The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Conflicts

Conflicts can arise in many situations, but overcoming these obstacles is another conflict in itself. Just as in reality, there are many types of conflicts depicted in fictional stories; even the ones that cannot be controlled; and several ways that the characters attempt to overcome them. In the historical fiction novel, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the main character, Bruno, experiences multiple conflicts. This novel is about Bruno's life, a naive nine year old, who came from an important and wealthy German family during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a time period in World War II in which the Nazi Germans discriminated against Jews and killed millions of them throughout Germany as well as other countries in Europe. In the story, he

This sparked the first major self-to-fate conflict in the novel that Bruno had to attempt to overcome. As anyone would feel at an unfamiliar place, he “felt empty and cold” in what he thought was “the loneliest place in the world” (Boyne 13). At his young, immature age, Bruno was able to discover ways to defeat the cold and isolated feeling of their new house. He overcame this by choosing not to follow the guidelines and rules set by his father, and instead went exploring to pass the time. When doing so, he came across a fence; not knowing it separated the Germans from the Jews; where he met the boy in the striped pajamas: Shmuel (Boyne 106). As he became very close with Shmuel and continued going to the fence almost everyday for a week, the feeling of isolation and loneliness in Out-With faded. This was in turn replaced by Bruno admitting that “the house [at Out-With] had become his home now” which indicates that this particular obstacle was overcome (Boyne 117). This situation clarifies that the conflict of his isolation was overcome and he made the best of it by finding a new friend and a new