ipl-logo

Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Barriers Essay

546 Words3 Pages

Barriers can be brick. Barriers can be wood. Or barriers can be a wire fence and a pair of striped pyjamas. John Boyne’s novel, ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ showcases the futility of the Holocaust through the eyes of a SS commando’s young son – Bruno and a Jewish boy. Despite Bruno’s family’s wealth, privilege and power, he still faced considerable barriers. A 10 foot fence was built to keep Jews contained, but also left Bruno feeling lonely and trapped in his isolation. Bruno’s adventurous spirit and his naive immaturity lead to his death along-side his Jewish best friend.
Bruno faced a particular barrier causing him confusion, heartache, and ultimately, death. This barrier was the divider between the Jewish and Germans, the death of over 11 million people and showed the absolute worst of our society. This barrier was the fence. On one side of the fence, children like Bruno had the freedom to play with whoever they wanted, eat and wear what they wanted. However it was a very different reality on the other side of …show more content…

This was highlighted when Bruno lamented “It’s so unfair, I don’t see why I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there’s no one to talk to and no one to play with, while you get to have dozens of friends. I’ll have to speak to father about this.” (Pg 111) Bruno clearly fails to recognize the meaning of the events and what role his father played. Sadly there was no one to help Bruno overcome this particular barrier, however if father had been more open and honest his death may have not occurred. “What exactly was the difference? He wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas and which people wore the uniforms?” Bruno failed to realise or understand that in society's eyes, Jewish and Germans should be enemies. Whilst Bruno is nine and his father is very secretive, it was clear that his naivety and immaturity blinded him from seeing the reality before

Show More
Related

  • Peter Gay's Memoir, My German Question

    598 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Homeland is something one becomes aware of only through its loss, Gunter Grass.” In Peter Gay’s memoir, My German Question, he articulates what it was like living in Germany with the presence of the Nazis or in his own experience the lack there of. Peter lived in a family that didn’t directly practice Judaism and most German families didn’t perceive them as Jews until the Nazis defined what a Jew was to the public. The persecution of other Jewish families in Germany where far worse than what Peter experienced growing up. There was a major contrast between how Gay’s family was treated and how other Jews who actively practiced the religion in Germany were treated which played a contributing factor for why the family stayed so long before they left.

    Read More

  • The Fiftieth Gate Music Analysis

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mark Bakers novel the “Fiftieth Gate” conducts the collaboration of collective knowledge and personal accounts. This text effectively articulates and challenges the need for change in facts with the addition of personal accounts in order to educate the audience about the events of the holocaust. Baker’s deliberate utilisation of numerous perspectives within the text, different recollections and philosophies display the importance of both accounts and recollection in relation to the understanding of events. Reminiscently Baker’s specific inclusion of the italicised transcript “I use to play there on the hills with the sleighs.. That’s where they gathered the Jews..

    Read More

  • Dehumanization Quotes In Night

    714 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Night one of the ways that the Jews were dehumanized was by abuse. There were beatings, “I never felt anything except the lashes of the whip... Only the first really hurt.” (Wiesel, 57) “They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs.

    Read More

  • Brutality In Elie Wiesel's Night

    645 Words  | 3 Pages

    It’s difficult to imagine the way humans brutally humiliate other humans based on their faith, looks, or mentality but somehow it happens. On the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he gives the reader a tour of World War Two through his own eyes , from the start of the ghettos all the way through the liberation of the prisoners of the concentration camps. This book has several themes that develop throughout its pages. There are three themes that outstand from all the rest, these themes are brutality, humiliation, and faith. They’re the three that give sense to the reading.

    Read More

  • Inhumanity In Night By Elie Wiesel

    936 Words  | 4 Pages

    Elie Wiesel’s true story Night, is an intriguing story about the Holocaust. The guards and even veteran prisoners are cruel to others. The punishments, even for tiny faults, are unthinkably horrid. Man does not care how old or weak someone is; this makes the children and teens change and act inhumane towards other prisoners, even towards their own family. It clearly, and painfully, explains man’s inhumanity to man.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Corruption In Night By Elie Wiesel

    281 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the small town of Sighet in Transylvania to the huge concentration camps of Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel, the author and victim of the book Night, the horrifying experience of the Holocaust. Wiesel is a 15 year old Jewish boy who was captured by the Germans or “Nazis” during WWII. He went through an overwhelming amount of trauma, like when he got separated from his mother and sisters and watching his father suffer an unbearable amount of pain that eventually killed him. The fact is, power is a tool that can corrupt itself and others, it can ruin people’s lives and it can do that without people even realizing it.

