ipl-logo

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Essay

682 Words3 Pages

How is Bruno’s innocence revealed in the novel ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’?
In the novel, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, John Boyne explores the theme of innocence through the young eyes of Bruno, the Commandant’s son. The novel is set in the 1940’s, after World War 2, at the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The naivety of Bruno is revealed all throughout the novel, including through his understanding of the camp, his language interpretations and in the final scene.
Due to Bruno’s ignorance, he has developed his own idea of what “Out-With” is and who the people are inside of it. He describes the people in the camp as being dressed in “striped pyjamas”, but he is unsure why it is them that wear these “striped pyjamas”, “who decided …show more content…

When Bruno and Shmuel are off on there “final adventure” they come to a stage where they are going on a “march”. Bruno’s ignorance leads him to thinking that it is a casual fun march that won’t be long. Boyne creates the scene leading up to death as dark and rainy. The boys are forced into an “air-tight” room. Bruno mistakes this room to be a place to stay to get out of the rain, but really it is a gas chamber. Before the deaths of Bruno and Shmuel, Bruno grabs Shmuel’s hand. This is symbolic as there naivety led to their inseparable friendship between two very different boys. Boyne has shown that Bruno’s innocence ultimately led to his death just like many other children of the Holocaust.
Overall, Boyne’s novel ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ demonstrates the lives of innocent young children during the Holocaust, through the main character Bruno. Bruno is completely ignorant to the horrors of the Holocaust and therefore doesn’t understand what the camp is and who everyone is in “striped pyjamas” are. His naivety becomes apparent in his understanding of words and his limited vocabulary. It becomes evident in the last scene that Bruno’s innocence and ignorance led to his

Show More
Related

  • Book Report Night Elie Wiesel

    438 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book is based on World War 2 and what it was like to live in concentration camps. This book was focused on a boy (the main character) and his family and how they ended up in these concentration camps. The main character was a twelve-year-old boy by the name of Elie Wiesel. Elie spent much of his time practicing Talmud and on Jewish mysticism. A man by the name of Moshe the Beatle taught Elie most of what he knew about Mysticism.

    Read More

  • Book Reports On Night By Elie Wiesel

    699 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bruno didn’t understand why he was in there. Shmuel was the boy and it killed Bruno that he couldn’t be by him. He just wanted to be by him. Bruno was very crushed until he found his way under the fence.

    Read More

  • Wrong Choices In Elie Wiesel's The Color Barrier

    122 Words  | 1 Pages

    It is true for Bruno, because he 's pretending to be a jew to go with Shmuel. But no body ever told him anything about it, so he really doeesnt know any better. His father wears tht uniform and thinks he 's "all that", and he know 's what he 's doing, and that "it 's for the greater good" (even though it is possibly one of the worst things to happen in history, so i guess its true for him too). All throughout the book people dress up and try to be that person, pretending to be someone else. But they really are all making the wrong choices, the wrong desicisons, but they have no-idea what they are doing is going to scare our world

    Read More

  • Who Is Elie Wiesel's Identity In The Book Night

    364 Words  | 2 Pages

    You experience the worst young. In Elie Wiesel “Night” Teenage Elie is Jewish and was sent to the concentration camp with his family and struggled to maintain his identity in the society he’s in. In this memoir Elie tries to stay strong and survive living in the concentration camp during 1941-1945. Living in an oppressive society impacts Elie’s identity by shaping his views about the hungarian police, people in the camp, and himself.

    Read More

  • Silence In The Book Night By Elie Wiesel

    1473 Words  | 6 Pages

    Then, he feels depressed for a few days and starts going to the backyard and finds a window which lead to him in a different world than he lives in. Also, he made a new friend named Schmuel and started going there regularly to play with him. Because of, not telling Bruno that he now lives near a concentration camp, he never knew not to go there. Instead, he thinks it’s a farm and crawls inside with Schmuel at last and by wearing “pajamas”. As a result of this, Bruno and Schmuel, both get thrown into the gas chamber and get killed at the end.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Visual Techniques

    471 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite of their different circumstances, Bruno and Shmuel forge a meaningful friendship. As their friendship develops, it is tested on many occasions as the boys navigate their individual

