The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas Theme Analysis

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS THEME ANALYSIS

 The story “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne is about a boy named Bruno, whose father is a Nazi commander, and whose family moves to Auschwitz because of his father’s job. He meets a boy there, at his age, Shmuel. This story has several themes such as dangers of conformity, innocence versus evils of holocaust, boundaries and human natüre; but there are two main themes mentioned and those are friendship and loyalty. They are both seen in throughout the story.

 Friendship is the heaviest theme in the story because it is shown almost everywhere throughout the story. The first appearance of the theme friendship was when Bruno thought of his friends in Berlin and how much he would miss them when her mother told him that they were going to move out. Later on, it continued with Gretel’s friends and finally, and the strongest one, was Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship. They met nearly every day, with the fence between them. The reason Bruno was killed was also because of their friendship because Bruno wanted to help his friend find his father. When Bruno and Shmuel were in the gas chamber, Bruno told Shmuel that he was his best friend and held his hand and didn’t let it go. Bruno also wanted to play games with Shmuel, be on the same side of the fence and these show their friendship too.

 Loyalty is the second heaviest theme in the story. The greatest examples for loyalty are the ones between Bruno and Shmuel, and also Bruno’s father’s loyalty to Nazi’s and Hitler. The greatest example for loyalty can be, Bruno gave Shmuel a promise about finding his father, and he tried to keep it though it got him killed. For another example, Bruno lies to her sister Gretel about Shmuel when he accidentally says that he should be with Shmuel. He told her that Shmuel was his imaginary friend and she despised him. Besides, Bruno also lied to Maria when he was caught filling his pocket with bread and cheese to give them to Shmuel. Although it is not a big lie, he told her that he was going for a walk and he might get peckish on the way. He did all these because he was loyal to Shmuel. As for Bruno’s father, he was so loyal to Nazi’s that he moved to Auschwitz from Berlin with his family and stayed there even after Bruno’s mother moved back to Berlin. Also he sort of interrogated Lieutenant Kotler about his father who ran away from Germany to Switzerland.

 The story “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” has two main themes, friendship and loyalty. They can both be seen throughout the story.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Character Analysis

Character	Physical Description	Personality	Quotation to Support
Bruno	Bruno is a little fat and he has black hair. He is smaller than his peers. He is nine-years old, and born on the same day as Shmuel.	Bruno is very curious and juvenile. He is also a bit jealous of her sister. He is adventurous, so he always goes exploring. He is gullible and inexperienced in life, since he is a child. He is stubborn. He is caring, conscientious because he brings food to Shmuel. He also loves being right in an argument, especially with his sister. He is also friendly towards anyone; for example, Pavel. He loves reading story books.	“Who would he miss the most?” asked Bruno. “Me or Gretel?” page 5 “Perhaps you can come to dinner with us one evening” page 132 “It’s not boring at all,” said Bruno. “It’s an adventure. It’s better than dolls that is for sure.” Page 153 “All sorts of things. Football, for example. Or exploration. What’s the exploration like over there anyway? Any good?” page 131 “Bruno had read enough books about explorers to know that one could never be sure what one was going to find.” page 105
Shmuel	Shmuel is a skinny, pale boy. He doesn’t have much hair, since it is shaved in the concentration camp. He wears dirty stripped pyjamas like everyone else in the concentration camp. He wears an armband with the symbol      on his arm. His skin is almost grey and his eyes are the colour of caramel sweets.	Shmuel is knowledgeable and mature, unlike Bruno. He is usually quiet and patient. He is more experienced than Bruno since he is a Jew and is in a concentration camp. Since he is experienced in life, he is not a gullible as Bruno. He does not understand why Bruno visits him, but they are good friends. He is always hungry since there is less food in the camp.	“I don’t know why you’re so anxious to come across here anyway,” said Shmuel. “It’s not very nice.” page 151 “He sat down on the ground on his side of the fence and crossed his legs like the little boy and wished that he had brought some chocolate with him or perhaps a pastry that they could share.” page 108 “Shmuel shook his head and continued with his story. He didn’t often think about these things any ore because remembering his old life above the watch shop made him very sad.” page 127
Gretel	Gretel is thirteen years old, 3 years older than Bruno.	Gretel loves to play with her dolls and arrange them. She later starts to like geography instead of her dolls, for Lt. Kotler. She is rude, bossy, and acts maturely although she is not. She is obedient and gullible too, less than Bruno, of course. She is called “Hopeless Case” by Bruno. Their relationship gets better later.	“Bruno stood up and for the first time they stood up together, shoulder to shoulder, and stared at what was happening not fifty feed away from their home.” page 36 “I’m twelve but he’s only nine.” said. Gretel, looking at her brother with disdain. “And I can speak French too.” She added, which was not strictly speaking fine, although she had learned a few phrases in school. page 122

The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas Setting Analysis

Setting	When and Where the Story Takes Place	Description of Environment / Place	Quotes to Support
Time Period	The story takes place in the time period of World War II. It is early 1940’s because World War II was between 1939 and 1945 and the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was operated between 1940 and 1945	Auschwitz: There was a concentration camp just in front of Bruno’s new house. It was just the huge wide fence that can along the length of it and turned in at the top, extending further along, that separated the outside from the concentration camp. There wasn’t any grass after the fence, or any greenery. There was nothing but low huts and large square buildings. Men and children, had striped pyjamas on them. Bruno’s house was the only one around except the ones in the camp. Berlin: The street that the house in Berlin stood on was quiet and along site it were a handful other big houses like itself. There were other boys in that houses, not like Auschwitz. When you walked towards the centre of town there was always people strolling along and stopping to chat to each other or rushing around and saying they had no time to stop, not today, not when they had a hundred and one things to do. In the house in Berlin Bruno always found new things to do and he loved to slide down the banister from the top floor to the lowest one.	“…..All he could say was that his father was a man to watch and that the Fury had big things in mind for him. Oh, and that he had a fantastic uniform too.” Narrator, page 5 “Those people… well, they’re not people at all, Bruno’s Father, page 53. He says this about the Jews. “I came home from school and my mother was making armbands for us from a special cloth and drawing a star on each one like this…    “ Shmuel, page 127 “My father wears one too, on his uniform. It’s very nice. It’s bright red with a black-and-white design on it… ” Bruno, page 127
Place	The story takes place in these locations; -          House in Berlin -          House in Auschwitz -          Bruno’s Room -          Gretel’s Room -          Father’s Office -          The stretch of land between the fence and concentration Camp -          Kitchen -          Garden -          Auschwitz Concentration Camp		“I heard father say that whoever lived here at out-with before us lost their job very quickly and didn’t have time to make the place nice for us” Gretel, page 24 “One day he was perfectly content playing at home, having three best friends for life, sliding down banisters, trying to stand on his tiptoes to see right across Berlin, and now he was stuck here in this cold, nasty house with three whispering maids and a waiter who has both unhappy and angry, where no one looked as if they could ever be cheerful again.” Narrator, page 15