Silence In 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'

You're walking through your school hallway on your way to class and you see a kid getting picked on. You and many others pass by this and say nothing. The kid being rude takes it as a sign that he can do whatever they want to the other person and no one will care. The next day you see the same thing and still just walk by. Every day you see this kid getting picked on and no one does anything to stop it so it continues on every day. This shows how silence can perpetuate violence. If people see something happen and just let it happen without saying anything it will never stop. But if someone speaks up they can put an end to it. Many people will notice things and not do anything about it but those few people that stop something are true heros.

They notice it and do nothing about it. The first example of how silence perpetuates violence is because it won't be stopped. In the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, it states “What happened then was both unexpected and extremely 92 unpleasant. Lieutenant Kotler grew very angry with Pavel and no one - not Bruno, not Gretel, not Mother and not even Father - stepped in to stop him doing what he did next, even though none of them could watch. Even though it made Bruno cry and Gretel grow pale” (John Boyne, page 149). This shows how they saw something bad happening and it made them sick, and uncomfortable they didn't do anything to stop him. The second example of how silence perpetuates violence is that it makes people think they have power. An example is in the book Night it says, “Half and hour before the usual time to stop work, the Kapo assembled the entire Kommando. Roll call. Nobody understood what was going on. A roll call at this hour? Here? Only I knew.”, and also, “‘A-7713!’ I stepped forward. ‘A crate!’ he ordered. They brought a crate. ‘Lie down on it! On your belly!’ I obeyed. I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip.” (Wiesel, page 57). This shows how they gathered everyone to watch Elie get beat and no one stopped Idek so he kept