The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjama’s published in 2006 tells the story by using a nine year old boy as the narrator to show the world through his eyes. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a powerful story because it is told from Bruno’s perspective. The novel is set in the years of World War 2 and the colorcast where many Jewish families live their lives in fear of the Hitler and the Germans. Boyne has used many different languages in the novel such as Tone, Literacy Devices and Characterization to show the different features and perspectives from Bruno.

The way Boyne describes Shmuel makes the reader really feel remorseful for this boy and the way he is being treated by the soldiers. Boyne Cleverly uses imagery and symbolism to describe Shmuel from Bruno’s perspective. “His skin was almost the colour of grey, but not quite like any grey Bruno has ever seen before. He had very large eyes and they were the colour of caramel sweets. ” (p. 106-107. ) Boyne has impressively used imagery to show and represent people through Bruno’s innocent and naive eyes and really encourages the reader to read on.

In the novel the way Boyne uses characterization, helps to show the different characteristics of Bruno and how he represents other characters from his perspective. “Who’s the fury? ” asked Bruno. “Your pronouncing it wrong” said father pronouncing it correctly. “The Fury” Bruno said again but failing. (p. 117). Boyne uses this, to describe to the reader that Bruno is a naive and innocent young boy. Boyne uses implied meanings as you may have realised Boyne never mention Hitler but rather says fury and makes the novel really impacts the reader. Boyne uses a lot of one in his novel to express the feelings been told through the story.

By the way Boyne has represented the way the soldiers laughed and mocked the children makes the reader leave with a distaste of the soldiers and are remorseful for the children. ”But then one of the soldiers lunged towards them and they separated and seemed to do what he wanted them to do all along, which was to stand in a single line. When they did, the soldiers all started to laugh and applaud them. ” (p. 37). It shows that the soldiers were horrible people, they pushed and laughed at all the children in the concentration camp and didn’t care one bit if it hurt them.

The feeling that you get when you read this book, it is sad and depressing, which can explain why it is a very powerful story. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas heavily impacts the reader in every way, making the novel very powerful. Boyne uses a younger innocent and naive boy, like Bruno, to tell the story by the view of a young child. Boyne uses Bruno as a narrator to highlight the prejudice that causes adults to behave badly and unkindly towards others. Using a naive narrator it confronts the reader about their own beliefs and values. The way Boyne cleverly use tone, characterization and literacy devices impacts the story greatly.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Teresa Ip Mark Herman, the director of the film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, uses significant film techniques to create empathy towards the Jewish people involved in the Holocaust. Herman delivers thought provoking ideas to illustrate the horrid events the Jews had to suffer. The significant themes that are conveyed in this film are truth and revelation, betrayal, human suffering and death. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was set in 1942 at Auschwitz, Poland and is a historic didactic representation of the Holocaust.

Truth and revelation, betrayal and death are important themes because Bruno’s betrayal of Shmuel, an inmate of the Nazi concentration camp, leaves him in a situation where he must attempt to properly mend his relationship with Shmuel, by going inside the camp to look for his father. This results in a tragic ending of both boys and they represent the thousands of people killed during the Holocaust. The truth and revelation of the Holocaust are portrayed through the use of several dramatic film techniques allowing the audience to empathise for the Jewish people involved in the Holocaust.

The audience is in disbelief and are horrified that the Nazi soldiers could be so inhumane. Truth and revelation are realised in the scene where Elsa discovers the truth about her husband’s work in the Nazi concentration camp and her opinion of him immediately changes forever. Herman uses the dialogue with Lieutenant Kotler’s rhetorical question, to Elsa, Bruno’s mother, “They smell even worse when they burn, don’t they? ” to create the moment of truth for her and the audience.

In this scene as the audience begins to understand the real truth and horror behind the Holocaust, they also begin to empathise with the Jewish people as the gravity of the situation begins to sink in. Furthermore, the symbolic allusion of smoke is a visual representation of the bodies being burned. The director uses this technique as a way to create further empathy towards the Jewish people. Moreover, the close-up shot of Elsa emphasises her shocked reaction and creates a more dramatic effect to the scene.