    Read More

  • 'Symbolism In Elie Wiesel's Night'

    448 Words  | 2 Pages

    Why? What have you done?” , and Shmuel replies with, “I'm a Jew.” During this scene, it seems as if Bruno is starting to see what is really going on. It separated the world from the other and made Shmuel, along with the others,

    Read More

  • Eliezer's Experience In The Book Night

    991 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, he tells of his life and experiences throughout the Holocaust. As a young boy he was taken from his home, separated from his mom and sister, and thrown into a concentration camp with his father. Once he and his father arrived at the concentration camp, Auschwitz, many children and elderly were sent straight toward a crematory, and immediately executed. Their heads were shaved, and tattoos were inscribed on their arms. Forced to live in horrible conditions with hardly any food, Eliezer ceased to pray, and began to believe God had no sense of justice.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Night By Elie Wiesel

    1020 Words  | 5 Pages

    Night is a story written by a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, and based it off of his own experience during the Holocaust. It is a true story, and it teaches about what everyone did at Auschwitz. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is about Bruno, who is the son of a Commandant. Bruno doesn’t know anything about the Holocaust, and throughout the novel, he questions Auschwitz. He eventually meets Shmuel, who is a Jew on the other side of the fence and tries to tell Bruno what goes on on his side.

    Read More

  • The Devil's Arithmetic Analysis

    997 Words  | 4 Pages

    In both stories, flashbacks are used to depict bad events, of the Holocaust. In “The Boy Who dared,” on page 164 it says “ ‘Good-bye, my friends,’ says Helmuth. ‘We will meet again.’

    Read More

  • The Boy In The Striped Pajamas And Night Comparison Essay

    956 Words  | 4 Pages

    In both stories the protagonist have and feel as if they have little to no power in the direction of which their life is heading. Shmuel the Jewish boy that Bruno befriends in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas does not really talk about or try to explain to Bruno what is really happening to him or even to try and ask Bruno why his people are doing this to his people. Bruno and Shmuel do

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

    1514 Words  | 7 Pages

    Families being torn apart, being ripped from everything they’ve known growing up and being isolated within a camp where no one truly knows what’s happening to them. That’s what was going on in the life of the Jews during WWII, they were being treated as if they were no longer human, being tossed in concentration camps and given just a number to identify them, completely taking away their self importance. The atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust are being subtly portrayed in the movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,”directed by Mark Herman, a story told from the eyes of an eight year old boy named Bruno and his unlikely friendship with a Jewish boy named Shmuel. The movie tells the story of how a young boy begins to realize what kind of solder his father truly is and what is going on during WWII as his parents had kept him enclosed in this idea that all is well in the world. Through the use of imagery, colors, and pathos Mark Herman successfully portrays the horrors of the Holocaust through the innocent and peculiar friendship of two nine year old boys, Bruno and Shmuel.

    Read More

  • The Night Divided

    1413 Words  | 6 Pages

    When Bruno moves to his new home he sees this wall with people within it. He got curious and started adventuring toward it. When he got there he met a new friend named Shmuel. They would always talk together and always wished they could play together somehow. In the book it says,” ‘ I could crawl under,’ said Bruno, reaching down and lifting the wire off the ground.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

    1056 Words  | 5 Pages

    This is a confusing, powerful story set during World War II where wealthy ignorant boy meets an “out-with” Jew. the film stays true to the book through the plot where Bruno dies, And deviates through the mother 's character and the resolution. Since Bruno died of the same reason in both the film version and the book, it shows how the film stayed true to the book. Bruno had left to go to the Concentration Camp with Shmuel thinking they would just go find Shmuel’s father and Say Goodbye.

    Read More

  • The Characteristics Of Humanity In The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

    908 Words  | 4 Pages

    This was the beginning of their friendship created during tough times of the Holocaust. The races of Jews and Germans were separated after World War I and Jews were put into concentration camps run by the Nazis. This quote shows that Bruno did not want to disagree with his friend Shmuel even though they did not share the same ideas. Both boys knew the differences they had, but they put them aside and became friends. In

    Read More

More about The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Essay

Open Document