Literary Analysis Of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

1. Genre (novel/ narrative/ etc.).
The Genre of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is an historical fiction. The writer John Boyne wrote this story based on a historical event of the Second World War in Auschwitz, Poland. He wanted to write a story for young children to read and teach them what life was like for children living through the Holocaust. He was trying to inform children without them realizing that they were being taught a valuable lesson.

2. Narrator.
The point of view in this book is of a Third Person. Which means there is a narrator telling the story. But sometimes it is through the eyes of nine-year-old boy Bruno. Bruno has not a lot of life experience that makes they way to understand it very easy.

An example from the text:

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 and you get to have dozens of friends and are probably playing for hours every day. I 'll have to speak to Father about it."
Bruno, page 111

This is the first conversation with Shmuel, through Bruno’s eyes. It shows how little he understands about the situation at out-with. This quote represents an instance of dramatic irony, in which we understand that Bruno has a backward conception of the way things are: while the situation is unfair thinks Bruno, Shmuel is the one who is "stuck" on the wrong side of the fence. This quote represents Bruno 's childlike misunderstanding of the Holocaust as well as his innocence at this point in the

In an interview with David Fickling, the editor and publisher of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne explains his inspiration for creating the book. The idea began as a vision of two boys separated by a fence. Each of them, taken from their homes, displayed shocking innocence and naivety in a time of unsurpassed darkness. In the interview, Boyne declares that naivety and complacency were two of the main reasons the Holocaust occurred. Thus, one of Boyne 's main reasons for creating the book was to raise awareness of genocides, other crimes against humanity, and the desperate need for someone to step up to stop those that continue today. We cannot simply sit back, waiting to act until the flame has already raged far beyond control. He hoped that The Boy in the Striped Pajamas would not only help readers to see this but would also raise awareness to the dangers of complacency and its impact in