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The boy in the striped pyjamas friendship evaluation
Critical analysis of the boy in the striped pyjamas
The boy in striped pyjamas critical analysis
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Introduction
The novel ‘Im Not Scared’ is a riveting tale of a boy’s coming of age, in the ironically named Aqua Traverse written by Niccolo Ammaniti. The chosen film ‘The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas’ is a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, directed by Mark Herman. The director and author of the texts employ various narrative and cinematic techniques to emphasise themes of fear, loss of innocence and friendship.
Paragraph 1 –innocence
One of the main themes of the film is innocence. Bruno is unaware that his father is a Nazi commandant and that his home is on their periphery of Auschwitz. The dolly shot is used to follow Bruno running through the woods; this
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In the film, the director foreshadows the detachment of Bruno’s family from one another. Through the use of mise-en-scene, the viewers perceive that the family is restricted to the boundaries of their home, as the viewers rarely see any outside of the home. Bruno is not allowed to go any further than the boundaries of the courtyard, his father is restricted by his profession, followed by his mother who is limited to being a housewife. Amongst all of that, Shmuel is contained by the electric barb wired fence of where he resides. Shmuel and Bruno are separated by a fence and lament that they can’t play or explore together. They are also separated by the strict rules inherent in Nazi Germany which forbid Germans to be friends with Jews. Long shots of the car traveling to the new house are used to highlight its isolation. The house contrasts severely with the previous house as it appears drab, dull, a concrete fortress which fits the job of its occupier as opposed to light, airy, bursting with colour and heritage. The intrusion of soldiers entering the house highlights the father’s authority and positions the wife and children as the ‘outsiders’ of this place. The repeated framing of Bruno behind bars, for instance, the window slats and stairs, is used as a motif to symbolise the feeling of ‘captivity’ that he feels. Correspondingly, the theme of isolation In the …show more content…
There is no dialogue within the opening sequence which indicates that the director wants the audience to concentrate on what is going on and the journey of the children as opposed to what the characters are saying. The editing cuts back and to from the house that Bruno is traveling to and the journey he is taking to get there, shows the continuity throughout the opening sequence which makes it easy for the audience to follow and understand. Shmuel and Bruno are two boys left untouched by the prejudices of adults and are prone to form friendships irrespective of differences in ethnicity. While Bruno regularly hears derogatory comments from Germans regarding Jews, he is unable to reconcile the negativity in those comments with the humanity he identifies in Shmuel. In the scene at the end, with Shmuel being corralled into the gas chamber along with other prisoners, Bruno cannot let go of his friend's hand, he says, “You’re my best friend, Shmuel. My best friend for life”. The fence divides the two boys, both physically and metaphorically. It becomes a recurring motif that ironically separates the boys, and ties them together. It is through the barbed wire that their friendship grows and it is ultimately the fence, and Bruno’s entry to the other side, that brings his ultimate end. Michele initially learns that loyalty and trust are far more valuable than money when he
While the adults show their disgust and hatred to the Jews, Bruno doesn't mind them and is nice to Pavel, the Jew that got him the tire, and later becomes friends with Shmuel. Bruno’s father is a soldier and is in charge of the concentration camp. Even with all the Jew hating Germans around him, he still goes out to visit Shmuel and doesn’t let them ruin his friendship. Near the end of the movie Bruno shows his friend how much he cares by entering the camp to help look for Shmuel’s father, who had gone missing. While entering the camp, Bruno learned first hand how bad the camps actually were and wished he hadn’t come. Even with these feelings he still wants to help his friend, which eventually leads to his demise.
mature. When Bruno first discovers the fence, a boy called Shmuel faces him. The use of
Set in 1942, The story is about a young boy named Bruno, the protagonist, and his family who are moved from his home in Berlin to the Auschwitz concentration camp, the antagonist by Adolf Hitler for his father’s (also an antagonist) job as a Nazi commandment, . Bruno discovers many
When Bruno moved to Auschwitz he was completely oblivious to the Holocaust. When he met Shmuel, he became slightly more aware, but couldn’t comprehend what it all meant. It is ironic that his innocence sheltered him from the traumatizing truth of the Holocaust, but it is what killed him in the
well, they're not people at all, Bruno.". In this quote, we see Bruno does not see Jews as terrible people up to this point because he has to ask his father about the people in striped pajamas, showing us the innocence of Bruno. This quote also shows us what Bruno's father thinks of Jews and the realization of what Bruno thinks of jews. This is because he has a pause in between “people” and “well”, showing his confusion and realization of Bruno not knowing what he thinks is reality, that being, Jews are unacceptable. Eventually, his father hires a tutor, Herr Liszt, to teach him about nationalistic ideas proven by what is said on page 97, “Those things are useless to you….. A sound understanding of the social sciences is far more important in this day and age.” and about the Jews, “Then this is what I am here to change…..To get your head out of your storybooks and teach you more about where you come from. About the great wrongs that have been done to you.” said on page 98. Bruno is skeptical of Herr Liszt
One day when Shmuel gets sent to shine glasses at his house him and Bruno start talking. A soldier see them and Bruno told him he didn’t know who he was, and the soldier beats the boy, Bruno feels terrible and want to make it up to Shmuel. Bruno wants to understand why the life behind the fence is so awful and why Shmuel isn’t happy. Bruno thinks it’s not better, but interesting because there are other kids to play with. They form a strong bond that can't be broken by anything and it makes him realize that his friends in Berlin weren't as special as Shmuel is and their friendship. The two boys have been talking and have been friends for about a year and decide that Bruno wants to go on the other side of the fence to see what its like and help him find his papa.
