Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Notes
Shmuel:
- is a nine-year-old Jewish boy who was captured by the Germans. He is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
- He is a quiet, frail, and very lonely person who spends most of his time sitting at the camp fence.
- He has big, light-brown eyes, skinny, grey skin
- Comes from Poland
- Born on same as Bruno, at Cracow
- Shmuel was born on April 15th 1934 (on the same day as Bruno)
Bruno:
- nine-year-old son of a Nazi Commandant
- Born on April 15th, 1934 in Berlin
- brown hair and is short for his age
- loves exploring and wants to be an explorer
-
Gretel:
- twelve-year-old daughter who loves to play with dolls and rearrange them on her shelf.
- very rude, sarcastic and bossy, especially to her brother Bruno
- Nickname: Hopeless Case
-
Mother: Elsa (in movie only?)
- tall with red hair (black in the movie)
- a caring woman, despises her husband's job at Out-With.
- very upset with how the Nazis treat the Jews.
- wants to take Bruno and Gretel back to Berlin ( Out-With is no place to raise young children)
- has an affair with Lieutenant Kotler.
-
Father:
- Ralf
- very patriotic, does everything he can for his country (Germany)
- commandant of Out-With
- spends a lot of time in his office
-
Maria:
- family’s maid
- respects Bruno's Father because he paid for her mother's healthcare (she was the family’s dresser)
Pavel:
- a kind Jewish man who works as a waiter and chef at Bruno's house
- used to be a doctor
- often treated with disrespect, he never complains
- grows weaker every day
-
Lieutenant Kurt Kotler:
- 19 years old, yellow blond hair
- Has a high opinion of himself; Bruno: he is a nasty man
-
Lars:
- butler
Fury : Führer
Lieutenant Kurt Kotler: yellow-blond hair
Pavel = kitchen help and butler
Josef: Shmuel’s brother
Friends at Berlin:
- Karl (father is a greengrocer):
- Daniel (father is a teacher)
- Martin (father is a chef)
Nathalie: Bruno’s grandmother (62 years old) singer, ginger hair
Matthias: Bruno’s grandfather (73) owns a restaurant
Setting: Berlin (first part)
- Story starts just before the summer holidays during Second World War
- Story teller: omniscient (all-knowing) author
Bruno did not know exactly what kind of job his father has. The only thing he knew is that the Fury has big things in his mind for him.
Bruno often slides down the banisters. When he had to left Berlin, he couldn’t do this anymore.
New home at Auschwitz, in Poland.
(p. 31) difference book-movie house / concentration camp / garden(important!)
Skinny maids probably from the camp.
He has to stay here for a long time, father’s job was here now.
John Boyne often uses flash backs.
Bruno wants to be an explorer.
• Out with whom?
The previous residents.
• What was strange (what did B and G miss) about the ‘farm’?
They saw no girls, no mothers or grandmothers.
About the camp:
Name: Out-With
- Nasty looking place
- G and B thought it was a farm, but there were no animals of good soil
Clothes: a pair of grey striped pyjamas with a grey striped cap on their heads.
Father had already left for Out-With at the beginning of the story.
Gretel sees Maria as a maid, Bruno sees her as ‘family”.
Maria tries just to outlive the war, she doesn’t want to talk about it.
(p. 67) Herr Roller (same age as father), is going mad. Has served in WW I (like father), Bruno thinks he is going mad too.
Lieutenant Kurt Kotler: yellow-blond hair.
Gretel fell in love with Kotler, but later he heard she’s only 12.
Pavel = kitchen help and butler
Quite a small man, very skinny, long fingers, angular features, older than father, younger than grandfather.
Reaction at father’s new uniform:
Grandfather: impressed and proud
Grandmother: unimpressed and disappointed
Cold, metal plaque (in memory of opening of camp) on bench; symbolic? Cold plaque and cold and horrible events.
Schmuel: skinny and sad
Josef : Schmuel’s brother
Luka: older boy who (later in the war) lived with Schmuel and his family. 11 people in one room.
Schmuel’s father was a watchmaker. They used to live over the shop at Cracow.
Shmuel and Bruno were friends, some things:
• Who was the first Bruno told about Schmuel?
Gretel.
• How did he avoid Gretel to know that he was talking to a Jewish boy?
He told her that Schmuel was an imaginary friend.
• What is so sinister about the swastika?
Before the Nazis misused it, it used to be a symnbol for the renewing life.
• Did Bruno ever go back to Berlin?
Yes, for two days, because his grandmother had died.
• Why is Schmuel in the kitchen?
To help prepare for Bruno’s father’s birthday party (polishes the glasses).
• What book was Bruno reading?
Treasure Island -> Kotler doesn’t know this boek.
• Why was father sad?
He had had a fight with grandmother and they did not reconcile.
• Is Bruno getting to like Out-With at all?
Yes, after a long while, because he met Shmuel and didn’t want to go everywhere else.
Parents were going to be more cheerful, mother drank fewer medicinal sherries.
Kotler had left, Why did he? -> father new about his relation with his wife Elsa so Kotler had to go.
• Why did Kotler beat Pavel?
Because he let fell some wine all over the table.
• How did Kotler treat Schmuel and why?
Because he was ‘stealing’ food, but Bruno gave him.
• What did Gretel replace her dolls with?
For some posters of the war and nazi’s.
A map of Europe, on which she stuck pins to show where the fronts were.
• Who are the Opposite?
Germans, all non-Jews
Bruno’s and Gretel’s hair was shaved off because of the lice.
Now he looked more like Schmuel, only fatter.
• Does Bruno want to go back to Berlin?
No, not really because of Schmuel, his new friend for life.
• Why do they have to leave Out-With? (Bruno, Gretel, Mum)
Because their parents (esp. mother) considers Out-With not a suitable place for children to grow up.
Bruno wants to come over to the other side of the fence to help S. look for his father, who is ‘lost’.
S. wants to explore. They have to find evidence first.
When Bruno changers clothes, it reminds him of his grandmother’s plays .
Bruno thought the huts were full of happy grownups and children playing., but all he sees is skinny and sad, crying people. Only the soldiers are laughing.
The moment B wants to return home, whistles are blown and they think they have to go on a march. They hear gunshots.
People who have to go on a march are never seen again.
This is the end, Bruno and Shmuel are dying.
Shmuel:
- is a nine-year-old Jewish boy who was captured by the Germans. He is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
- He is a quiet, frail, and very lonely person who spends most of his time sitting at the camp fence.
- He has big, light-brown eyes, skinny, grey skin
- Comes from Poland
- Born on same as Bruno, at Cracow
- Shmuel was born on April 15th 1934 (on the same day as Bruno)
Bruno:
- Born on April 15th, 1934 in Berlin
- brown hair and is short for his age
- loves exploring and wants to be an explorer
-
Gretel:
- twelve-year-old daughter who loves to play with dolls and rearrange them on her shelf.
- very rude, sarcastic and bossy, especially to her brother Bruno
- Nickname: Hopeless Case
-
Mother: Elsa (in movie only?)
- tall with red hair (black in the movie)
- a caring woman, despises her husband's job at Out-With.
- very upset with how the Nazis treat the Jews.
- wants to take Bruno and Gretel back to Berlin ( Out-With is no place to raise young children)
- has an affair with Lieutenant Kotler.
-
Father:
- very patriotic, does everything he can for his country (Germany)
- commandant of Out-With
- spends a lot of time in his office
-
Maria:
- family’s maid
- respects Bruno's Father because he paid for her mother's healthcare (she was the family’s dresser)
Pavel:
- a kind Jewish man who works as a waiter and chef at Bruno's house
- used to be a doctor
- often treated with disrespect, he never complains
- grows weaker every day
-
Lieutenant Kurt Kotler:
- 19 years old, yellow blond hair
- Has a high opinion of himself; Bruno: he is a nasty man
-
Lars:
- butler
Fury : Führer
Lieutenant Kurt Kotler: yellow-blond hair
Josef: Shmuel’s brother
Friends at Berlin:
- Karl (father is a greengrocer):
- Daniel (father is a teacher)
- Martin (father is a chef)
Nathalie: Bruno’s grandmother (62 years old) singer, ginger hair
Matthias: Bruno’s grandfather (73) owns a restaurant
Setting: Berlin (first part)
- Story starts just before the summer holidays during Second World War
- Story teller: omniscient (all-knowing) author
Bruno did not know exactly what kind of job his father has. The only thing he knew is that the Fury has big things in his mind for him.
Bruno often slides down the banisters. When he had to left Berlin, he couldn’t do this anymore.
New home at Auschwitz, in Poland.
Skinny maids probably from the camp.
He has to stay here for a long time, father’s job was here now.
John Boyne often uses flash backs.
Bruno wants to be an explorer.
• Out with whom?
The previous residents.
• What was strange (what did B and G miss) about the ‘farm’?
They saw no girls, no mothers or grandmothers.
About the camp:
Name: Out-With
- Nasty looking place
- G and B thought it was a farm, but there were no animals of good soil
Clothes: a pair of grey striped pyjamas with a grey striped cap on their heads.
Father had already left for Out-With at the beginning of the story.
Gretel sees Maria as a maid, Bruno sees her as ‘family”.
Maria tries just to outlive the war, she doesn’t want to talk about it.
Lieutenant Kurt Kotler: yellow-blond hair.
Gretel fell in love with Kotler, but later he heard she’s only 12.
Pavel = kitchen help and butler
Quite a small man, very skinny, long fingers, angular features, older than father, younger than grandfather.
Reaction at father’s new uniform:
Grandfather: impressed and proud
Grandmother: unimpressed and disappointed
Cold, metal plaque (in memory of opening of camp) on bench; symbolic? Cold plaque and cold and horrible events.
Schmuel: skinny and sad
Josef : Schmuel’s brother
Luka: older boy who (later in the war) lived with Schmuel and his family. 11 people in one room.
Schmuel’s father was a watchmaker. They used to live over the shop at Cracow.
Shmuel and Bruno were friends, some things:
• Who was the first Bruno told about Schmuel?
• How did he avoid Gretel to know that he was talking to a Jewish boy?
He told her that Schmuel was an imaginary friend.
• What is so sinister about the swastika?
Before the Nazis misused it, it used to be a symnbol for the renewing life.
• Did Bruno ever go back to Berlin?
Yes, for two days, because his grandmother had died.
• Why is Schmuel in the kitchen?
To help prepare for Bruno’s father’s birthday party (polishes the glasses).
• What book was Bruno reading?
Treasure Island -> Kotler doesn’t know this boek.
• Why was father sad?
He had had a fight with grandmother and they did not reconcile.
• Is Bruno getting to like Out-With at all?
Yes, after a long while, because he met Shmuel and didn’t want to go everywhere else.
Parents were going to be more cheerful, mother drank fewer medicinal sherries.
• Why did Kotler beat Pavel?
Because he let fell some wine all over the table.
• How did Kotler treat Schmuel and why?
Because he was ‘stealing’ food, but Bruno gave him.
• What did Gretel replace her dolls with?
For some posters of the war and nazi’s.
A map of Europe, on which she stuck pins to show where the fronts were.
• Who are the Opposite?
Germans, all non-Jews
Bruno’s and Gretel’s hair was shaved off because of the lice.
Now he looked more like Schmuel, only fatter.
• Does Bruno want to go back to Berlin?
No, not really because of Schmuel, his new friend for life.
• Why do they have to leave Out-With? (Bruno, Gretel, Mum)
Because their parents (esp. mother) considers Out-With not a suitable place for children to grow up.
Bruno wants to come over to the other side of the fence to help S. look for his father, who is ‘lost’.
When Bruno changers clothes, it reminds him of his grandmother’s plays .
Bruno thought the huts were full of happy grownups and children playing., but all he sees is skinny and sad, crying people. Only the soldiers are laughing.
The moment B wants to return home, whistles are blown and they think they have to go on a march. They hear gunshots.
People who have to go on a march are never seen again.
This is the end, Bruno and Shmuel are dying.
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