boy in the striped pyjamas

• Bruno:

  • Protagonist and narrator
  • Nine-year-old boy living in Berlin during World War II
  • Father is a Nazi officer who moves the family to Auschwitz, Poland
  • Refers to Hitler as "the Fury" and Auschwitz as "Out-With"
  • Sheltered and naive
  • Develops a close friendship with Shmuel, a Jewish boy in the concentration camp
  • Interested in art and books, loves exploring
  • Wants to become a soldier like his father
  • Indoctrinated to believe Germany is superior
  • Killed in a gas chamber after crossing the fence to help Shmuel
• Gretel:

  • Bruno's twelve-year-old sister
  • Initially interested in dolls, becomes obsessed with changing politics of World War II
  • Tracks German army's progress via pushpins in maps
  • More indoctrinated with anti-Semitic rhetoric than Bruno
  • Develops a crush on Lieutenant Kotler
• Mother:

  • Married to Father, a Commandant in the German army
  • Loving towards Gretel and Bruno
  • Stern when they ask questions or complain about moving to Auschwitz
  • Develops a friendship (likely an affair) with Lieutenant Kotler
  • Convinces Father to let the family move back to Berlin
• Father:

  • Ralf, Bruno's father
  • Promoted to Commandant in the German Army by Hitler
  • Strict and intimidating, but tender towards his family
  • Consents to letting the family move back to Berlin
  • Figures out what happened to Bruno a year after his disappearance and is destroyed by the realization
• Shmuel:

  • Bruno's Jewish friend at Auschwitz
  • Born on the same day as Bruno
  • Thin and lives through horrors in the camp
  • Eagerly accepts food from Bruno
  • Dies with Bruno in a gas chamber after Bruno crawls under the fence to help him
• Lieutenant Kotler:

  • Nineteen-year-old German soldier at Auschwitz
  • Well-dressed, over-cologned, striking blond hair
  • Cruel to prisoners, taunts Bruno
  • Gretel develops a crush on him
  • Transferred away when Father discovers his father fled from Germany in 1938
• Grandmother:

  • Nathalie, Bruno's grandmother
  • Opposes the Nazi party
  • Dies while the family is away at Auschwitz
• Pavel:

  • Old Jewish man who works in the family's house in Auschwitz
  • Former doctor
  • Beaten (likely to death) by Kotler
• Grandfather:

  • Matthias, Bruno's grandfather
  • Proud of Father's role in the Nazi party
  • Opposes Grandmother's opposition to Father's new role as Commandant
• Maria:

  • Family's maid
  • Believes Father is a good man
• Lars:

  • Family's butler
• Herr Liszt:

  • Bruno and Gretel's tutor
  • Supports the Nazi party
• Themes:

  • Innocence and Ignorance:
  • Bruno's sheltered life during World War II
  • Refers to Hitler as "the Fury" and Auschwitz as "Out-With"
  • Lack of understanding of the political situation
  • Preserved innocence based on ignorance ultimately leads to his death
• Boundaries:

  • Bruno not allowed into Father's office
  • Imposed boundaries lead to dire consequences
  • Breaking boundaries leads to Bruno's death
• Family and Friendship:

  • Bruno struggles with his role in the household
  • Friendship with Shmuel supersedes obedience to his family
  • Tension between positive experiences with prisoners and parents' descriptions of them
• The novel "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" serves as an allegory for the pseudoscience and indoctrination spread by the Nazi Party during World War II
• The book's "moral" declares that despite differences of nationality, race, gender, or religion, at a basic level we all desire compassion and companionship, and deserve the same level of dignity and human rights
• Nationalism during World War II was heavily promoted by the Nazi Party, which operated on the idea that ethnic Germans were superior to the rest of the world
• Nazi rhetoric and propaganda emphasized an "us vs. them" division, demonizing and dehumanizing minorities, particularly Jews
• Adolf Hitler's government created concentration camps to ruthlessly kill Jews and other minorities, resulting in the death of over six million people
• The novel portrays how German nationalism under the Nazi regime began to fail as the war dragged on, leading to the collapse of the Nazi Party at the end of World War II
• Gender roles are perpetuated throughout the novel, with Father as the patriarch of the family and Mother having little agency or power of her own
• Mother engages in an affair with Lieutenant Kotler as a form of subversion towards Father, showcasing her limited ways of exercising her will
• The adult women in the novel, bound by traditional gender roles, have negative opinions regarding Father's role at Auschwitz but are disregarded due to their secondary status to men
• Symbols in the novel include "The Fury" representing Hitler, "Out-With" symbolizing Auschwitz, "Striped Pyjamas" denoting artificial branding of people, and "The Fence" representing artificial barriers between people
• Poem 1: Dulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
• The title of the poem translates as 'it is sweet and honourable to die for one's country', creating an ironic expectation of a celebration of war and soldier sacrifices
• Owen writes about the suffering endured by soldiers, remembering a friend who died during a gas attack
• Owen addresses the poem to those who encouraged children to join up for war, claiming it was heroic
• Themes: War, Suffering and Death
• Imagery of suffering, both physical and emotional
• Irregular rhythm in the structure mirrors the confusion and instability brought by war
• Negative picture of war with harsh diction and shocking imagery like "blood shod", "guttering", "choking"
• Metaphors and similes used to describe the exhaustion of soldiers, like "men marched asleep" and "drunk with fatigue"
• Describes the cruel effects of gas bombs and haunting nightmares
• 3 stanzas: 1 describes exhausted soldiers, 2 describes gas attack and death, 3 describes soldiers' anger
• Poem 2: Not Waving but Drowning - Stevie Smith
• The poem highlights how humans tend to ignore the suffering of others
• Literal meaning of a drowning man mistaken as waving, metaphorically showing miscommunication and blame
• Themes: Depression, Mental Health, Appearance vs Reality