Monday, July 21, 2008

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Bibliographic Information: Boyne, John (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 216 pp.

Genre: Historical Fiction.

Awards. None.

Synopsis: In this Holocaust novel, a nine year old boy, Bruno, whose father is a high ranking Nazi officer and works for the “Fury” (the Fuhrer), moves from Berlin to a place called “Out-Width” (Auschwitz). There is a high wire fence surrounding a huge dirt area with lots of low square buildings, and from his bedroom, Bruno can see hundreds (maybe thousands) of people wearing striped pajamas and caps. Bruno is uncertain what his father does for a living and is eager to discover the secret of the people on the other side of the fence. He follows the fence line into a distance and meeting a Jewish boy named Samuel. Bruno befriends Samuel who lives on the other side of a concentration camp fence. Bruno sneaks in to help Samuel look for a family member, and ends up dying in the gas chamber with his friend, Samuel.

Evaluation: This story deals with the extreme of evil in the subject of the Holocaust. The author juxtaposes that with an extreme of innocence. The story is told through the voice and mindset of a 9 year old boy. His exaggerated innocence allows readers to experience the horrors of Auschwitz that much more. But can a 9 year old boy actually be that naïve? Maybe or maybe not. When these concentration camps were liberated in 1945 by the Allies, and news of what went on there started to spread around the world, people were shocked and amazed that such a thing could possibly happen in the mid-twentieth century. Now we look at that situation and we all know that that happened. Readers today have the benefit of looking at this book from the position of hindsight. We expect that everybody always knew what we know now. That’s not the case. So to expect that a 9 year old child would not be aware of all these things while they were happening, in the way that the rest of the world wasn’t, I think is probably something that is unfair to consider when it comes to Bruno.

The ending opens it up to other situations that have happened in the world since 1945. Bruno’s story can be applied to similar situations in the world. By not using the word “Auschwitz”, even though we are clearly there, it broadens it. I believe the main issue raised in the book is the complacency of people during the late 1930 and 1940s. One of the reasons why the Holocaust happened, one of the reasons why genocide has continued to happen throughout the world in the years between then and now, is through the complacency of people who sit around and watch these things going on and do nothing about it. The book raises the question of if you were there at that time, would you have stood up and done something? You’d like to think you would. Would you have?

Possible classroom uses for the book: Individual choice.

Appropriate age range: 12 to 16 year olds.

My Personal Reaction: Teens may wonder how anyone could be so clueless about what’s going on around them as Bruno appears to be. Also, this book may be believable to 9 years old, but I don’t think it would with the average high school student. This book would be a good read for a struggling reader in middle school. The reading is simple (it’s told by a 9 year old), but the storyline deals with content for middle school and up. I would recommend it to less experienced readers in your middle school classroom as a supplement to your student’s study of WWII.

1 comment:

Grace said...

Tonya,
My mother just got back from Delta Kappa Gamma Convention and she brought me this book. I wasn't sure about it when she described it but after reading your blog- I think I will. See you in class, Grace