Preview

Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas Text Response

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
775 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas Text Response
Text response essay
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
D’arcy McGregor
9b

The boy in the striped pyjamas is a profanation. This fictional novel by author John Boyne is set in the early 1940’s and tells the tale of a German boy’s friendship with a Jewish boy imprisoned within a concentration camp. Whilst the novel is moving, clever and seemingly informative, it is actually an inaccurate account of the Holocaust and as such, may misinform readers who have no other knowledge of this time in history.

A profanation is defined as blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character; "desecration of the Holy Sabbath" and also degradation of something worthy of respect; cheapening.
To take something as horrific as the Holocaust and reduce it to this fictional work is both inaccurate and insulting to the memories of the six million people who died.

Author John Boyne has written this novel in a style that is designed to inform and educate those of us with little knowledge of the events in World War Two and bring a better understanding of what was happening in camps all over Europe. Instead the history has been skewed and almost romanticized by telling the story through the eyes of a character that is both unbelievable and inaccurate.

Rabbi Benjamin Blech has written an article in response to The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas in an attempt to point out some of the holes in the story but also to bring to light the fact that this is in fact a work of fiction and not a historically correct account of the time.

The character of Bruno is most definitely one that readers can empathize with and who is really very charming and likeable. His innocence and ignorance are endearing, and although he has obvious character flaws, these are really just normal behaviours of a child of his age, so we tend not to judge him harshly. However, according to Rabbi Blech, the children of this time in Germany were “weaned on hatred of the Jews as subhuman

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Told almost entirely from a young, naive German boy’s point of view, Mark Herman’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a hard-hitting Holocaust tale that will render audiences speechless. After arriving home, Bruno (Asa Butterfield) learns that his family will have to move because his father (David Thewlis) achieved a promotion in the Nazi army. Bruno noticed what he believed to be farmers living just past a stretch of woods near their new home. One day, not long after being told not to go near the “farmers,” Bruno leaves his home and heads towards the camp. There he meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a young Jewish boy. While trying to understand what is happening in the world around them, the boys become friends. While…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was a book that really made an impact on me. The book is very well written and made you feel a real emotional connection with the characters in the book. The book was so emotionally impacting that it actually made me cry and want to throw the book across the room. What happens in this book is that two little boys, one, the son of a german Nazi, and the other a Jewish little boy, meet and they become the best of friends, but there is a twist. Bruno and Shmuel don’t seem to really understand what was going on at the time.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Holocaust and war was no joking matter. Millions were executed both intentionally and unintentionally. Men, women, husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, and children; The SS didn’t care. Nor did the Poles, Germans, or anyone at all for that matter. Nobody cared about the “dirty Jews”, the “filthy dogs”, or the “swine dogs”. There were so many insults that it’s impossible to name them all. People were malnourished, lonely, and hopeless. This torture was part of the everyday life of a young man named Lucek Salzman (George Lucius Salton). This boy lost his parents at age 14 and his brother at age 15. He was beaten, he had paint poured over him, his latter was kicked by a German soldier (this ended up causing him to have an infected leg). What this man went through as a child was brutal, but the fascinating part is that he never gave up and he knew that he had a chance. Lucek Salzman had hope in the end.…

    • 2118 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Boyne represents the different perspectives of society in World War II through the representations of characters in the fictional novel The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Bruno’s childlike perspective is represented through his malapropism of “the Fury” and “Out-With” and his reaction to unexpected events, “mouth making the shape of an O”. The irony of Bruno’s narrow view, “it’s so unfair...” confronts the audience with the ignorance of some German citizens to the horrific events of the Holocaust. The characters of “Mother” and “Grandmother” are utilised by Boyne to represent the differing perspectives of the society during the Holocaust. Grandmother exercises constructive disobedience in dissenting with the Nazi regime and perceiving Fathers role as “a puppet on a string”. This is juxtaposed to Bruno's Mother through the euphemism of "[Bruno] had never known anyone to need quite so many medicinal Sherries" showing her complacency to do nothing about the knowledge of the concentration camp. Boyne positions an older audience to see the dangers of naivety and the cost of inaction.…

    • 510 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Boyne uses narrative voice and a variety of other literary devices to convey the main ideas of prejudice and discrimination, power of friendship and innocence in his novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (BITSP)”. Boyne’s novel portrays the story of a young German boy in Nazi Germany who befriends a Jewish child residing in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The author explores prejudice and discrimination, power of friendship and ideas of innocence in his novel. Boyne uses third person limited narrative, dramatic irony, juxtaposition, setting and symbolism to convey these ideas in his novel. Boyne’s novel uses these techniques to create these ideas, giving us an insight into the experiences of the Jewish people during Nazi Germany.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An obscure village in Poland, sheltered from ideas and industrialization, seemed a safe place to store one's most precious valuable: a 6-year-old boy. Or so it seemed to the parents who abandoned their only son to protect him from the Nazis in the beginning of Jerzy Kosinski's provocative 1965 novel The Painted Bird. After his guardian Marta dies and her decaying corpse and hut are accidentally engulfed in flames, the innocent young dark-haired, dark-eyed outcast is obliged to trek from village to village in search of food, shelter, and companionship. Beaten and caressed, chastised and ignored, the unnamed protagonist survives the abuse inflicted by men, women, children and beasts to be reclaimed by his parents 7 years later-a cold, indifferent, and callous individual.<br><br>The protagonist's experiences and observations demonstrate that the Holocaust was far too encompassing to be contained within the capsule of Germany with its sordid concentration camps and sociopolitical upheaval. Even remote and "backward" villages of Poland were exposed and sucked into the maelstrom of conflict. The significance of this point is that it leads to another logical progression: Reaching further than the Polish villages of 1939, the novel's implications extend to all of us. Not only did Hitler's stain seep into even the smallest crannies of the world at that time, it also spread beyond limits of time and culture. Modern readers, likewise, are implicated because of our humanity. The conscientious reader feels a sense of shame at what we, as humans, are capable of through our cultural mentalities. That is one of the more profound aspects of Kosinski's work.<br><br>It is this sense of connectedness between cultures, people, and ideas that runs through the book continuously. While the "backward" nonindustrialized villages of Poland seem at first glance to contrast sharply with "civilized" Nazi Germany, Kosinski shows that the two were actually linked by arteries of brutality and…

