The Boy in The Striped Pajamas
Description: The Boy
in The Striped Pajamas is a historical work of fiction set during World War
II sometime in the 1940’s. The novel
follows Bruno, a young German boy, and his point of view of the story. Bruno’s father moves their family to
Auschwitz on Hitler’s order. He has no
friends and his older sister Gretel is the only other kid to play with. What Bruno lacks in age or experience he
makes up with perception. Kids are very
perceptive to the world around them especially when it comes to things they’re
not supposed to see. Part of his new environment
is a barbed wire fence that separates their home from the Auschwitz death camp;
however, Bruno is not told anything about the camp except that he is not to go
past the fence. Bruno does notice that
there are more kids on the other side of the fence and this makes him curious –
hence the perceptiveness of children. A
part of his perceptiveness, Bruno begins to question the actions and
characteristics of the people he interacts with on a daily basis. Internally he dislikes a Nazi soldier who is
supposed to help Bruno and he also questions why Pavel is the family’s cook
after he tells Bruno that he is actually a doctor. Bruno curiosity deepens after Pavel cleans a
wound Bruno received while playing and his mother says to him to tell no one
that Pavel was the one who aided him. Bruno
later meets Schmuel – the boy in the striped pajamas. While he and Bruno live on opposite sides of
the fence they do share the same birthday.
Both boys begin a friendship despite the fence. On the day of Bruno’s father’s birthday,
Bruno finds Schmuel in his family’s kitchen cleaning glasses. Bruno offers Schmuel a piece of chicken and
eats it. Both boys are caught by the
same Nazi soldier that Bruno dislikes.
When Schmuel tries to defend himself saying that Bruno gave him the
chicken, Bruno denies it. A year passes
and Bruno’s mom tells everyone that she wants to take the children with her
back to Berlin. Despite the prospect of
returning home to Germany after living in Poland for the past year, Bruno is
finally comfortable living in his new home – mainly because of his friendship
with Schmuel – and now hates having to leave his friend. Upon breaking the news to Schmuel, Schmuel
reveals that his own father has gone missing.
In an attempt to help his friend, Bruno vows to help Schmuel find his
missing father. The following day, Bruno
sneaks under the fence and puts on a pair of striped pajamas – just like
Schmuel wears. After both boys search
the camp only to come up with no leads to where Schmuel’s father might be, they
are surrounded by Nazi soldiers and told to march towards a gas chamber. While the boys don’t know what’s about to
happen, chaos insues in the chamber. The
story then jumps to the father’s POV and his search for his missing son.
Rationale: The Boy
in The Striped Pajamas was not introduced to me initially as a book. It was a movie and I was interested in the
idea of a child’s perspective of Auschwitz.
While Bruno was unaware of the death camp situation until the end of the
novel, he was able to develop a friendship with a Jewish boy his own age
despite the ever present prejudices he experienced. While most teacher applicants might choose to
use a dystopian novel to teach their class, I believe that our students have as
much to learn about the history of death camps such as Auschwitz and how the
oppressed and marginalized end up in these horrible situations. Working from the past can help students
interpret what it takes to change the outcome of our own future. While this text is appropriate for a ninth
grade reading level, I believe that this may be used in a classroom of tenth or
eleventh grade students due to its content and the themes about morality,
persecution, race and a history of the Holocaust.
Teaching Strategies:
1.
Each
night, assign chapters for students to read so that they come to class each day
prepared to discuss what they’ve read and be ready to ask any questions they
have regarding those chapters.
2.
While
continuing to read this book, both in and out of class, each student will be
tasked in keeping a reading journal with them.
Each student will write in their journals any predictions about future chapters,
any questions regarding the chapters being read, an analysis of characters and
their actions, or they may put themselves in the place of any character in the
chapter they have read and discuss what they’re feeling.
3.
A
brief lesson on what students already know about the Holocaust is necessary in
order for them to understand the concepts surrounding Hitler’s Nazi Germany and
the people they persecuted.
4.
The
novel leaves the ending a little ambiguous to the reader. In order for students to shed some personal
insight as to what happened, an in-class writing assignment could help students
fill in the gap of what they believe happened to Bruno and Schmuel or what
happened after Bruno’s father pieced together his son’s “disappearance.”
Obstacles:
John
Boyne’s novel is not for the faint of heart.
It portrays the death of children and also contains scenes of abuse
between a Nazi servant and a Jewish prisoner.
While the story’s central point of view is from Bruno, it doesn’t stop
or erase the fact that he is a witness to what happens in Auschwitz and suffers
the same fate as his friend Schmuel, despite being the son of a Nazi
officer. (This book has yet to be
banned.)
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