Book 2 - havo 4

                      Literature ‘the boy in the striped pyjamas’

                                               

A)

Title: The boy in the striped pyjamas

Author: John Boyne

Edition: 1/1

Pages: 216

Theme: world war II, jews, friendship, child

Perspective: Bruno, (the I-narrator)

Place: Auschwitz (Poland)

Time: 1940 - 1945

 

B)

The book is about a little boy Bruno. His father is a Nazi commandant but Bruno never really understood what that means. They moved to Poland because his father got a promotion. Their new house is next to Auschwitz. Bruno is really bored since he moved to Poland, so he decides to take a look around the house. He ends up at the fence of Auschwitz, where he meets Shmuel. Shmuel is a Jew who’s being held in Auschwitz. They become friends. But their friendship is really dangerous..

Some extra information about the main characters:

Bruno is a nine year old boy that really likes to go on adventures. He’s really nice to everyone and his father is his role-model.       

Father is Bruno’s dad. Bruno always calls him ‘father’ because he has to. He’s always busy with his job. He works for the Fuhrer.

Gretel is Bruno’s older sister. She usually does her own things, she never hangs out with Bruno.                                                     

Mother is Bruno’s mom. She’s really supportive about her husband, but eventually she thinks it’s wrong what he is doing for his job.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Shmuel is the boy who is being held in Auschwitz. He becomes best friends with Bruno, but their friendship is really difficult because he is a Jew. Nobody can know!

C)

The book was really really really good in my opinion! It was a touching story filled with reality. It shows how horrible world war II was. You’ll see what really happened to the people in Auschwitz. You will also see that Bruno is an innocent boy, even tho his father works for the Fuhrer. I liked how the story was written. It was told by Bruno, but the words weren’t to childish. It was never boring to read, because the story kept being interesting: Bruno always discovered something new. Or he talked to Shmuel, and their conservations were really interesting. I have seen the movie of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas too, but I liked the book better because you can make your own images and ideas in your head/you can use your own imagination. (For example: in your imagination Bruno has blonde hair with green eyes, but in the movie he has brown hair and blue eyes: the complete opposite!) The end of the book is really sad, because Shmuel and Bruno died in the gas chambers. It even made me tear up a little bit! I would definitely recommend this book to everyone! It is touching, realistic, interesting and written really good.

-Esmee Vloet, H4E.