Rivera, Katrina

English 8B

Ms. Katie Sheffield

September 20, 2015

 

Discuss the Importance of the Narrative Voice, (or Point of View) in The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

 

                        The novel The Boy in The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, shows us the perspective of a little boy named Bruno who moves to a new home. This book is set during WWII, therefore it is fairly easy to make several connections from the war to the book. Bruno is a very curious boy, in fact; he calls himself an “explorer”, and because of this curiosity, he finds himself in certain predicaments that would not have been there in the first place if it were not for his “exploring”. Then again, you cannot blame Bruno for these actions, because he is but a child who would not know better as he is used to getting what he wishes and would not know how to treat people as nice as others would like him to. As the protagonist of the text, Bruno is a major contributor to the whole story and as a reader, you will be greatly influenced by the heartbreaking story of this little boy.

                        Bruno is very young, and his innocent mind has not been corrupted by the propaganda of the Nazis during WWII. Although his father is the Commandant of the concentration camp located beside their home, he seems to hide this from his son, just as when his father explained that the “farmers” in the camp beside them are not people at all, or when Bruno describes the people in the “farm” beside them as falling and never getting up. You can see the cruelty and disgust of the Germans towards the Jews, but this is through a child's mind and he does not know what is going in, in fact, he thinks that the clothes the Jews are wearing are “Striped Pajamas”. While Bruno is in his new home, he finds the concentration camp and meets a little boy named Shmuel and they soon become friends. This symbolism gives a very strong message about equality and racism, because Bruno and Shmuel became the best of friends even when their kind were at rivalry. Bruno also seems to call certain things odd names, just like the title of the book, he calls what the jews wear “Striped Pajamas” and their home in Auschwitz, he calls it “Out-With”, and the Fuhrer, he calls “The Fury” Bruno labels places very oddly, and as the reader, that is very important because it reflects his innocence, he didn't even know who Hitler was during WWII. In their new home, Bruno's family goes through many problems and disagreements throughout the book. Bruno seems to be exempted from the constant arguments between his parents, although he says that he always hears his parents screaming and his mother crying and taking more “medicinal sherries” than usual. His mother and father are obviously very dysfunctional because his father is the more dominant figure in their relationship and his mother tries to fight back, but ends up crying. Bruno does not know anything currently happening and lives in his own world, and the neglect of his parents ends in his eventual death. The Boy in The Striped Pajamas is a very powerful novel filled with symbolism, metaphors and references that gives the a much more interesting twist while reading to the story

                        Our cognitive mind can't help being inquisitive, especially for a child with little selfcontrol. Bruno loves exploring and because he is a naive child, he makes terrible choices without thinking of the consequences. Firstly, he makes the awful choice of disobeying his parents and going out to see the concentration camp; because of this decision, he meets Shmuel, this may not have been a terrible decision at the time, but because of this single event, he continues to make horrible choices like lying to his parents and everyone around him. Secondly, Bruno is always making false assumptions on subjects. He looks at a concentration camp and thinks it's a “farm”, there's also the very misleading idea that it would be more fun on that side of the fence because there are more children. All these facts lead up to one major event in the book; his death. He makes the terrible choice of going into the concentration camp with Shmuel for the idea that it would be more fun to play there. He eventually dies because he had not told his parents about his mischievous plan and ended up in a Gas Chamber, along with his friend Shmuel. Bruno is very ignorant and curious, because of these terrible mix of characteristics, it ended in his demise.

                        Bruno is a child and children are also known to be quite selfish and frank towards their opinions because they have not been properly taught how to properly approach certain topics and their social intelligence has not developed quite yet. Throughout the book, Bruno is heard to be very out spoken about his opinions, for example; in the start of the book, when he insists on father to change his job just so that he can go back to his home in Berlin; because Bruno does not know of their current situation, he becomes quite selfish. Another terrible act of selfishness that he had committed, was his betrayal toward his friend Shmuel, when he was the one who gave him food in the first place and Shmuel ended up getting blamed for stealing, this is quite reasonable because he is scared though. This shows how fear overtakes Bruno when Lieutenant Kotler screams at him, and how easily it is to manipulate the young mind. There are also times when Bruno is insensitive, as how he insists that their waiter Pavel is not a doctor and only a waiter, after Pavel had cared for his cut knee. Although Bruno may seem selfish at times and mean, he does not mean to. Bruno is a good child with good intentions, and when you are put in a confusing situation, people seem to say or do anything to get out of it, and Bruno is just a victim of his own situation.

                        Bruno's voice as the protagonist plays a critical part in the novel and gives it a more interesting twist. The book makes several references from Bruno's situation to WWII and the reader can be entertained by making connections, almost as if they were solving a puzzle. When reading this book, the reader may hear traces of ignorance and curiosity in the protagonist's voice and makes you want to read more because of its peculiarity from other books about WWII. Other than ignorance and curiosity, there are also traces of selfishness and rudeness in the way Bruno speaks. The Boy in The Striped Pajamas is a brilliant work of literature that has the proper use of tone and mood, the voice also shifts the reader's attention to not only focus on one side of WWII, but both.