In this way she represents the audience as this would hopefully be how they react. Thus, through the use of significant film techniques, Herman is able to convey thought provoking ideas based on truth and revelation to an audience. Betrayal is a theme delivered through various significant film techniques so the director is able to convey thought provoking ideas. The viewers are shocked when Bruno betrays Shmuel as they were finally united and the audience realises that Shmuel will have to suffer the consequences and the sense of hope is shattered.

Setting is significant and symbolic in the scene where Bruno and Shmuel are in the same room of Bruno’s house as they are not separated by a fence here. Mark Herman has used this to heighten the betrayal even more by bringing the two of them together. Furthermore, the dialogue “Little man, do you know this Jew? Do you know this Jew? ” is used to manipulate Bruno to respond, “No, I just walked in and he was helping himself. I’ve never seen him before in my life. ” In this way dramatic irony is used as the audience understands this to be a lie.

The audience then sides with Shmuel and realise how many Jewish people were betrayed, leading them to empathise for them. Moreover, the low angle shot of Lieutenant Kotler and Bruno reinforce their superiority and power, therefore the audience see the pair as having power and this technique highlights one of the many soldiers who had authority over the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Thus, the zooming out shot of Lieutenant Kotler, Bruno and Shmuel heightening Shmuel’s innocence, lack of power and vulnerability as he is standing behind the table, covered by the glasses so the viewer can only just see his head and feet.

On the other hand, Bruno is walking away with Lieutenant Kotler emphasising that he has sided with the Nazi’s. In this way, the audience realises that Bruno is not as innocent and angelic as they once thought and witness a darker side to him. Hence, the audience is able to understand betrayal through the use of significant film techniques. In the final scene of the film, death and loss are realised and these thought provoking ideas are conveyed through significant film techniques. In this way the audience is confronted with the shocking tragedy through the eyes of the director.

Symbolism is portrayed in the scene where Bruno and Shmuel are inside the camp; both wearing striped pyjamas symbolically and they are finally seen as equals. The lighting gradually becomes dark, dull and grey as Bruno and Shmuel walk deeper inside the concentration camp, portraying the lack of life of the people living inside. The audience is in disbelief when they realise how horrible the concentration camps were and are is shock of how inhumane the Nazi soldiers were. Pathetic fallacy is used when the rain starts to pour and a storm begins to develop.

This makes the scene more melancholic and the audience begins to anticipate that a tragedy is about to happen. Moreover, the zooming out shot of the silent anti-chamber emphasises the desolate loss of people, thus the empty striped pyjamas symbolically represent the mass death. The audience realises how many innocent people were killed and they begin to empathise for the Jews as well as having a better understanding of the Holocaust. This only resembles one of the many countless mass killings of the Jewish people that occurred.

Therefore, Herman’s ideas on death and loss are able to be understood by the audience through these significant film techniques. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas focuses on the major themes of truth and revelation, betrayal, human suffering and death and loss. Herman has successfully linked these themes together through Bruno’s betrayal and consequential guilt as well as Shmuel’s continuous suffering. The death and loss of both Bruno and Shmuel represent the mass genocide that occurred during the Holocaust.

Herman has thus effectively conveyed his thought provoking ideas through the use of significant film techniques allowing him to evoke a sense of empathy in the audience. Betrayal, truth and revelation and death and loss are important because Bruno’s betrayal leaves him in an attempt to properly mend his relationship with Shmuel, by going inside the concentration camp to look for his father. This results in the death and loss of both and they represent the thousands of people who were killed during the Holocaust.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas focuses on the major themes of truth and revelation, betrayal and death. Herman has successfully liked these themes together through Bruno’s betrayal and consequential guilt to make things right again between him and Shmuel. The death and loss of both Bruno and Shmuel represent the mass genocide that occurred during the Holocaust. Herman has thus effectively conveyed his though provoking ideas through significant film techniques, allowing him to evoke a sense of empathy in the audience.

