Symbolism In Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

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Families being torn apart, being ripped from everything they’ve known growing up and being isolated within a camp where no one truly knows what’s happening to them. That’s what was going on in the life of the Jews during WWII, they were being treated as if they were no longer human, being tossed in concentration camps and given just a number to identify them, completely taking away their self importance. The atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust are being subtly portrayed in the movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,”directed by Mark Herman, a story told from the eyes of an eight year old boy named Bruno and his unlikely friendship with a Jewish boy named Shmuel. The movie tells the story of how a young boy begins to realize what kind of solder his father truly is and what is going on during WWII as his parents had kept him enclosed in this idea that all is well in the world. Through the use of imagery, colors, and pathos Mark Herman successfully portrays the horrors of the Holocaust through the innocent and peculiar friendship of two nine year old boys, Bruno and Shmuel. One way in which Mark Herman …show more content…

He explains how this portrayal of images does not only show the horrendous acts that were going on during that time, but completely put into perspective the actions that Bruno 's father made. He’s been portrayed in such an innocent and loving manner, but he’s running such a horrendous place. It questions whether his father really shows compassion towards his children as he’s able to look past the genocide that he’s so willingly helping create. Harman is therefore successful as he’s getting his message across by portraying such images so vividly in the viewer’s head that it’s difficult to get rid of once the movie ends, making them conscious of the fact that these incidents happened