THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS

1. Why does Bruno seem younger than nine?
Bruno seems younger than nine because he grew up very protected from harm and all the corruption in their country. He had no idea about what was going on and lived a very sheltered for the first nine years of his life.
6. Bruno asks his father about the people outside their house at Auschwitz. His father answers. “They’re not people at all Bruno.” (p. 53) Discuss the horror of this attitude. How does his father’s statement make Bruno more curious about Out-With?
The fact that Bruno’s father does not consider the Jews as people means he doesn’t care about how they get treated. It is really scary to think that he would have treated them like they didn’t have feelings. It made Bruno much more curious about them though, because he wanted to know how they couldn’t be human and why they were all living in such a strange place.
7. Explain what Bruno’s mother means when she says, “We don’t have the luxury of thinking.” (p. 13) Identify scenes from the novel that Bruno’s mother isn’t happy about their life at Out-With. Debate whether she is unhappy about being away from Berlin, or whether she is angry about her husband’s position. How does Bruno’s grandmother react to her son’s military role?’
Bruno’s mother didn’t have a say in where they lived because she didn’t have any authority and her opinion wasn’t heard. She didn’t like the fact she had no power over where they lived as she said, “‘some people make all the decisions for us.’” She was unhappy about being away from Berlin as she said: “’We should have never let the Fury come to dinner,’ she said, ‘some people and their determination to go ahead.’” She is very angry about her husband’s position, and wishes he had never gotten it. Bruno’s grandmother also didn’t like her son’s position because when she saw his new uniform, “Grandmother was the only one who seemed unimpressed.” She thought he was, “’Dressing up like up puppet on a string.’” Then she went on saying, “’standing there in your uniform,’ she continued, ‘as if it makes you something special. Not even caring what it means really. What it stands for.’”
10. A pun is most often seen as humorous. But, in this novel the narrator uses dark or solemn puns like Out-With and Fury to convey certain meanings. Bruno is simply mispronouncing the real words, but the author is clearly asking the reader to consider a double meaning of these words. Discuss the use of this wordplay as a literary device. What is the narrator trying to convey to the reader? How do these words further communicate the horror of the situation?
Because Bruno is only a small, sheltered boy he doesn’t know how to pronounce Adolf Hitler’s name, the Fuhrer or the name of the place he lives, Auschwitz. He thinks he lives at Out-With because of the Fury. It is interesting that the author chose these words, because they don’t only sound like the German words, but in English the word Fury means someone with anger and rage, as we would describe them as furious. Then as for Out-With, it is also interesting because at Auschwitz, the whole reason it was created was to be Out-With the Jews, so both words in English mean something to do with the German person or place.
11. When Bruno dresses in the filthy striped pyjamas, he remembers something his grandmother once said. “You wear the right outfit and you feel like the person you’re pretending to be.” (p. 205) How is this true for Bruno? What about his father? What does this statement contribute to the overall meaning of the story?
This is true for Bruno because when he puts on the striped pyjamas he feels exactly the same as the Jews, even though his father claims they are not human. Bruno’s father also feels like the person he’s pretending to be when he puts on his soldier’s uniform. When he was a father he was a fairly kind man, but with his uniform on he had authority and immediately treated people and got treated differently. This very much contributes to the story, because we know that all people are the same, but as soon as they put a certain outfit on they get classified as a certain type of person and for the Jews they were discriminated for what they wore, even though they had no choice. So what they wore meant not only did they treat people differently, but they got treated differently themselves.