The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Quotes

Character Development Of Bruno

My book The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is a book by John Boyne, The main character, Bruno, is a strong willed nine year old, who is suspicious and oblivious to what’s going on, in his home country, Germany. World War II is in it’s peak at the time the book takes place, and his Father runs the legendary, for the wrong reasons, concentration camp, Auschwitz.In the book, Bruno becomes quite suspicious when he moves to a house overlooking “Out-With”, home of The Boy in The Striped Pajamas. At one point Boyne makes these passages to show his suspiciousness, “Bruno and Gretel see hundreds of people but there were so many huts… ‘Look over there.’ said Bruno, and Gretel followed the finger he was pointing, ‘Who are they?’ ” Boyne wanted to convey that Bruno and Gretel, his sister, are untrusting towards the people in the striped pajamas. Another suspicious passage is when Bruno points out: “Who decided which

people wore the striped pajamas and which wore uniforms.” Bruno begins to wonder why Shmuel and all the other people in “Out-With”.
Throughout the book Bruno shows his childishness, while arguing on meaningless topics or simply refusing to be wrong no matter what. This passage shows his strong willed nature, “ ‘But you have to be quiet now, Father said… , Bruno, because I know this move is difficult for you. And I have listened to what you have to say… But the moment has come when you will simply have to accept that-’ ‘I don’t want to accept it!’ Shouted Bruno.” Boyne writes this passage to show Bruno often disagrees with his parents and often wants to be his own person. Another argument happens when talking with Shmuel about where the doors are in Out-With: “ ‘There are doors at the end.’ explained Bruno, ‘There weren’t any doors.” said Shmuel, ‘Of course there were doors.’ said Bruno with a sign (pointing).” This passage depicts Bruno’s need to be right even on meaningless topics that really don’t need to be argued on. This passage shows Bruno is also strong willed in his hate seen in this small paragraph, which needs some explanation, Lieutenant Kotler is a soldier that is particularly mean. Boyne wrote this: “Bruno decided to make a list of reasons why he hated Lieutenant Kotler There was the fact he never smiled… Not to mention the fact that he was always in the living room with Mother making jokes with her, and Mother laughed at her jokes more than she laughed at Father’s.” Boyne conveys this to us not only to show the potential affair between Lieutenant Kotler and Mother, but also to show that Bruno being a child and holding grudges. His strong willed personality shows he always has to be right.
Bruno’s oblivious nature to what’s going on in the world ultimately gets him killed, he still doesn’t pronounce things like Führer (Hitler) which he pronounces Fury.

This quote illustrates his almost innocent behavior in wondering why Shmuel is on the other side of the fence he says: “ ‘We’ve never even seen each other without this wire fencing in the way.’” Boyne shows in this quote by Bruno wondering why Shmuel can’t cross the fence to see each other. Another oblivious almost innocent quote by Bruno is : “ ‘Maybe you can come over for dinner some time?’” Bruno tells Shmuel this he believes that Shmuel can leave to go over the fence at any time he wants but Shmuel might actually know he can’t. The third and final passage comes from page 152. Bruno says: “ ‘Don’t you want to wear different clothes?’” This shows that Bruno still wonders why Shmuel can’t change his clothes from his Striped Pajamas. In short, Bruno,a strong-willed, oblivious and suspicious character , is a mainly static character whose obliviousness gets him

killed.
Corwin Pepper Hour 4