The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Opinion Essay “Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow” -Elie Wiesel. The Holocaust is a very common topic to read and to be taught about, especially in the form of fictional books. It is usually taught to make people remember what really happened in the past so that history doesn’t repeat itself. Often times, people tend to take the Holocaust, a topic that is despicable, not as seriously as it should be taken. It tends to be sugarcoated, or “fictionalized” to the point where it's just inappropriate. Sugarcoating serious matters, like the Holocaust, is surely not acceptable. An example of such intolerability is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was The book made it seem like he just walked through the camp, into the uniform barracks, and retrieved a uniform like it was no big deal. Again, if this were the 1940s, the Nazis would not allow this to happen, making the book even more unrealistic than it already was. In my opinion, the most major inadequacy in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is how John Boyne made Bruno so naïve for his age. He never really knew why Shmuel was on the other side of the fence. In the book, Bruno asked his sister, Gretel, “‘Are we Jews?’” (Boyne 182). This shows that Bruno had very little knowledge of what was really happening in Auschwitz and all around the world. Boyne had also made Bruno use a very shameful and inappropriate term in his book. Instead of “Auschwitz”, Bruno called it “Out-With”. After Boyne had added this term into his book, I felt as though he took Bruno’s naïvete way too far. John Boyne’s book, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, shouldn’t be used as a teaching tool for the Holocaust. It is far too inappropriate and disgraceful for such a grave topic. The Holocaust was full of atrocities. If you are teaching younger audiences about the Holocaust, in my opinion, you should adhere to basic age appropriate facts of what truly happened without minimizing or detracting from the cruelties that the victims
The overall storyline of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was the same, but in the movie there was a lot of detail lef tout. The movie is more basic and doesnt have as much detail about the characters feelings/emotions. Overall, Bruno learned that curiousity kills, and his family learned to be responsible and not take things
The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent. A majority of these men were neither Nazi party members nor members of the S.S. They were also from Hamburg, which was a town that was one of the least occupied Nazi areas of Germany and, thus, were not as exposed to the Nazi regime. These men were not self-selected to be part of the order police, nor were they specially selected because of violent characteristics. These men were plucked from their normal lives, put into squads, and given the mission to kill Jews because they were the only people available for the task. “Even in the face of death the Jewish mothers did not separate from their children. Thus we tolerated the mothers taking their children to the ma...
One day when Shmuel gets sent to shine glasses at his house him and Bruno start talking. A soldier see them and Bruno told him he didn’t know who he was, and the soldier beats the boy, Bruno feels terrible and want to make it up to Shmuel. Bruno wants to understand why the life behind the fence is so awful and why Shmuel isn’t happy. Bruno thinks it’s not better, but interesting because there are other kids to play with. They form a strong bond that can't be broken by anything and it makes him realize that his friends in Berlin weren't as special as Shmuel is and their friendship. The two boys have been talking and have been friends for about a year and decide that Bruno wants to go on the other side of the fence to see what its like and help him find his papa.
During the rule of Adolf Hitler, many children who were Jewish lived a very frightening and difficult life. They never were given the love and compassion that every child needs and deserves growing up. The Holocaust is a story that will continue to be shared till the end of time.
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
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne, significantly distorts the truth of the Holocaust in order to evoke the empathy of the audience. This response is accomplished by the author through hyperbolizing the innocence of the nine-year old protagonist, Bruno. Through the use of dramatic irony, Boyne is able to both engage and involve the audience in the events of the novel. Although it is highly improbable that a son of a German high-ranking Schutzstaffel (SS) officer would not know what a Jew is and would be unable to pronounce both Fuhrer and Auschwitz, (which he instead mispronounces as ‘Fury’ and ‘Out-with’ respectively, both of which are intentional emotive puns placed by the author to emphasize the atrocity of the events), the attribution of such information demonstrates the exaggerated innocence of Bruno and allows the audience to know and understand more than him. This permits the readers to perceive a sense of involvement, thus, allowing the audience to be subjected towards feeling more dynamic and vigorous evocation of emotions and empathy towards the characters. Fu...
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas The Boy In the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is a historical fiction novel about a young boy named Bruno. The Boy In The Striped Pajamas takes place in 1942 at a Nazi Concentration camp in Auschwitz, Germany. During World War II, eight year old Bruno and his family leave Berlin to travel to a concentration camp where his father has just become commandant. Lonely, he wanders out behind his house one day and finds Shmuel, a young Jewish boy.
