Ending
Bruno finally gets enough courage to cross the fence. Once he does, he tries to help his Jewish friend, Shmuel find his father who seems to have disappeared in the concentration camp. Bruno has a moment of realization when he finds the truth about what is on the other side of the fence. It says: "In fact everywhere he looked, all he could see was two different types of people: either happy, laughing, shouting soldiers in their uniforms or unhappy, crying people in their striped pajamas," I though this was definitely a turning point for Bruno, because now he knows what could really happen here. After Bruno has been in the camp for a while, he realizes that he cannot find Shmuel's dad. They sit down, but once the do, a soldier starts calling them, and some of the other prisoners. "It happens sometimes" says Shmuel, "they make people go on marches." Unfortunately, Bruno and Shmuel are taking to, a small airtight room, with a dozen other prisoners. We soon, know that this is a Nazi gas chamber, and that Bruno and Shmuel come to a sad, and abrupt end. So What? This book made me realize, not only how terrible and violent the Holocaust was, but also an insight to both the Jewish and Nazi lives during it. This is an amazing book, for the story, and also the information. If I were asked the question, So What? I would say that this book, and the Holocaust is very important to learn about, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, is one of the best books to explain it. Another important point of this book is to show that discrimination against people because of their religion or beliefs. When the Nazis did these terrible things to the Jewish people, and show their children (Bruno), that this was the way to believe, this is the full extent of the worst discrimination, possibly ever seen in history. In the book it show that Bruno thinks nothing about his country, except that it is the best in the world, and all other countries should be underneath the power of Germany and the Nazis. He says: "Well because Germany is the greatest of all countries" "We're superior." This is my understanding of the point of this book.
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The Holocaust is a terrible reminder of what can happen when people are treated unfairly. This still effects us today, in many ways. What I think is the main reason it effects us is how much we know about this event that happened almost 90 years ago. It is taught in the schools to a great extent, and to me, this makes it a very important part of history. We are taught that this was one of, if not the most traumatic and worst thing to ever happen to humans. This definitely effects us today, and shows what is not supposed to happen. The fact alone that this part of WWII is portrayed as something this bad, seems like it will effect generations of people forever.
Besides the fact that this is so widely known for being terrible, the people who have experienced and have children who know what it was like have stories, that have been told over and over, explaining how the Holocaust was the worst thing to ever happen to them. These people are lucky enough to survive, but unfortunately, they must live with the traumas the Holocaust caused them forever. The Boy in Striped Pajamas - Beginning Blog Post This book, called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyce is staged in World War II Germany, during the Holocaust. The main character, Bruno moves away from his home in Berlin to a far away place, to find a Nazi concentration camp right next to his new house. This is easily comparable to the real concentration camps that people of all ages all across Europe were forced to go to by the Nazis. Bruno is living in Europe, at the time of separation of the Jewish and the Nazis.
So far, the whole book is from the point of view of the German Nazis, and it is interesting to see through Bruno's eyes, and see what life is like for them. He seems oblivious to the fact that his father's organization kills and tortures people, by working for Adolf Hitler, and working at the concentration camps. The camps seem to be the only given connection to the real-life events of the Holocaust. Towards, the middle of the book, Bruno meets a boy inside the camp, and doesn't understand what he goes through in the camp, just for being Jewish. An article I recently read about children during the Holocaust explains what this boy, Shmuel could be going through. The article says: "children died of starvation, exposure, and lack of adequate clothing and shelter." (Memorial Museum) This explains how little Bruno knows about Shmuel's life, and what Shmuel could be exposed to within the concentration camps. |