Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. N. pag. Print.
Summary:
Bruno
comes home one day and his mother tells him they’re leaving his house in Berlin
and moving to a house in a place, which he calls Out-With. But really his
father will be in charge of the prison camp Auschwitz. Bruno isn’t happy about
this situation because he doesn’t want to leave his friends. Once he arrives
there, he is lonely and gets bored a lot. But then, he notices from his bedroom
window people dressed the same in striped pajamas and doesn’t know why he can’t
play with them and talk to them. Bruno decides to go outside and go exploring. He sneaks out and meets a boy called Shmuel next to the fence that
stops them from talking and interacting. Shmuel lives at the other side of the
fence like everyone else with the striped pajamas. Bruno and Shmuel meet every
day to talk and Bruno is really happy he found a friend. But Bruno doesn’t
really understand why Shmuel can’t leave that side of the fence and come and
play with him. But later on, after more than a year, his mother decides that
the area is not suitable for children and they decide to leave. Bruno goes to
talk to Shmuel and Shmuel tells him to go inside with him and gets him striped
pajamas like the one that he has. Bruno says okay because he doesn’t know the
risks. But then, the soldiers call them and tell them they’re going on a march.
They stick together and walk toward the building with all the other Jews. I
understood from the movie as well and especially the situation of this story,
that it is taken place in World War 2 and that Bruno and Shmuel were put in a
gas tank along with everyone else and they died. His mother eventually returned
to Berlin with his sister. Bruno's father was ordered to leave Out-With with
other soldiers. He eventually figured out what had happened to Bruno.
Historical
Setting:
Willmott, Hedley P. and Michael Barrett. "World War II
(Overview)." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society.
ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
The
historical setting of this book is World War 2 so basically in Nazi Germany in
1942. Bruno was the son of a Nazi Officer. The war began in September 1939,
when Germany, under the power of Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. Britain and
France responded by declaring war on Germany but took very little action over
the next months. The war ended in 1945. Around 50 million Jews died throughout
the war.
In the
book, the author talks about the people on the other side of the fence and how
they go on “marches” which are to the gas tanks, and they die. This actually
happened in the world war and that how the author compared them and made it
related to the actual World War 2. Also, it was obvious because the story was
taken place in World War 2 and the author was telling us how the lieutenant
treated the Jews. Also on page 127, the author draws the star sign and Nazi
sign.
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 127. Print.
The
Effect:
The
effect of the historical setting on the characters and plot is affected majorly
actually. Basically because since its taking place in World War 2 the plot has
to be surrounded with the main idea of the war. Also, the author explained how
Shmuel was very skinny as well as all the other people and how they were all
sad and wearing the same things. The names, attitude towards the Jews from the
soldiers, the commandant, and the Lieutenant all have to do with the period of
time in the war. Mainly about the way the soldiers were treating the people in
the striped pajamas.
^Page
207-213: This was all about when Bruno went to the other side of the fence and
saw how they were treating the Jews.
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 207-13. Print.
Main
Characters:
The
author basically explains the characters throughout the dialogue and from his
point of view since this is 3rd person.
·
Bruno: Bruno is quite oblivious with what’s going on around him with the war
and everything else that has to do with it. But he is determined to be who he
is.
On page
82,83 and 84 Bruno is talking to Pavel their waiter who before the war was a
doctor and it kind of reveals the way Bruno doesn’t really understand what
happening.
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 82-84. Print.
Bruno
says: “I don’t understand, if you’re a doctor, why are you waiting on tables? Why
aren’t you working at a hospital or something?
·
Shmuel: Shmuel is a kind young boy but what I don’t think he should’ve done was
tell Bruno to come inside even though he knew it was a bad idea. He shouldn’t
have taken advantage of the fact that Bruno didn’t know about the war.
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 197-98. Print.
This
happens on page 197 and 198, Shmuel explains how easy it is for his plan to
succeed. He says: Why don’t you then? Why don’t you cross the fence and come
with me to find papa. I can get you a pair of striped pajamas and your head is
already shaved because of the lice, so we kind of look a like.
·
Gretel: normal teenager. She acts very snobby and bossy to her brother and flirts
with the Lieutenant.