... a perfect example of a truly innocent person (Shmuel) and an arguably unsympathetic character (Bruno) whom can be portrayed as denying the truth meeting the same fate. As we can see by Lennie’s death and Bruno’s death, ignorance and innocence lead to the same fate in the end.
Shmuel is a little boy who lives in the concentration camp called Auschwitz. The main character named Bruno shows acceptance in the book by befriending shmuel, even though he is a jew. In this time Jews and The aryan race (Hitler’s perfect race) were not allowed to be friends with each other. “The boy was smaller than Bruno and was sitting on the ground with a forlorn expression. He wore the same striped pajamas that all the other people on that side of the fence wore striped pajamas, and a striped cloth cap on his head. He wasn’t wearing any shoes or socks and his feet were rather dirty. On his arm he wore an armband with a star on it. When Bruno first approached the boy, he was sitting cross-legged on the ground, staring at the dust beneath him. However, after a moment he looked up and Bruno saw his face. It was quite a strange face too. His skin was almost the colour of grey, but not quite like any grey that Bruno had ever seen before. He had very large eyes and they were the colour of caramel sweets; the whites were very white, and when the boy looked at him all Bruno could see was an enormous pair of sad eyes staring back. Bruno was sure that he had never seen a skinnier or sadder boy in his life but decided that he had better talk to him.” (Boyne 106-107) This quote shows Bruno’s acceptance to Shmuel because he doesn’t care or know that he is a Jew or that he is so much different from
Steven Gray once said, “Life is a matter of perspective. It can be amazing or wonderful, or it can be depressing and worthless” (Gray. n.d.). Even in the midst of the Holocaust, perhaps the greatest example of a failure in human morality, this is still true. One can see how this perspective can quickly affect one’s actions, even in the direst of circumstances. In the book Night and the motion picture “Life is Beautiful”, the audience is rapidly exposed to two distinct experiences of the Holocaust, one where a son is protected from the horrors by his father, and one where the protagonist is exposed to the depths of human depravity. Interestingly, the differences and similarities in these stories can be best explained
The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy were conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewish civilians who are seen briefly being forced out of homes and into loading trucks.... ... middle of paper ...
Bruno is a 9 year old boy growing up in a loving, but typically authoritarian German family in the 1930?s. His father is a senior military officer who was appointed Commandant of Auschwitz? a promotion that requires upheaval from their comfortable home in Berlin to an austere home in the Polish countryside. The story explores Bruno?s difficulty in accepting and adapting to this change - especially the loss of his friends and grandparents. Boyne gives personality and family to the sort of person who today is generally demonised by western writings - the people who administered and controlled the death camps in which over 6 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others were deemed to be grossly inferior by Hitler and his cohorts.
This made it stronger because now he thinks that he should support Shmuel in his hard time. After the incident with the officer, Bruno thought of doing something or helping Shmuel so that he could get his only friend back and his trust. When he was wondering how he could help, Shmuel told Bruno how his dad was missing, that’s when Bruno thought of helping Shmuel. When he got into the camp he felt like giving up and going back but, when he saw that his friend was sad because of the decision, he decided to stay and search for him.
The lesson of not betraying your friends flows throughout the book. This friendship involves Bruno, a German Soldier's son, and Shmuel, a Jewish prisoner, who became the most unlikely of friends. They visit each other every day, never being able to play because of the wire fence between them. But one day, Shmuel was standing in Bruno's kitchen, polishing glasses. Bruno gives Shmuel some chicken, but a lieutenant notices and asks Shmuel if he stole the food.
He never really knew why Shmuel was on the other side of the fence. In the book, Bruno asked his sister, Gretel, “‘Are we Jews?’” (Boyne 182). This shows that Bruno had very little knowledge of what was really happening in Auschwitz and all around the world. Boyne had also made Bruno use a very shameful and inappropriate term in his book.
Bruno is growing up in Berlin, but moves to Auschwitz during World War II, sets out to explore the place around him. The novel also involves the horrific part of history; the holocaust.