner although he doesn’t know it yet as Bruno thinks it’s a good place to be in. This is the one point in the book that there’s a relief for Bruno,
Friendship is a basic human need, especially for nine year old boys living their childhood. For Bruno who is lonely, bored out of his mind and could not find friends his age to play with and Shmuel a Jewish boy entrapped in a brutal concentration camp, their friendship is one of the only things that can spark a little happiness and lighten up their spirit. The boys meet in the least possible place – the periphery of Auschwitz concentration camp, where one is imprisoned and the other is the son of the Nazi commandant in charge. Although they are meant to see each other as enemies as a Jew and Nazi, there is no hatred between Bruno and Shmuel. They simply see each other as another kid to talk to out of the loneliness of Auschwitz. As the book
Bruno is an 8 year old boy, whose determination and courage is one of the numerous things that makes him one of the most dependable charters within the novel. Bruno is shown to be particularly vulnerable of his surroundings and what was going on throughout this time. His connection and willpower to be able to make a friend in the most unlikely area and conditions, he sees an opportunity and turns it into an improbable and prohibited friendship that has many twists and turns and uncontrolled concecuences. After meeting Shmuel a young 8 year old boy, who appears to have a matching birthday to Bruno, they form a tight and loving friendship. Shmuel is undernourished and appears to be extremely pale, bringing the readers to understand the vulnerability of the
The mood throughout the story is very often negatively influenced by the setting of a concentration camp. The house in which Bruno and his family live at Auschwitz is small and lonely. “The new house, however, stood all on its own in an empty, desolate place and there were no other houses anywhere to be seen, which meant there would be no other families around and no other boys to play
Bruno was the son of a Nazi commandant, but he had no idea of the horrors of the Holocaust. He was told not to go near the death camp his father was in charge of, but he did anyway. Bruno meet a Jewish boy named Shmuel at the camp and continued to visit him. They enjoyed each other’s company even though there was a fence in between them. One day Shmuel told Bruno that his dad went missing. Neither of the boys knew that he was actually murdered. They came up with a plan to sneak Bruno into the camp to help Shmuel find his dad. After Bruno gets into the camp they begin to search when alarms go off. The boys and other Jewish men get pushed into a room and ordered to take their clothes off. No one knows what’s going on. They are ordered into another room where they are gassed and die. Because of hate and intolerance against Jews, Shmuel was blocked off from the rest of the world and his friend. Bruno fought against that hate and intolerance by sneaking into a place where no one should be, to help a
In the novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, the author highlights the main characters point of view to convey the theme that children who are sheltered from bad happening around them have a different,more positive, view of the world. Set during WWII, the story tells of a young boy named Bruno who meets another young boy, called Shmuel, and they form an incredible friendship. At the beginning of the book Bruno and his family are forced to move to Auschwitz. Bruno is very curious about many things, so it is only natural that when he sees the people in the striped pajamas behind a fence out of his window, he decides to check it out.That is when he meets Shmuel, a young Jew.
The next day where its raining and extremely muddy Bruno went to meetup with Shmuel at the fence to go on the search for Shmuel’s father . Finally Bruno was on the opposite side of the fence , as he was sneaking around trying to blend in with other people he never saw nothing like that seeing everyone looking miserable and skinny.
Bruno not knowing about the camp being a Jewish concentration camp was one of the reasons he went into the camp in the first place. If Bruno had known about Out-With and the real identity of it then he would never have explored to find the dot that became a speck that became a blob that became a figure that became a boy. Since Bruno didn’t know about Out-with and the holocaust he went to explore and find the dot, and that dot became his best friend for a short life. The innocent dot that Bruno found ended up being the tragedy that caused his death. Bruno’s naivety lead him into Out-With along side his best friend for life, Shmuel. Bruno and Shmuel had never played together and Bruno was leaving back home for Berlin that day, the best friends for a short life wanted something to remember about each other. “‘I’d like to have seen it’ He added’. . .’Well?’ said Shmuel. ‘Why don’t you then?’. . .’it would be a great adventure. Our final adventure. I could do some exploring at last’” (Boyne 197-198). Bruno’s best friend for life lead him to the end of both of their lives. Bruno was naive about many things, but nothing more than the situation he had to make the best of and live
Shmuel, went from being lonely and sad, to be more cheerful after meeting Bruno. Bruno gave him support, food and friendship things that he didn’t have inside the camp. One day, they planned to go and find Shmuel’s dad inside the camp and marched together with other people not knowing that they were marching to their death.
Bruno was a very friendly boy to almost everyone that one exception was Gretel. She always made fun of or picked on him because he couldn’t fit into his new home social wise. But through all of that emotional pain Bruno was still loyal and kind to Shmuel. Bruno listened to Shmuel’s memories of his old life in the nicer side of Poland. Bruno told Shmuel about his house in Berlin. Shmuel and Bruno talked about how different it was in there old homes before coming to “Auschwitz”.
The novel demonstrates how Bruno and Shmuel share a great deal in common but perhaps what is most striking is the childhood innocence which characterises both boys. Bruno is unaware that his father is a Nazi commandant and that he lives within yards of a concentration camp. Shmuel, imprisoned in the camp, seems not to understand the severity of his situation. When his father goes missing Shmuel does not understand that he actually went into the gas chamber, “He was here on Monday and then he went on work duty with some other men and none of them have come back.”(p 194). While spending time together, being filled with purity, Shmuel tells Bruno of the horrific train experience that the Jews were forced through. “The doors were at the end,” explained Bruno. “There weren’t any