On page
23, Bruno walks into Gretels room without knocking and Gretel gets very mad at
him, and starts telling him: “What are you doing here? Don’t you know you
shouldn’t enter a lady’s room without knocking?”
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 23. Print.
·
Lieutenant: he knows how to make himself mysterious. Also I kind of read
between the lines and realized that he was probably having an affair with
Bruno’s mother, which he shouldn’t be doing especially because he was younger
than her?
On page
144 and 145 Bruno’s mother sounds very surprised because the lieutenant didn’t
tell her about his parents. She says: “I didn’t know that, Kurt.” And seems
very interested in what happened in his life with his family.
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 144-45. Print.
Also on
page 166, the lieutenant is talking to Bruno and then Bruno’s mother walks in
not noticing that he’s not alone and says: “I have little free time now if- Oh!
“ not noticing Bruno there, “Bruno, what are you doing here?”
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 166. Print.
The Point
of View
The point
of view is from the author. He was the one who was talking. So basically 3rd
person limited because he says: Bruno did this…Gretel felt this way…. The point
of view doesn’t really help characterize the main character but it just shows
how other people view Bruno and it explains what everyone is thinking. Also, it
is just mainly focused on Bruno so it is limited to his thoughts.
Theme:
This book
is very complex, it has many themes. I picked four because they were all
related to the book in a way. The themes I chose were:
1. Everlasting love
2. Evils of racism
3. Facing darkness
4. War
For number 1, this story has everylasting love because on page
211 and 212, Bruno is saying how he will always love Shmuel and they will
always be best friends no matter what.
For evils of racism, it’s quite obvious. Since this book is
about World War 2, the soldiers are discrimating and killing the Jews. That is
racism and throughout the whole story, they’re showing the evil of it; no
matter how you state it, it will always be evil.
The next theme is facing darkness. In the story, Shmuel is
facing darkness by meeting a new friend and trying to face what’s happening on
the other side of the fence and trying to exlplain it to Bruno even though
Bruno doesn’t understand what he’s saying.
The last and final theme kind of has to do with the second. This
one is war. The book clearly is talking about the Second World War. The author
is describing the shape of the people in the striped pajamas body’s. Also, he
is talking about their face expression.
Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States: Ember,
2006. 211-12. Print.
Reflection:
This book
matter because it is talking about World War 2 and this world war is very
important. Everyone should know what happened in it and even though it was a
very long time ago, it was a significant period of time in the world. The ‘so
what’ of the book is also like why it matters. The so what of the book is to
show us how love lives on and how Bruno and Shmuel were very close friends even
though Shmuel was a Jew and Bruno wasn’t “supposed” to like him, which is
ridiculous. It shows how you should over-face something like this and love
someone for who they are not for what religion they are. This is a good book
but I wouldn’t read it again. This has many reasons but some of them are
because I didn’t like how the author built this book. I thought it was going to
be deep and meaningful – even though it is meaningful in a way – it wasn’t
something that caught me quickly. Also, I really didn’t like how he ended it.
The author sounded like he just wanted to get over with the book.
The first
thing he said that struck me was: “Nothing more was ever heard of Bruno after
that.” Also, the last paragraph, which truly disappointed me, was:
“And
that’s the end of the story about Bruno and his family. Of course all this
happened a long time go and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in
this day and age.”
I
immediately closed the book. It is like the author is saying: “And this was all
a dream”. He completely mislead the point of the story. He was also just
dismissing the ending that should’ve been there instead of that. Maybe he was
trying to make a point, or trying to say something through the lines, but
honestly, he could’ve done so much better.
This book
is important to think and talk about because of how Bruno and Shmuel became
friends even though they had “differences”. I didn’t see myself in this book. I
would rate it a 5 out of 10 because it was slightly interesting but the ending
ruined the whole story.
Vocab
words: there weren’t any words that I actually didn’t know.
1.
Clutching: grasp (pg. 29)
2.
Dominated: having an influence on (pg. 87)
3.
Summoned: urgently called on (pg.89)
4.
Reclaim: retrieve (pg. 91)
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