    Read More

  • The Night Divided

    1413 Words  | 6 Pages

    Back then there were walls that divided countries, families, and friends. Because of walls, many authors write about the lifestyle of living there. Author John Boyne and Jennifer A. Nielsen both wrote books surrounding different walls. In Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, it takes place when the Jews had no right to do anything because of their religion.

    Read More

  • Physically Abused In Elie Wiesel's Night

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    “‘I have terrible news,’ he said at last. ‘Deportation.’ The ghetto was to be completely wiped out. We were to leave street by street the following day” (Wiesel 11). Throughout the vast novel, Night,by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist Elie had gone through agonizing experiences, for the duration of the gruesome and unspeakable genocide.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Night As A Symbol Of Oppression

    124 Words  | 1 Pages

    Night has revealed to me the immensity of the suffering and ruthlessness that Jews were subjected to on daily basis during the holocaust in an emotional and moving first-hand experience. I choose a train, symbol of oppression, to represent the initial separation from a normal life in which everyone inside the crowded train car received, along with a taste of the pain and suffering that was soon to be forced upon them. I choose this quote to show how shocking mentally and physically the transition phase was from a normal life to that of the oppressed and to emphasize how easily he gave up in the beginning. Despite this, he managed to persevere and overcome the enormous challenges of surviving in a concentration camp.

    Read More

  • Dehumanization In Eli Wiesel's Night

    473 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eli Wiesel, the author of Night, demonstrates dehumanization by illustrating how the Nazis tortured the Jews. The foreign Jews of Sighet were being deported out of their homes. Moshe the Beatle tells Elie of his time in Galicia with great emotion. Elie shares what the Nazis did to the Jews, “Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for machine guns” (Wiesel 6).

    Read More

  • What Is The Message Of The Book Night By Elie Wiesel

    710 Words  | 3 Pages

    Night is a powerful, first person account of the tragic horrors of the Holocaust written and endured by Elie Wiesel. In this dark literary piece, Wiesel's first hand tale of the atrocities and horrors endured in World War II concentration camps will leave an unforgettable, dark, macabre impression amongst readers that cannot be done with a simple listing of statistics. This tale of human perserverance and the dark side of human nature will cause readers to question their own humanity. Also, it will paint a vivid picture of the vile deeds that mankind is capable of expressing. Reading this book will leave a long lasting impression that is definitely not something that will be soon forgotten.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Perils Of Indifference

    1742 Words  | 7 Pages

    Perils of Indifference delivers his message effectively, but not to the same degree of his memoir, for it isn’t able to explore these the horrors of the Holocaust, and use the same extent of literary terms because of its length

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Night: The Holocaust And The Holocaust

    967 Words  | 4 Pages

    This book shows how the Holocaust should be taught and not be forgotten, due to it being a prime example of human impureness. Humans learn off trial and error, how the Jewish population was affected, decrease in moral, and the unsettled tension are prime examples of such mistakes. The Jewish population was in jeopardy, therefore other races in the world are at risk of genocide as well and must take this event as a warning of what could happen. In the Auschwitz concentration camp, there was a room filled with shoes.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Night By Elie Wiesel

    931 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is a common assumption among numerous people in the world that the Holocaust never existed. In fact, almost fifty percent of the world population never even heard of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel helped people around the world learn about the Holocaust through his book “Night.” He wanted people to see the bravery, courage, and guilt of the Jews through his book. “Night” shows the horrific and malicious acts in the German concentration camps during the Holocaust.

    Read More

  • The Chrysalids Argumentative Essay

    2488 Words  | 10 Pages

    This novel is considered an allegory of the Holocaust. There is a similar chain of events leading to disarray when one race thinks it is superior to another. It teaches the danger of discrimination and superiority which results in eradication

    Read More

More about Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Barriers Essay

Open Document