    • 2575 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The whole world has gone through some tough times, but not many things have been as horrible as the tragedies that happened during the Holocaust, not many things have been as harsh and heartbreaking as the events during the Holocaust. One of the pieces of writing that explains the almost unspeakable cruelty that we call the Holocaust is in a Scholastic Scope article “Betrayed by America” by Kristen Lewis. It was about an eleven year old boy who was in a concentration camp, he went through a hard time but when the war was over and done with they gave him money and let him go. Another narrative on this event was about a young boy Ben and his Holocaust experience who went through a really hard time and saw things we could only imagine. One of…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout history, there have been many injustices that have plagued the Earth from King Leopold II, who conquered and killed thousands of innocent Congolese for personal monetary growth, to a Japanese internment camp during World War II. While those events were considered horrific, there was one that surpassed them all. Auschwitz, recognized as the worst Jewish interment camp, has the highest death count of around 1.25 million Jews under the reign of Hitler. Being a byproduct of the Final Solution, Auschwitz was constructed because killing Jews individually was a tedious task. With the integration of internment camps, the ability to commit mass genocide would be much easier since they would be in a more concentrated area. The novel, Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers, written by Filip Müller, recounts the tale of an Auschwitz survivor and the life he and other Jewish prisoners had to endure behind its walls. He stated that Auschwitz was a “terrible accusation against God and humanity” (Müller 1999, x). This novel was written to bring light to tragedies that ensued during and…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Raoul Wallenberg

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Growing up, there is a label on each and every person, and on that label, there are expectations. Every single plant, animal, thing, human has to meet the expectations placed upon their label. Whether they like it or not, this label, and these expectations stay with them their whole life. Good, bad, smart, athletic, and so on. What they have been pre-described, shapes their life, for the better or worse, and just like any other time, the time during the Holocaust much was the same. However, the expectations that were placed on every single human, country, and government did not seem to be met. Every one of them all had the same excuse. “We did not…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    'Successful fiction captures the imagination, it allows us to live lives that are extraordinary to us. The story of Bruno and Shmuel within The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas does exactly that, through it we gain a fresh and new perspec­ tive on the Holocaust ... it is a novel whose ending remains with readers long after the pages are finished, it is a novel that inspires thought and difference of opinion, it is a book that deserves to be read, to be discussed, to be held close to the heart ' Jacob Hope, ACHUKA…

    • 35455 Words
    • 142 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Similar to the crucible, the boy the striped pyjamas written by John Boyne also explores many aspects of belonging. It deals with the concept of safety, security and social connection within society, as well as the desire for power, being one of the strongest drives that humans possess.the boy in the striped pyjamas focuses on complex emotional issues of evil and the holocaust in WW2. Even though the novel is written through a child’s point of view it was intended for a more educated and aware audience.…

    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The book tells a story seen through the innocent eyes of an 8 year old boy, Bruno, who is unsure of his place in the world. The most evident concept of belonging is his hitch in his transition from childhood to adulthood. Throughout the book, he faces the conflict between accepting the harsh "Jew-killing" reality of the world or stay immersed in his fantastical world filled with adventure. Bruno also feels alienated from society having been moved from Berlin to the countryside, resulting in his isolation. On another level, he must further decide his place and to whether support his Nazi father's actions and stay true to his "Fatherland" or stay a companion with Shmuel, the 8 year old Jew that Bruno befriends.…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Author’s credentials of the subject: Daniel James Brown is a professional author who wrote the book, The Boys in the Boat. His area of focus is non-fiction, and has many other books related to that subject. The author clearly has a specific biased viewpoint, for all of his…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mark Herman, the director of the film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, uses significant film techniques to create empathy towards the Jewish people involved in the Holocaust. Herman delivers thought provoking ideas to illustrate the horrid events the Jews had to suffer. The significant themes that are conveyed in this film are truth and revelation, betrayal, human suffering and death. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was set in 1942 at Auschwitz, Poland and is a historic didactic representation of the Holocaust. Truth and revelation, betrayal and death are important themes because Bruno’s betrayal of Shmuel, an inmate of the Nazi concentration camp, leaves him in a situation where he must attempt to properly mend his relationship with Shmuel, by going inside the camp to look for his father. This results in a tragic ending of both boys and they represent the thousands of people killed during the Holocaust.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, is set during World War II in a Nazi commandant and soldier home, a couple miles outside a Jewish concentration camp. The main character, Bruno, is an eight year-old German boy who is the son of the new commandant at the concentration camp. The story starts as Bruno and his family are moving out of Berlin since his father was offered a promotion as a commandant. Bruno is just told that they are moving to the countryside. Once they arrive at this new home, Bruno is very bored and misses Berlin. He has no one to play with and is very restricted on what he can do. His father swore to an oath to not speak of why he is there and what is beyond the gates of the home. So Bruno’s father says nothing to his son, or anyone else in his family, leaving everyone rather blindsided.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays