2017 The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas narrates the story of the power of friendship, innocence and empathy The boy in the striped pajamas, is a fable story that involves two boys, Bruno is a German boy and Shmuel , he is a Jew . In the novel, Boyne expresses the power of friendship, innocence, and empathy. The desire for friendship is immortal, especially right from childhood. Being alone has no enjoyment. In his novel, Boyne describes the power of friendship through Bruno, an eight-year German boy who cannot do anything without friends. He is forced to make a new friend in his new home that they moved to , his friend called Shmuel who was of Jewish origin . The friendship between the two boys grows and discovers new ideas in different aspects …show more content…
For instance, Shmuel is seen innocent, feeling that the whole world is against him .He doesn’t understand where his dad disappeared after going to work with other men, whom ,none of them returned. The boy says, “He was here on Monday, and then he went on the work duty with some other men, and none of them have come back” (Boyne 102). This expression portrays innocence in Shmuel’s face; he does not know that the armed soldiers killed his father. The friendship between the two boys is cemented and strengthened by their innocence. Neither of them understands what is happening in the society. Thus, innocence does not overlook wrongdoing; it is essential to nations with xenophobia because it avoids wrong …show more content…
This theme is developed through reflection, imitation, and modeling. Empathy is portrayed through Shmuel who had to learn from the surroundings to understand the brutal world (Boyne 59). He learnt the art of true friendship after being a friend to Bruno. This art of empathy grew deeper, after realizing that they both shared the same birthday. Shmuel says, “I said my birthday is April the fifteenth nineteen thirty-four,” then Bruno says, “my birthday is April the fifteenth too…and I was born in nineteen thirty-four (59-60). The art of empathy is also seen on other prisoners in the same camp. The theme of empathy provides evidence that supports the discovery that adults have long-term inspiration on children and how to form their behavior. Bruno, regardless his age, is being nurtured by his mum on how to avoid insulting people. Bruno accepts it, though he never understood why engaging with people over the fence was being termed as offensive by his mother. He was empathetic when his friend Shmuel told him that his father was missing. This empathy made him assist his friend to unsuccessfully look for his father
the innocence and lack of knowledge of the people within the circumstances. It is used as a
the author's view of a split of innocence and corruption in man, and the thought
In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, a young naive boy, Bruno, tells from his perspective how the occurrences in the Holocaust took place. In 1943, the beginning of the story, Bruno’s father, a commandant in Hitler’s army, is promoted and moves to Oswiecim with his family. Oswiecim is home to the hideous Auschwitz Concentration Camp. While Bruno is out playing near a fence at the edge of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, against his father’s orders, he becomes friends with a young Jewis...
Let’s start comparing these characters let’s start with the younger one Bruno from The Boy in Striped Pajamas. Bruno is a little nine year old who is living in Berlin with his family. But then his father gets a new and very important job and has to move to out-with. Bruno does not want to move because he doesn’t want to leave his best friend and his grandparents behind. When he gets to out-with he hates it there he has no friends and now has a smaller house. He notices something out of his window. A fence across the street separating him and people in striped uniform. Time passes and he starts to like his new home. One day he went outside to explore witch was not allowed to do and never to come close to the big fence. But he went walking by the big fence until he saw a little boy. He introduced himself as Shmuel. They talked and became secret best friends. “He looked down and did something quite out of character for him: he took hold of Shmuel's tiny hand in his and squeezed it tightly.”- Pg.213 "You're my best friend, Shmuel," he said. "My best friend for life.”-Pg.213
Throughout war, there have always been an effort to stop the involvement of the innocent. A big effort of this is towards children who were unfortunately stuck in conflict and sometimes join the conflict. John Boyne's book “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” helps shines light on social issues that are plaguing countries and communities today. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a touching story about the innocence of children in times of conflict shown by Bruno's lack of hate for Jews, Shmuel's kindness towards Bruno, and their commitment to each other in times of war.
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.
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
Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York: Random House Inc., 2006. Print.
Friendship is not something that has adapted overtime. The desire to seek out and surround us with other human beings, our friends, is in our nature. Philosophers such as Aristotle infer that friendship is a kind of virtue, or implies virtue, and is necessary for living. Nobody would ever choose to live without friends even if we had all the other good things. The relationship between two very different young boys, Bruno and Shmuel’s in the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is an example of the everlasting bond of a perfect friendship based upon the goodness of each other. This film portrays one of humanity’s greatest modern tragedies, through heartache and transgression, reflecting various themes through out the movie. Beyond the minor themes some seem to argue as more important in the film, the theme of friendship and love is widely signified and found to be fundamental in understanding the true meaning behind The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
Bruno's imaginative journey is a flight from reality. It is a classic example of the psychological "fight or flight" syndrome experienced by all animals (including humans) when they are confronted by something of which they are unsure or afraid - something which challenges their current reality. What Boyne does in this story is to use Bruno to show how either approach can be totally destructive: the critical lesson is that we must acknowledge reality and do what we can to remove the fences that would destroy not only ?us? but our entire world.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" explores the beauty of a child's innocence in a time of war:
Theme: Situations and surroundings can shatter the innocence of friendship, but more the identity of the individuals.
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct.
My thesis statement is that children’s innocence enables them to cope in difficult situations. Children generally have a tendency to lighten the mood in sad situations because of their innocent nature. They turn even the saddest situations to mild, innocent situations. This is evident when Marjane says “these stories had given me new ideas for games”, (Satrapi, 55). By saying this she refers to her uncle’s stories of how he and other prisoners were tortured in prison. Stories of torture have never been easy to hear even for adults but Marjane so innocentl...
To begin, the two boys’ relationship relates to Knapp’s stages of relational development. First, the first two stages, initiation and experimentation, can be seen when Bruno first meets Shmuel. The two introduce themselves and Bruno notices the number on Shmuel’s uniform. They also both find out that they are eight-years-old. Next, the relationship also demonstrates the intensifying stage. Particularly, it shows the separation test. Even though Bruno and Shmuel are not able to play together, Bruno still thinks about Shmuel. Furthermore, the integration stage is also shown.