A Review of The Book The Boy in Striped Pajamas

In Germany, in the 1940s, Bruno’s life was turned upside down when his father got a promotion leading to him and his family having to move away from Berlin. Adding to Bruno’s unhappiness, the new house they moved to is much smaller than their old home, and it seems very isolated. As Bruno was settling into his new house, he looked out of the window and told Gretel that the other children that live around them do not look very friendly. It turns out that Bruno was looking at the children on the Auschwitz concentration camp, which would explain why the other children looked unfriendly. Bruno thought back to last Christmas, which was spent with his family, and remembers his grandma telling his father she was ashamed of him and could not believe that he was apart of the Nazi group. 

One day, Bruno decided that he wanted to explore the area around his new home one day and came upon a boy wearing pajamas sitting on the floor. Bruno sat down with him because he needed the company and began to talk to a boy named Shmuel. It turns out that Shmuel and Bruno share the same birthday and Shmuel was raised in Portland and had to explain to Bruno that they were in Portland, not Germany. Bruno and Shmuel had plans to meet the next day again, and they did. Bruno went home, and after dinner, he noticed Shmuel cleaning crystal glasses. Bruno offered his friend some chicken and did not realize it would cause any commotion, but clearly, it did. His father got furious at him, but Shmuel explained to his father that they were friends, but Bruno said he had never seen Shmuel before. After about a year of living in Portland, Bruno’s mother wanted them to go back to Berlin, but Bruno was not as happy as he thought he would be. He told Shmuel that he was going back to Berlin, but Shmuel had a more significant issue, his father had gone missing. The two boys figured out a plan to find his father. The next day, Bruno went to the fence, changed into striped pajamas, and went into the concentration camp trying to help Shmuel find his father. Instead, the boys were told they were going to take a shower, but the soldiers forced them into gas chambers, and as soon as they got in, the lights turned off and instead of water coming out of the showerheads, gas came out killing all of the people in the building. His family had to deal with his disappearance, his mother went back to Berlin, and his father stayed in Auschwitz. One day, he realized the horror that happened to his son. 

All in all, this book taught me that you could not judge a person based on how they look. Also, just because someone is going through something challenging, he/she do not have to take it out on everyone that wants to talk to him/her. He/she can act normal and make a friend that is actually normal instead of driving them away with their problems. Also, if someone looks the way Shmuel did in the book, very tired, and very skinny does not mean that they should be ignored. You should sit with them and realize that they are like everyone else and just because they were placed in a concentration camp does not mean that they did anything wrong. If you jump to quick to judging someone, you could miss out on a good friendship because your standards were to shallow. 

I would recommend this book to other students because it taught me not to judge people based on how they look. Instead, I should get to know them to find out if they are a genuine person or not. I think many people should read this book and pay attention to how the characters act together because, in today’s society, everyone is so quick to judge others rather than try to get to know them. Also, this book can make people realize that just because they are going through something difficult, it does not mean they have to shut everyone out. He/she can open up to some people instead of holding everything in. 

Works Cited

1. Boyne, J. (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. David Fickling Books.
2. Gavron, J., & Boyne, J. (2008). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A fable. Film adaptation. Miramax Films.
3. Hedges, C. (2006). Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/review/Hedges.t.html
4. Kadar, M. (2013). "Out-With," History, and Holocaust in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 38(2), 176-198.
5. Kustanowitz, E. (2008). Inventing the Other: Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity in Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Studies in Jewish American Literature, 27(1), 87-98.
6. Lacayo, R. (2006). Out of the Past. Time. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20121020155433/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1537536,00.html
7. Marks, D. (2009). The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: Fantasy? Irony? Reality? Journal of Holocaust Education, 18(1), 41-60.
8. Reuter, A. (2008). Visualizing the Holocaust: Intermedial Encounters in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. In S. Onega & J. Garcia Landa (Eds.), Visual Aids in Fiction: An Introduction (pp. 95-116). De Gruyter.
9. Sherman, J. (2007). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Children's Experiences of Auschwitz in Children's Fiction. Journal of Children's Literature Studies, 4(2), 71-93.
10. Zipes, J. (2011). Fairy Tales and Fables: From Origins and Poetics to Reception. Routledge.