The boy in the striped pyjamas door John Boyne

1. Information about the author.

John Boyne is an Irish novelist born 30 April 1971. Boyne was born in Dublin, where he still lives. He is the writer of nine novels for adults and five novels for young readers. As his novels are published in 48 languages, you ca say his books are quite popular under his readers. He even was awarded an Honory Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia.

1. What inspired the author to write the book (if known)?

Boyne himself says he wrote the entire first draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in two and a half days, not sleeping until he got to the end. In no time, this novel had sold more than a five million copies around the world. It also had reached the number one on the New York Times bestseller list. And so it did in the UK, Ireland and Australia.

Unfortunately the reason behind writing this novel is unknown.

1. Genre (novel, short novel, play, narrative….)

As I already mentioned, this book is a novel.

4a  Where (mention country, town or region) is the story situated?

1^st place: Berlin

2^nd place: never identified, but cf. Auschwitz

4b  When (present, past, future?) does the story take place?

      The story takes place in the present

1. Give a short summary.

Nine-year-old Bruno moves to a new town (Auschwitz) when his father is promoted to Commandant. He ventures out to explore his environment and encounters a boy wearing striped pyjamas, named Shmuel. This boy lives on the other side of a strange wire fence together with his father, grandfather, and brother, but he is separated from his mother. Shmuel and Bruno become good friends and Bruno sneaks him food nearly every day. When lice eggs are discovered in Bruno’s hair he is forced to get his head shaved completely. As Shmuel also was bold, they now looked the same. Eventually, when Bruno’s mother persuades his father to take them back home, to Berlin, Bruno concocts a plan with Shmuel. Bruno sneaks into the camp to help Shmuel look for his father who has been missing. As they reached the camp, they couldn’t find Shmuels father anywhere. Instead they are going to have a shower where it suddlenly the doors closed, it becomes dark and all  is chaos. Ultimately, the boys unknowingly march to their death hand in hand with no one in the world but each other.

1. Who are the main characters? Describe each of them in terms of appearance and character. Give at least 3 examples of each.

·       Bruno is the son of a Nazi commandant; he remains innocent of the horrors of the Holocaust and befriends a prisoner at the death camp

·       Shmuel is a young Jew who does not understand why he is in the concentration camp. He befriends Bruno and the two share many similarities in spite of their different circumstances..

·       Bruno’s mother is largely ignorant of what goes on in Auschwitz; after realizing that her husband is ordering Jews to be murdered in the gas chambers, she decides to move back to Berlin with her children.

·       Bruno’s father is proud of his high-ranking position in the German military. Despite his reverence for the Nazi party, he does try to shield his family from the horrors of the death camp

1. Who is the narrator? (a: one of the main characters. b: an objective narrator. c: one of the minor characters. d: the writer him/herself.)

Why is this person a suitable narrator for this story?

The story is told by Bruno himself ans Ithink he is the perfect narrator for this story. This book not only can be read by younger readers, but also by adults. Because of the vieuw of a nine year old boy, you can sense the true innocence behind the main character, you can see his thought and you can feel what he feels.

1. Does the main character remain the same, or does he/she undergo any change(s) in the story? If so, in what way does he/she change?

The main character is a little boy, who doesn’t change a lot during this story. He has always been innocent, kind and giving from the beginning until the end of the book. Moreover, he had to die so soon that there even wasn’t enough time to for him to grow and to change

9. Which (difficult) choice(s) does the main character face?

Bruno’s and shmuels friendschip is tested on many occasions as the boys navigate their individual realities. When Shmuel is brought to Bruno's house to work as a servant, Bruno denies knowing him and giving him any food. Consequently, Shmuel is punished for stealing food (which Bruno had given him). Both boys know that they would be in terrible trouble if anyone were to find out about their friendship so they keep it a secret..

10. Relationships are always essential. Which ones are important in this story? How does the writer describe them? What is emphasised in these relationships?

Friendschip: The boys’ devotion to one another despite their different backgrounds and circumstances is the most important apsect in this story.

11. What is the climax of the story? Explain why this scene is the climax.

The climax of the story is the boys death. I did expect that this moment would ocme, but from th einside I hoped th ending would be different.

However Bruno and Schmuel didn’t expect there dead so nearby, I think they didn’t realise that they were really going to die when the light went off. I can’t imagine that the two innocent fellows point of vieuw on the wolrd changed until their last breath.