The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

World War II had an enormous effect on the entire world and left many people scarred for life. It was a war in which millions of innocent people died every day. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne, the author, juxtaposes World War II with the extreme innocence of the main character who is a nine-year-old German boy named Bruno who has been protected from society because of his family only socializing with a certain group of people in society.
Bruno has never left Berlin in his entire life and he is not planning on moving any time soon. In fact, the thought hasn’t even crossed his mind. After all, he has everything any little boy could ever ask for. He has a loving mother, a father who is “a man to watch and that the Fury had big things in mind for him”, three best friends named Karl, Daniel and Martin; a twelve-year-old sister who he calls “The Hopeless Case”, huge house which he can explore whenever he pleases, maids, butlers and cooks.
In the beginning of the story, Bruno arrives to his house from school and finds that the maid, Maria, is packing all of his things up. Bruno is confused because he thinks that his parents are going to send him to a boarding school but he does not recall having done anything so bad that he would deserve such punishment, so he asks his mom what the problem is. Bruno’s mother explains to Bruno that they are going to have to move to a new house outside Berlin because of his father’s new job. Bruno, as the little naïve boy that he is, takes the news fairly well because he thinks that his family’s stay in the new house is going to be temporary and that they will all eventually come back. After they get to his new house which Bruno thinks has the name of “Out-With” but does not understand why, he learns that this is his new home, and that they will be staying here for a very long time, if not forever. Suddenly, Bruno’s world crashes inside his mind because this “new” house is actually very old and small. Plus, there is no other house anywhere near it. The only signs of life outside his house are on the other side of a tall fence which he can see from his window.
One sunny afternoon, Bruno decides that since he has no one to play with other than “The Hopeless Case” who, according to Bruno’s mom is going through a “phase”, he is going to explore around the fence. While exploring, he notices that the people on the other side of the fence are all wearing the same blue-colored stripped pajamas but apart from that, he doesn’t find anything else. Then, when Bruno is about to turn around and go home, he sees a “dot that became a speck that became a blob that became a figure that became a boy”. Bruno and the boy start talking and soon, Bruno finds out that the boy’s name is Shmuel, and that Shmuel and Bruno were born on the same day. Bruno is so excited about fining a friend, that he comes every afternoon to visit Shmuel. Whenever Bruno makes the trips to the fence, he takes food with him for Shmuel, who hungrily eats all of it as if he hadn’t had anything to eat all day, and talks about anything that will come to his mind.
One day, Bruno notices that Shmuel looks sad, so he asks his friend if there is something wrong. To this question, Shmuel answers Bruno that yes, something is very wrong. Shmuel explains that his dad is missing and that he doesn’t know where he is. Bruno, with his friendly personality, offers helping his new best friend find his dad, even if it means sneaking under the fence and going into the other side. What Bruno does not know because he does not understand, is what is actually happening on the other side of the tall, long, gray fence, and what might happen to him if he does go to the other side of this fence.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a very moving story which helps the reader realize that unlike today, in the beginning of World War II, many people didn’t understand what was really going on because they either didn’t believe, didn’t want to accept or didn’t know, about the atrocities that were happening inside the concentration camps. I personally didn’t enjoy this book very much because although I think that the story is quite interesting and that many young kinds would like it; I don’t think that writing about an extremely tragic event such as World War II through the eyes of a naïve boy is the best way to deal with the event because it conceals many of the other tragedies that were happening at the same time.