In the novel Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, prejudice and discrimination are shown to have many negative effects on many of the characters such as Bruno, Shumel, Father, Mother and Kotler. In my essay I will explore this idea in relation to the novel. Discrimination, (or in other words negatively putting someone down but not physical hurting or touching them in anyway) is taken place in Boy in The Striped Pyjamas by many different people such as Gretel, by following Kotler’s decisions Gretel is discriminating because she is supporting the Germans belief.

Prejudice on the other hand, (is another word for negative physical contact such as kicking, hitting or even killing) in this is shown by the Father, Hitler. Also Kotler beating up Pavel over he had miss poured the wine. One of the most obvious examples of discrimination in this novel is the concentration camp and the negative effect it has on the Jewish prisoners. The fence that is separating Bruno and Shumel is there for a reason because of race, religion and culture. Shumel is living in fear, depression and is slowly emaciated, not only does he feel sad and isolated it is how he has been treated.

In the book the writer says that Bruno looks and Shumel and ‘He stares at the floor and looking as if he was trying to convince his soul not to live inside his tiny body anymore’ he sits there in the rough dirty ground. Pavel is the butler at Bruno’s house and is also a Jew, like Shumel. When Bruno hurts himself on the tire swing he comes across Pavel and learns a bit about him. That he was a doctor but then got taken into the concentration camp and got everything taken away from him his clothes, family and food. Bruno was surprised and puzzled.

Later on when Kotler comes to Bruno’s house form dinner Kotler gets mad at a conversation they were having and his temper rises. Kotler ask’s Pavel for wine, he had become weak and was trembling and limping a fair amount, Pavel he spills the wine all over Kotler and end up with Pavel in a serious condition. Despite the more powerful position of the Germans, the discrimination that takes place in the novel affects all the characters negatively. Mother is afraid of the concentration camp being too close to the house and is scared of the terrifying consequences it could, and did lead to.

When Bruno and Shumel knew more about each other and realised that they weren’t meant to be friends but they looked further than that. Once Bruno and Shumel became greater friends Shumel asked Bruno a favour, to come over that side of the fence to find Shumel’s father. When Bruno accepts and goes ahead with it they get in trouble and get cramped in tightly by groups of 100’s and 100’s of adults they get sucked into the gas chamber and Bruno and Shumel die. The act of discrimination and prejudice ultimately led to the death of Bruno and Shumel’s life.

Father, Hitler and Kotler were the three main prejudice leaders in this novel Father the commandant directing the soldiers to complete the ‘The Final Solution’ led to death for all Jews and sadly Bruno and Shumel as well. Father never felt the same way again he felt guilty that they had taken away so many lives, innocent lives and couldn’t even imagine how so many of them felt like that for most of their lives. Mother wasn’t happy about the decision in the first place and felt unsecure about the whole Out-with thing, she knew it would end up to something bad but did expect it like that.

By the end of the novel Father was shocked, distressed and very heartbroken about Bruno’s death and realised that he hadn’t taken much notice of Bruno till then. When the soldiers took him away, because he wasn’t doing his job properly he didn’t care what they did or where going to do all he cared about was Bruno and his Family. Eventually they all moved back to Berlin after a few weeks, which was also not much different because of grandmother, but they couldn’t handle the pain in Out-with. But no matter where they are in the world, they will never forget about Bruno, ever.

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne Summary Bruno is a nine years old boy, who lives with his father, mother and his twelve years old sister Gretel in Berlin during the second world war. His father is commandant for the German army. One day, when Bruno came home from school, the family’s maid Maria is packing his belongings. They move to a new home, because of his fathers’ work. Their new home’s called Out-With. Immediately when the Family arrive at Out-With, Bruno gets homesick.

He misses his friends, his grandparents and especially his old home at Berlin. From a bedroom window Gretel and Bruno see many people, all in the same grey-white striped pyjamas. Out-with and the people in the pyjamas are separated by a huge fence. When Bruno asks his father who this people are, his father says they aren’t really people. When Bruno walks along the fence (exploring), he sees a boy sitting on the other site of the fence. The Jewish boy is called Schmuel and he has exactly the same age as Bruno. They become friends and Bruno visits Schmuel every day.

