The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is based on John Boyne's book of the same name, which I'd read a few years ago. The cover of the book gave away little of the plot, allowing the reader to discover just what it was about while they were reading it.
For instance, I don't think it's ever directly mentioned that the book is set in World War II and that the father of central character Bruno is a Nazi.
That gradual unveiling of the plot can't be done in the film - as soon as we see the swastikas in the first frame of the film, and catch a glimpse of Bruno's dad (Thewlis) we know exactly what he is. And we also know the significance of the striped pyjamas worn by the old man who peels potatoes in the kitchen.
The story starts with eight-year-old Bruno (Butterfield) annoyed to discover his father has been given a new posting, to a house in the country. He misses his friends until he spots what he believes is a farm through the woods in the backyard. But it's an odd farm, the people all wear those striped pyjamas.
Thinking there might be some children to play with Bruno asks his mother (Farmiga) if he can go and have a look. She immediately tells him he is not to leave the yard. But curiosity gets the better of him and he sneaks out through the woods to the edge of the "farm", which is surrounded by an electric fence.
Sitting on the other side is another eight-year-old, Shmuel (brilliantly played by Scanlon). The pair get talking and, soon enough, Bruno becomes a regular visitor to the fence. Until that heartbreaking conclusion.
The film is largely told from the perspective of Bruno and Shmuel, neither of whom comprehend the true nature of the farm. Indeed, neither understand much of what is happening in Germany at the time.
His parents, who most definitely do know what's going on, steer Bruno away from the ugly truth of the "farm" in their backyard.
This provides an interesting insight. The father in particular fully supports the persecution of the Jews - to him it is a normal part of life - yet prefers to change the subject rather than offering his son an explanation. It makes you wonder if it's because there's still some small part of him that doubts his actions.
Also interesting is the attitude of Bruno's mother when she sees smoke from the camp's chimneys and discovers what they're actually burning.
Some things are better left unsaid, and others are not. In his case, however, it was best to share his story. If these false accusations about Jews are still believed, then they will never be treated with respect. We now know today that these statements are false, thanks to survivors like Elie Wiesel. Chapter One
John Boyne’s book “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” is set in the area bordering Nazi Germany and Poland in the 1940s. The story concern a young German boy named Bruno, his family and the unlikely friendship he has between another boy named Schmuel, imprisoned in Auschwitz.
Bruno is little eight year old boy who’s learning new thing at school and at home with his parents. Besides that he thinks life is
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.
The movie starts out in a Jewish home, where a Jewish family is celebrating the Sabbath. Candles are lit while songs are sung, and when the Jews leave the house, the candles slowly burn out. The German forces have just defeated the Polish, and now the Jews are being forced out of their homes. They are reporting to the train station where they register their names, and then are shipped off to Krakow. In Krakow the Jews are gathered together in the ghetto where they are forced to live in overcrowded conditions. The Judenrat, a Jewish council, organizes the Jews into working groups according to their abilities. Oskar Schindler, a German business man, visits the ghetto to talk to Itzhak Stern, a Jew who owns a pot-making factory. Oskar and Itzhak make a deal in which Schindler will take over the factory but Stern will be the plant manager. The Jews are once again sorted according to their education and working ability, those who cannot work are sent to extermination camps while some of those who are able to, reported to Schindler’s factory. The Nazi’s decide that all of the Jews should be confined in forced labor camps. Schindler, who is now starting to feel some empathy and responsibility towards his workers, volunteers to confine his workers in his factory.
Children have often been viewed as innocent and innocent may be a nicer way to call children naive. Since children’s lives are so worry free they lack the knowledge of how to transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. Their lack of knowledge may be a large part of their difficulties growing up, which could be a few rough years for many. In books like the boy in the striped pajamas the story is told from the point of view of a little boy, this way we get a full view of how innocent he is. In this book the writer shows the reader first hand how a child viewed the holocaust and how his innocence cost him his life. Then in books like the perks of being a wallflower Charlie is a teen whom is struggling with the transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. In this book the writer gives a first hand look at how difficult it can be to transition into an adolescent. Charlie has many difficulties in this book; he is in search of his identity and how to fit in.
...is father did allowed the reader to really see the torment Nazi Germany brought on families. Kluger’s specific word choice – calling her mother paranoid and often eluding to the distain she felt towards her – also allowed the reader to experience the resentment among the family members. Even still, the Holocaust’s terror is not exclusive; those who endured it struggled to find their way in the world, and their family members struggle to understand why their parents act as they do sometimes, as well as how to come to terms with the fact that their parents had to endure such a terrible time.
The novel was set in New York during the Second World War. Since the main characters are Jews, this period of time is very significant. Not only were the Jews persecuted during WWII, but New York was also close to a military base, which made it a prime target for bombing. Even the setting has an underlying sense of tension.
