The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Essay

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

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.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas shows how the friendship between two boys helped them deal with the issue they were going through. In the article, Bruno compares Shmuel’s hand to his and notices that Shmeul was starving to death. And as it states in the article, “ Bruno… was about to offer some more food ..” This shows us that Bruno felt sympathy for Shmeul and wanted to help him in any way possible, in this case giving him some food. Even though Shmeul was struggling to survive in the concentration camp he could count on his friend Bruno to try and help him. Bruno’s friendship was really important to Shmeul since it brought happiness to him in a time when his life was very sad.

The soldier treated the Jews, including Shmuel who was only 9 years old, very harsh. This builds a frightening mood for the reader. When Bruno and Shmuel are in the concentration camp they are starting to realize that their plan was a terrible idea. They are becoming nervous and don’t know what to do. They are sensing danger. “Don’t worry Shmuel. No matter what happens you will always be my best friend. Then he had the urge to squeeze his tiny hand. They hugged each other and started to cry” (page 212). This is important because it builds a mood that makes the reader want to cry. When they are holding hands in the gas chamber, Bruno and Shmuel were talking in a tone that made the reader understand exactly how they were feeling. They were in a terrifying moment which made the reader nervous for them. The writer made it very suspenseful. In The Boy And The Striped Pajamas, John Boyne was able to use narrative techniques to make the story more interesting add to the add emotion behind it. One way he did that was by using the tone of the build to build a mood for the

Bruno sees him there and offers him some food. In the book, Shmuel is very reluctant to take the food from Bruno, whereas in the film Shmuel takes the food as soon as he is offered it. In the novel, when Bruno offers Shmuel some chicken, Shmuel says, “I can’t, he’ll [Lieutenant Kotler] come back, I know he will.” The change in the film can be connected to the change in Shmuel’s appearance. Because Shmuel isn’t very skinny in the film, something else needs to show evidence that he is very hungry and desperate for food. This is perfectly shown in the kitchen scene when Shmuel quickly takes the food from Bruno.

John Boyne has created a sophisticated and meaningful novel in The Boy in the Striped

Bruno was very oblivious to the things that were taking place around him. Although he was oblivious to the big picture he still had a feeling that he should not communicate with Shmuel, which is why he denied knowing him. Yet he was brave enough to sneak out of the house to visit Shmuel at what he believed was a “Farm.” In reality, this

Lieutenant Kotler: Kotler takes pleasure in his job and seems to enjoy treating Jews like dirt. When he finds Shmuel talking to Bruno he says—to a nine-year-old: "Who told you that you were allowed to talk in this house? do you dare to disobey me?"(15.1022) Bruno doesn't like Kotler and Shmuel is afraid of him.

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

Lieutenant Kilter (one of the soldiers) marched over to Shmuel and glared at him ‘what are you doing’ he shouted. ‘Didn’t I tell you to polish those glasses?’ Shmuel nodded his head and started to tremble a little as he picked up the napkin and dipped it into the water. ‘Who told you that you were allowed to in this house?’ continued Kolter.

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.

Nonetheless, Bruno walks into the unknown one afternoon. He follows a fence until he sees a young boy sitting on the other side. The shoeless boy is wearing striped pajamas. Bruno quickly befriends the boy who introduces himself as Shmuel.

When exploring Bruno meets a boy named Shmuel, who is located on the other side of the fence. Shmuel can be described as being Jewish, sad, skinny and a good listener. We know that Shmuel is from Poland and after looking and the wrist band he wears it can be determined that he is of Jewish faith. His wristband has a yellow star on it and we know that symbol is the Star of David, which was the symbol used to mark the Jews. Shmuel looks rather sad and lonely right from the beginning as he is sitting all by his lonesome when Bruno arrives. Bruno mentions that when he looked into Shmuel's eyes he felt like they held sadness. Shmuel informs Bruno that although there are many boys on his side of the fence, he doesn’t count them as his friends, therefore is is often lonely. One can only imagine the heartache Shmuel has faced each time he is separated from another family member. It is also noted that Shmuel is very malnourished. He will eat food whenever he has the chance as in the concentration camp food is limited. Bruno also realizes that Shmuel's “pj’s” are very big

In the movie, Bruno talks to a jew named Shmuel and eventually becomes friends with him. Even Shmuel said, “He's my friend” when being questioned by lieutenant Kotler. At this point, he has read a lot of Hitler’s writings about how jews are these monsters, but even still Bruno chooses to be friends with him because he believes that Shmuel isn’t a monster. Bruno tries to help Shmuel find his father even though he has no clue where his father is. To try and do this he goes as far as infiltrating the concentration camp where he then says “Let’s go find your father.”.

Essay Question: “Books that engage directly with contemporary concerns and issues will always involve a reader”