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Historical Setting Of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

Decent Essays

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

In the novel, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, the historical setting of Nazi Germany is of key importance. Although the novel is fictional having it set during a time period of such significance, such as Germany under the Nazi regime, gives a sense of reality to the book. This is important as this connects readers to the plot line as they understand the setting. This setting is interesting as it was a terrible point of history, filled with hatred, fear and bigotry. In this essay, I will be discussing the main points of the historical setting and the reasons this fits well with the book and how this historical setting came about. This historical setting had key relevance and was essential for the book.

The first reason for why the historical setting was so important is it added drama and tension to the story. The Nazi regime was fuelled by propaganda, fear and intolerance. Limits on Jews were continuously getting worse, eventually going as far as to put the Jewish people into labour camps and death camps (such as Auschwitz) leading to the unique terrible conditions under which this novel operates. This adds tension to the story as the conflict between the Jews and the Nazis builds. This conflict is interesting as the hatred directed towards Jews was nonsensical and uninformed, it was a way for Hitler to unify Germany by directing hatred towards minorities. The setting causes drama between characters as shown through

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