During the WWII the Germans conducted Holocaust of the Jewish race. The Germans invaded several different cities and countries and took the Jews to concentration labour camps and eventually killed them. The Germans killed approximately six million Jews all because of racial superiority. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is set in this era. The movie is also centered around the Holocaust where Ralph, Bruno’s father is a SS Commandant in the Russian army. He gets promoted and thus, the family has to relocate Auschwitz. Ralph is the commandant incharge of the Auschwitz concentration camp. His son Bruno, whose point of view we see the movie through, befriends a Jewish boy from the other side of the camp, which proves to have some starting and unexpected consequences. Meanwhile through the documentary we get to see the other side; the artifacts, blueprints and designs of the incinerators and interviews with various engineers to know the reality of how the Nazi were able to kill so many Jews.
During the Liquidation of the Ghetto, a man in the sewers is attempting escape from the soldiers. Tension is created with the savaged barking dogs and gunshots can be heard as diegetic sounds, generating fear for the audience. In the hospital, a doctor is euthanising terminally-ill patients so the soldiers could not unleash their bullets and let the patients die in a horrific way. The bed sheets and the patients are in white contrasting the blood symbolising death because the blood is the colour black. Low angles are used when the soldiers are going upstairs in the apartment to clear it; tension is created because the low angle shots demonstrate the Germans gaining power and control as the Jewish have lost all of their personal possessions. When a Jewish man tried to save the life of a life young Jewish boy that attempted escape, Spielberg filmed this scene as a handheld shot to generate a sense of panic. After the Jews are cleared of their apartments, women and men are separated to highlight fear and widespread terror for the audience.
The Prince, despite coming from a privileged life, is willing to take advice from a peasant on how to reach his salvation. Through the treatment he receives from his own family when they believe he is a beggar, it can be assumed that he was socialized to believe that peasants and lower class citizens are inferior to those with material wealth. Similarly, Bruno witnesses the treatment that Shmuel and other Auschwitz prisoners endure in the camp and from his own family as they are beaten and their possessions are taken from them. Bruno, despite his upbringing, resists these ideologies and continues to pursue his friendship with Shmuel. Though both characters derived from backgrounds of a higher status they exhibit openness to those different than themselves rather than accepting the social prejudice that surrounds these
Foreshadowing in The Book Thief is one literary device used that some readers love and some readers hate. There are more than a few instances when the narrator, death, uses foreshadowing to keep the reader interested in the story and to further on certain thematic ideas in the novel. For example, death says that “Hans Hubermann was not granted membership in the Nazi Party. Not yet, anyway” (183). Here, it is being foreshadowed that Hans Hubermann will be forced to join the Nazi Party at some point in his life. By giving us this piece of information, the narrator is causing the readers to be curious and wanting to know more. This foreshadowing blends in with the thematic idea of war because by joining the Nazi Party, Hans will have to go fi...
Bruno, an eight year old boy at the time of the war, is completely oblivious to the atrocities of the war around him - even with a father who is a Nazi commandant. The title of the book is evidence to this - Bruno perceives the concentration camp uniforms as "striped pajamas." Further evidence is the misnomers "the Fury," (the Furher) and "Out-With" (Auschwitz). Bruno and Shmuel, the boy he meets from Auschwitz, share a great deal in common but perhaps what is most striking is the childhood innocence which characterizes both boys. Bruno is unaware that his father is a Nazi commandant and that his home is on ther periphery of Auschwitz. Shmuel, imprisoned in the camp, seems not to understand the severity of his situation. When his father goes missing, Shmuel does not understand that he has gone to the gas chamber.
The spectacle and melody in the movie are the “pleasurable accessories of Tragedy” in that, despite their minor roles, they are two parts of the whole in a tragedy (72). The thought and diction behind a character’s lines or lack thereof carry messages of significance to carry out the plot and convey the morals behind its actions to the audience. The characters of a tragedy are defined by the actions they take and act as a medium to convey their moral purpose in the plot. Finally, the plot must flow from its beginning to its end with a unified, cohesive series of events while revealing peripeteia and discoveries as the tragedy draws closer to its conclusion. In the end, Bruno, a boy stuck in-between his family and their country’s beliefs and his friendship with Shmuel, the Jew Bruno was supposed to be brought up to hate, would eventually lead to his untimely death whilst not understanding the gravity of the situation surrounding Nazi Germany during the World
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne, significantly distorts the truth of the Holocaust in order to evoke the empathy of the audience. This response is accomplished by the author through hyperbolizing the innocence of the nine-year old protagonist, Bruno. Through the use of dramatic irony, Boyne is able to both engage and involve the audience in the events of the novel. Although it is highly improbable that a son of a German high-ranking Schutzstaffel (SS) officer would not know what a Jew is and would be unable to pronounce both Fuhrer and Auschwitz, (which he instead mispronounces as ‘Fury’ and ‘Out-with’ respectively, both of which are intentional emotive puns placed by the author to emphasize the atrocity of the events), the attribution of such information demonstrates the exaggerated innocence of Bruno and allows the audience to know and understand more than him. This permits the readers to perceive a sense of involvement, thus, allowing the audience to be subjected towards feeling more dynamic and vigorous evocation of emotions and empathy towards the characters. Fu...