The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
We all know that children tend to be innocent, naïve, accepting, and simple. The older we get, the more we tend to lose those qualities. On one hand, that’s a good thing; we all want to be experienced, intelligent, and, quite frankly, impressive to those around us. On the other hand, however, there are some real benefits to being innocent, naïve, accepting, and simple. Not understanding and taking things as they are anyway is sometimes the best route. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a tale of a young boy who fits the definition of childlike to a "t", but fitting that definition means accepting both the good and the bad sides of that definition.
Bruno is an 8 year old boy, living in World War II Germany. His father has recently been promoted by “The Fury” (Bruno’s understanding of “Fuhrer”) to be the head of Out-With (Bruno’s understanding of “Auschwitz”). The whole family, which consists of Mother, Father, Bruno, and sister Gretel, must move to Out-With so that Father can be the boss at this out of the way house in the middle of nowhere. Bruno is upset about the move; he has to leave his friends, his grandparents, and his beautiful home. The house at Out-With is cold and boring in comparison, and there are no children around for as far as Bruno can see. He isn’t allowed to go in the back of the house, and he isn’t allowed to play outside the gates. A tutor comes to their home, so Bruno isn’t even allowed to go to school with other children. This new move doesn’t seem like such a good idea to Bruno, and he wishes his father had told The Fury no when The Fury told him to come run Out-With.
One day, Bruno looks out his window and sees a farm. All of the people at the farm are wearing striped pajamas, which Bruno thinks is strange. What kind of farmers wear pajamas? Bruno asks his mother about it, and she becomes worried. She doesn’t want Bruno to think about the farm and tells him to forget about it. But Bruno keeps wondering about the pajama wearing farmers. In fact, one of the men that helps in the house wears these pajamas. One day, as Bruno is swinging on his tire swing, he falls and scrapes his knee. The pajama-wearing man takes him inside and cares for his knee. He admits to Bruno that he was once a doctor, and Bruno wonders what would make a man quit being a doctor in order to take a job peeling potatoes at the Out-With house. This makes Bruno even more curious about the farm.
Bruno finds a way out of the backyard one day when no one is looking, and he goes for a luxurious walk in the woods. Eventually, he finds a fence. Behind this fence is the farm with all those pajama wearing farmers! And sitting next to the fence is a boy about Bruno’s age. They start talking, and Bruno becomes friends with Shmuel, but Shmuel can’t come outside the fence and play. As time wears on, Bruno spends more and more time at the fence with Shmuel. But Bruno doesn’t get it; to him, Shmuel is just a boy in pajamas who lives at the farm.
One day, Shmuel can’t find his father. Bruno offers to help find him, and Shmuel devises a plan to get another pair of pajamas for Bruno to wear. They dig a hole at the edge of the fence and in Bruno goes. He puts on the pajamas, and off with Shmuel he goes. The farm is much different than Bruno was told it was; in fact, it seems pretty awful. He starts to wonder why Shmuel and the other farmers live here. Soon, all the farmers are rounded up, and since Bruno is with the men, he goes with them. They are rushed into a room called the shower. This doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to Bruno; the men here could use a shower. This is the last we hear from Bruno, as we assume the showers weren’t the kind most of us take in the morning.
I’ll admit; this wasn’t the happiest ending I’ve ever experienced. However, the book contained so much emotion and feeling that I found myself in tears as it ended. But I should make another confession: I read the book because I saw the movie first. I have nothing bad to say about either; in fact, I went to my students and immediately recommended both the book and the movie to them the next day. Several of them both read the book and watched the movie, and they all brought back the same report that I gave them: you HAVE to read this/watch this. I’ll admit, it seems a bit hard to believe all this could happen; I mean, aren’t even kids smart enough to get that the farm is a camp and that these people are the awful Jews Bruno has been taught to hate? Then I spent some time with some elementary school students, and realized that that innocence, naivety, willingness to accept, and simplicity is spot on. It takes looking at something as horrific as the Holocaust and World War II through the eyes of a child to realize that there were real people, individuals, who had real lives and incredibly complex feelings.
So… my official review is you have to HAVE TO read it and watch it, but you will be sad and it will make you think. But seriously, you HAVE to read/watch!
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