Book Assignment

"The boy in the Striped Pajamas"

This is a very famous book written by John Boyne in 2007 and has gone around the world with great success. I got lucky because some weeks after I asked you if I could read this book for the assignemnt, we also reviewed this book and talked about it a lot in Spanish class. We did essays and compared the story in the book with what really happened, so I have an extensive understanding about this novel. I will explain what it's about:

This novel is about a German family who lives in Berlin formed by a daugther named Gretel, a father, a mother, the servants and the son, named Bruno. They have a high social class because the father is a very important commander in the German army of that time (mid-XX century). The story is narrated from the point of view of Bruno, the little boy of the family. He is very respectful but has a hard time understanding what the world was going on on that time (World War II).

One unexpected day, the family had to move near a concentration camp in Auchviz because Bruno's father had just been promoted. Nobody liked it in there, because their house there was smaller and Bruno had no friends there. When Bruno saw the people on the other side of the day he was astonished. He thought they were the neighbors, but he didn't understand why they all wore striped pajamas. Bruno was bored, he had wrong ideas about what was going on. He only had a correct thought: most of the soldiers were very mean. 

One day, he decided to go exploring, something he loves to do. He went all the way until he reached a side of the fence where he saw a boy of his age sitting on the ground, depressed. His name was Shmuel, he was a jew retained in the camp under terrible conditions. Bruno approached the boy. They started talking and got to know each other. Bruno had gained a new friend.

He visited Shmuel every day he could and got him food. They always talked but could never touch or play together. Shmuel couldn't understand completely what was going on too. One day, almost after a year living in Auchviz the family decided to return to Berlin, so Bruno and Shmuel had an idea. Shmuel got "lost" a couple days ago (he was executed in the camp), so they agreed in getting another uniform for Bruno to wear and be able to enter the camp through a small hole in the fence, so they could search for Shmuel's dad together. Inside the camp, they were driven into a chamber (a gas chamber). The kids thought it was because it was raining, but it wasn't. They were executed. 

Bruno was never seen again, his family wasn't the same. They looked form him everywhere only to find his clothes on the ground next to the fence...

In my opinion, this novel is based on the events of World War II and describes them from a German kid's point of view. It doesn't describe how cruel those events were for some people, full of racism, injustice, abuses, explotaition and genocides. The Germans just woke up feeling they were superior than anyone else, so any race, cullture, religion and tradition different from theirs should be erradicated to "purificate" the German culture.

For me, this is a heartbreaking story, and I remember seeing people cry at the end of the movie based on this book. Both the book as the movie were great in my opinion, but I always prefer movies over books... The story has a nice script and is entertaining by itself. Only that it is very, VERY slow, but I understand this is because the author wants to give an extensive but subtle description of how the situation and events were. That's what I think was the idea and purpose of the novel.

So, to sum all up, I really liked this novel and it is a great way to explain how people lived like in that age, around World War II using a drama that is fictional but at the same time is real  and veridical. It's a nice story that include lots of morals you should follow and not follow. Shows also the contrast between the high and low class separation that ocurred, specially the situation rich people live and how they treat both the German and jew servants. It presents the point of view of the high classes and their opinion about this situation (how their lives changed), because it's very probable that their wealth  increased, gaining resources from the almost "slave" work from jews in concentration camps, as well as the money gained by the army and soldiers (Germany had victories for a while). Remember what this war was for: TERRITORY.

Last, this book, being about history, will help me giving me backgroung information about this war before we review it in class (we're almost in that topic in the historic timeline). This may be just a novel, but it's one about history!