Reflection On "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas" By John Boyne

This story starts with Bruno a nine year old boy and his family moving because of his dad’s job. His dad is the commandant in the German army. The new house that they moved into is smaller compared to the old house and it is isolated and also it has a huge wire fence near their house. From Bruno’s room he can see Auschwitz death camp, which everyone wears striped pajamas. One day Bruno was bored, so he went exploring and walks near the fence even when his father forbid him to do so. While he was walking he met a boy wearing the striped pajamas named Shmuel. They became friends and Bruno visits him everyday. Bruno’s mom convinced his dad to move back to Berlin. When Bruno went to go say good-bye to Shmuel, Shmuel asked to help him look for his father. The next morning Bruno changed into the striped pajamas and climbed under the fence. While they were looking for Shmuel’s dad, Bruno noticed that the people are sick and very thin and the soldiers are yelling at them and that it is very bad. Bruno wanted to go home but he promised that he would look for his dad, but they could not find Shmuel’s dad. Bruno tried to go home, but he was captured by the soldiers. Bruno and Shmuel were brought into a dark room, and Bruno was never to be seen since that day. One of the main themes in the boy in the striped pajamas is isolation. Both Bruno and shmuel was isolated. Bruno’s isolation wasn’t as bad compared to Shmuel, but he was still isolated by his family. First Bruno lived where there is nothing. His house was in an isolated place. Second, his house. He was allowed in some places but some place he was not able to go, like his father office.

Also his family isolated him. His sister usually shooed him away, and when there was dinner parties he was not able to be there because it was adult talk. For Shmuel he was isolated by the whole world, because he lived where there was fence everywhere. He was isolated from the world. Isolation shows an aspect of how terrible the holocost was. It separates people from what was actually happening inside the camp, and not able to help the people. The author uses conflict to show reality by using what actually happens in real life, and he made it more real by using a conflict during World War Two. When Bruno and Shmuel got caught by Kotler when Bruno gave shmuel a chicken. When Kotler asked Bruno if he knew Shmuel. Bruno meets a conflict with himself to tell the truth or not. He was so scared by Kotler he ended up saying that they were not friends. This shows reality because, during World War Two some people were scared to do the right thing and they did not wrong thing not to get in trouble. Another example is when the grandmother and Father had an argument of what is right and wrong. A lot of people lost their conscience to tell them what is right or wrong because they were afraid. I really enjoyed this book. It was an eye opening book. My favorite part of this book is that when Bruno went in to the death camp to help shmuel to look for his dad, Bruno was scared and he wanted to go home but he promised to help look for his dad so he stayed. I thought that was really brave, especially for a nine year old. Bruno saw all the bad things that were happening in side but he stayed to help for his friends, even in the end he got killed. His loyalty and bravery was very heart touching to me. Another thing that I like about this book was the ending. It was very sad and it broke my heart and I wished it did not end like this, but it shows what was happening during that time. It made the book more real and it touched people's hearts.