After one year at Out-With, Bruno’s mother wants to go back to Berlin because she thinks Out-With is an unsafe place for children to grow up. Bruno doesn’t want to go back to Berlin because of Schmuel. When he went for the last time to Schmuel, Schmuel tells him his father is gone. Bruno wants to help Schmuel to search and explore for his father. He changes into the striped pyjamas. Bruno and Schmuel go into the camp. When they are exploring, suddenly they went on a march. They marched to a long room and the frond was suddenly closed. Bruno doesn’t know it is a airtight room.

Nothing more was ever heard of Bruno after that. Relationships Gretel – Bruno Bruno calls his sister Gretel ‘The Hopeless Case’. She always thinks Bruno’s stupid, because he’s ‘only’ nine. Gretel is twelve years old and she thinks she’s very smart, old and wise. Bruno is a little scared of Gretel. When Gretel becomes a little older, she gets more serious and stops teasing Bruno. Schmuel – Bruno Schmuel and Bruno are very good friends. In the end of the book, Bruno calls Schmuel his best friend. Bruno goes every afternoon to the fence to talk with Schmuel. They can’t play, because the fence separate them.

Their friendship is also strange, because Schmuel hates all the soldiers who live with Bruno. Bruno doesn’t know what the soldiers (and his father) do to the Jewish people. Father – Bruno Bruno doesn’t really know what his fathers’ Job is. He only know his father wears the most beautiful uniform of all the soldiers. The year after Bruno went to the airtight room, his father goes back to the place where the clothes of Bruno were found. He discovers a gap in the fence and he knows immediately what happened to Bruno. On that moment, he regretted about everything what he have done.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a novel that was written by John Boyne. It was first published in 2006. John Boyne was born in Ireland 1971 and is the author of six novels. His novels were published in over 30 languages. Because people were inspired by The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, it has now been made into a featured film. The story The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas revolves around the friendship between a 9 year old German boy and a Jewish boy who is in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Bruno the German boy is at Auschwitz because his father is the Commandant of the camp. This story shows Bruno’s innocence and the friendship between him and Shmuel. It also reveals the brutality of the Germans to the Jews in World War II. There are many themes that runs through the story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I have chosen friendship brutality and fear as the themes I will discuss. Friendship is the most important among the three major themes.

An example of the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel was shown by Bruno when he shared his food with Shmuel when he was hungry. Another example was when they played together and confided in each other. Thus a bond of friendship was developed. My final example of friendship was when Bruno helped Shmuel look for his Papa. Bruno had helped a friend in need. However, they did not succeed in finding Shmuel’s father. Both boys tragically ended their short lives in the gas chambers. Brutality is also one of the important themes in the novel.

This is clearly defined when Lieutenant Kotler has beaten Pavel up just because he had spilled some wine on the Lieutenant. Also, an example of brutality would be when Lieutenant Kotler hits Shmuel as he was unfairly accused of stealing food.. This is very brutal as no one should ever abuse a child even if they are Jewish. The last exampled of brutality is the way the Germans treat the Jews. They locked them up in death camps and concentration camps. The German were very brutal, they show no compassion or mercy to the Jews.

The last theme that I believe is important is fear. An example of fear was shown by Pavel. He was afraid to disrespect the Lieutenant as he was easily provoked and might do something unpleasant to Pavel. Lieutenant Kotler was also feared by Bruno and Shmuel. They had to be very careful with everything they said to him. They would be in deep trouble if Lieutenant Kotler found out the truth about their friendship. The final example of fear is how afraid the whole world is of the Nazis because they were very powerful. No one dared go against the Nazis.

In conclusion, I believe that this is an excellent and remarkable story. It shows how powerful friendship really is. It also demonstrates how brutal human behavior can be. Although the story’s ending was melancholy, there was always hope, friendship and love. I truly enjoyed this story, I learned something about history in a way that made me feel and sympathize for the innocent lives which were lost. The author did a terrific job by making the characters so realistic and interesting. The ending was very surprising and devastating.