The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Essay Vishal Kotecha 8M
‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is a book that demonstrates childhood innocence. Discuss’
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, written by John Boyne, follows the sad story of a boy named Bruno, the main protagonist, who lives a wealthy lifestyle in Germany prior to World War II. After Bruno’s father is approached by The Führer, the family relocates to the countryside where his father is assigned to take command of a concentration camp. A few days after they move to Auschwitz, Bruno befriends another youth, strangely dressed in striped pyjamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electric fence. The fable highlights childhood innocence because of the following reasons:
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He innocently believes all is fine and everyone around him is treated equally, wondering “What exactly was the difference?” This is a repeating idea readers are reminded of throughout the fable. Innocence is further portrayed when Bruno’s friend, Shmuel requests some food. Bruno, unaware, of the true situation within the camp, questions himself as to why Shmuel would want food, with his perception being that everyone within the camp was happy, and well fed. This innocence fades as he becomes an occupant of the camp, following sneaking through the fence and coming to the realisation that everyone was actually quite depressed and miserable within the camp. Bruno’s comparative impressions of the campsite before being an occupant and thereafter following his own personal experiences within the camp, highlights his innocence, and the evolution of …show more content…
Since Bruno has almost no knowledge of the Holocaust (where Jews were exterminated solely because of their race) and what was happening during the time, he continues to believe that Shmuel’s side of the fence is better than his side. In the novel, Bruno is last seen standing in the gas chamber with Shmuel, holding hands, awaiting death they are both unaware of. Reference is made to "the chaos that followed," which can easily be taken to mean the chaos of the inmates being gassed.
Before their unfortunate death, “[Bruno] took hold of Shmuel's tiny hand in his and squeezed it tightly. "You're my best friend, Shmuel," he said. "My best friend for life.”
This scene of the book underlines the theme of innocence as Bruno assumes they were getting everyone under cover so they do not become wet from pouring rain outside. He also realises that the bond between him and Shmuel turns into a priceless friendship and has truly met his best friend. It shows that he has been brought up in a different kind of world than the Jews and is not used to these kind of conditions which aids the theme of childhood
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
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
For starters, He had befriended a young Jewish boy by the name of Shmuel, which was an unacceptable action to compel in the time that Bruno was living in. Although Bruno didn’t know that what he had just done was considered as the wrong thing to do, he treated Shmuel just like anyone else never the less and thought of him as a close friend, well the only friend he had since moving to Auschwitz. When he had found out that Shmuel was starving and in need of food, Bruno made sure to go to the effort and bring food with him to enjoy with Shmuel when they were sitting together, separated by the fence. One day after uttering that the Germans were “superior” (Page 112), Bruno had quickly thought of changing the subject as it made him uneasy to have said that to Shmuel, having an innate sense that it wasn’t the right thing to have said. Although Bruno’s father had exclaimed it many times before, Bruno had not been fond of the words that were spoken out of his mouth at that exact moment. As the novel progresses further
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
Bruno’s growth is shown the moment “he [looks] down and [does] something quite out of character for him: he [takes] hold of Shmuel's tiny hand and [squeezes] it tightly. ‘You're my best friend, Shmuel... My best friend for life’” (Boyne 212, 213). Through his experience in the gas chamber, Bruno realizes that he is in control of his decisions good or bad.
This shows how Bruno perceives the Jews, or more specifically, Shmuel. Bruno decided that Shmuel was worth finding, and he actually thought that there was a potential friendship waiting to be discovered. He stayed, finding the worth in Shmuel instead of leaving him, "like a dead mouse at the back of the cupboard."
Bruno used to live in Berlin in a five story mansion with his three best friends for life; Karl, Daniel and Martin. Bruno’s mateship with his friends is demonstrated at the beginning of the book when he Constantly complains that he must move away from his three best friends for life. “‘Say goodbye to Karl and Daniel and Martin?’... ‘But they’re my three best friends for life!’” pg 7. During the Duration of the book the protagonist latches onto a different, obscure but deeper friendship with another character, through this he realises that Karl,Daniel,and Martin aren’t his best friends after all. “When he thought back he could remember that Karl and Martin were two of his three best friends for life, but try as he might he couldn’t remember who the other one was.” pg 176. Throughout the novel bruno creates an innovative relationship with family member and members of the household, in particular he meets Pavel, the potato peeler. Bruno also improves his love hate relationship with Gretel his sister as well as creating a overwhelming connection with the Family maid Maria.
The main conflict in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is Bruno vs. His Innocence with the conflict being Person vs. Self. Bruno’s innocence has gotten others in trouble such as Shmuel when he convinced him to eat food while he was at Bruno’s house (169) and that Kotler wouldn’t mind. Bruno didn’t understand the consequences and when Kotler started screaming, that’s when he realizes that he did something wrong and hurt someone as the consequence. Hurting someone seems to be a theme in Bruno’s problem because he decides that it would be a great idea to switch sides of the fence to hang out with Shmuel and look for Shmuel’s father (198). What he doesn’t know is how this decision will change his and his family’s lives for the worse with great grief
At the end of the book, Bruno snuck into the concentration camp to play with Shmuel but they got caught up in a march. This march led them into the gas chambers and then Bruno sensed something bad about to happen. Once he heard the doors click shut, Bruno said, “‘You’re my best friend, Shmuel,’ he said. ‘My best friend for life’”(Boyne 213) This quote shows how strong Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship is. Even though Shmuel was Jewish and Bruno was German and they were not supposed to like each other, their friendship kept them together. The society was supposed to separate them but they stayed together all the way until the
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.
innocence is the theme that develops throughout the novel. Bruno misinterprets what is going on in
The second struggle in Bruno 's and Shmuel’s friendship is their need to overcome their differences in the family background. One day, Bruno decided to talk about how they came to be in Auschwitz. When Shmuel starts talking about how he got here.He said that, “The train was horrible," said Shmuel. There were too many of us in the carriages for one thing. And there was no air to breathe.” “That 's because you all crowded onto one train,”said Bruno.... “When we came here, there was another one on the other side of the platform, but no one seemed to see it. That was the one we got.” (129-130). When Bruno talks about
Bruno, initially, has ignorance about everything going on in his life. For example, his dissatisfaction with leaving Berlin is demonstrated in many parts of the story. He is shown to the reader as being innocent, immature, and unable to give things a chance. On many occasions, Bruno complains about moving to “Out-With” (Auschwitz). He continually complains before even giving himself a chance to experience it. He was whining and being stubborn. To illustrate, in the novel, the author says, “Nothing, thought Bruno, not even the insects, would ever choose to stay at Out-With.
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.
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.