The Holocaust is an event that will live forever in infamy in the minds and hearts of everyone that knows its story and of the suffering the victims experienced. The victims of what was mainly Jewish descent were persecuted against by the Nazi regime Because of their anti-Semitic views that led to the largest and most famous Genocide in the history of mankind. The story of the Holocaust spread and was spread around the globe until over time a few facts became mixed or misinterpreted. These misinterpretations gave anti-Semitics and Neo-Nazis what they needed to stir up controversy on the subject to pull blame away from the Nazi Regime. These ideals are wrong but have led to debates over what is right and wrong on the subject and the people who tell the lies need to be proven wrong.
This film portrays one of humanity’s greatest modern tragedies, through heartache and transgression, reflecting various themes throughout the movie. Beyond the minor themes some seem to argue as more important in the film, the theme of friendship and love is widely signified and found to be fundamental in understanding the true meaning behind The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Director Mark Herman presents a narrative film that attests to the brutal, thought-provoking Nazi regime, in war-torn Europe. It is obvious that with Herman’s relatively clean representation of this era, he felt it was most important to resonate with the audience in a profound and philosophical manner rather than in a ruthlessly infuriating way. Despite scenes that are more graphic than others, the film's objective was not to recap on the awful brutality that took place in camps such as the one in the movie.
Imagine waking up on a normal day, in your normal house, in your normal room. Imagine if you knew that that day, you would be taken away from your normal life, and forced to a life of death, sickness, and violence. Imagine seeing your parents taken away from you. Imagine watching your family walk into their certain death. Imagine being a survivor. Just think of the nightmares that linger in your mind. You are stuck with emotional pain gnawing at your sanity. These scenerios are just some of the horrific things that went on between 1933-1945, the time of the Holocaust. This tragic and terrifying event has been written about many times. However, this is about one particularly fascinating story called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.
Throughout the novel, the boy in the striped pyjamas as readers we see that the two young boys, do not fully understand what is going on, and why Shmuel is trapped inside of the camp. I believe that because they are young, and don't have a full understanding of what is going on, they only see the good in people, and block a lot of the bad, whereas with people at an older age, it is a lot more likely for people to judge, and make assumptions about people before they know them. I believe that John Boyne has focused on this in his novel is to show us as readers that the least likely things can bring people closer together, in the novel the effects of war is what brings Bruno and Shmuel together, and by chance in the world that we live in today we may meet somebody unexpectedly, but they can play a major role in your life, and shape who you are. In the novel through the friendship of Bruno and Shmuel, we see Bruno comes from a wealthy German family, and Shmuel is Polish with his father making watches, and mother teaching languages.
A historical fiction fable by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas follows Bruno as he and his family move from their Berlin to “Out-With.” While there, Bruno meets a young boy of his age that makes him think that leaving everything behind wasn’t such a terrible mistake. However, their innocent and unlikely friendship results in dire consequences. In the novel, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne shows that even the most seemingly dreadful places, something unexpectedly beautiful can be found.
Bruno, an eight year old boy at the time of the war, is completely oblivious to the atrocities of the war around him - even with a father who is a Nazi commandant. The title of the book is evidence to this - Bruno perceives the concentration camp uniforms as "striped pajamas." Further evidence is the misnomers "the Fury," (the Furher) and "Out-With" (Auschwitz). Bruno and Shmuel, the boy he meets from Auschwitz, share a great deal in common but perhaps what is most striking is the childhood innocence which characterizes both boys. Bruno is unaware that his father is a Nazi commandant and that his home is on ther periphery of Auschwitz. Shmuel, imprisoned in the camp, seems not to understand the severity of his situation. When his father goes missing, Shmuel does not understand that he has gone to the gas chamber.
Imagine being a Jew during the Holocaust. Never knowing when or if you will be taken away to the camps. Going to bed in fear not knowing if you will wake up to the birds singing, or the sound of soldiers breaking down your door in the middle of the night. In “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” and “The Diary of a Young Girl” the characters seem to find a glimpse of light in the darkness. The characters are persistent, optimistic, and positive throughout the stories.
Everything is about perspective.Imagine abandoning your gorgeous house and moving into an opposite one? Bruno didn’t know that the house that they’re going was a camp for Jewish people during the holocaust. He’s stuck with his sibling and that’s Gretel that he isn’t a fan of. Therefore, what if your the solitary boy in the house besides soldiers and your father. Wouldn’t be boring? Subsequently you encounter someone, a boy, same age, but wearing striped pajamas. You'll be curious, right? That’s the life of Bruno, the young man in Auschwitz. One thing he didn’t recognize that from then one his life would be a roller coaster.