The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Literary Analysis

Can anyone believe the tragic number of Jews that died in the concentration camp Auschwitz is the same number of people who live in Dubai currently today? That is 1.1 million people. This story is retold in the book “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne who shows that a barrier and race cannot keep two friends apart. In the story “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”, John Boyne uses the technique of reader knows more than the character to set up the problem and conflict in the story to show that friendship cannot be measured by race, religion, or gender.

To begin with, John Boyne uses the reader knows more than the character to set up the conflict in the scene where Bruno doesn’t want to move to the new house. The author states,”Bruno

The author states,”Hello, said, Bruno. Hello, said the boy. The boy was smaller than Bruno and was sitting on the ground with a forlorn expression. He wore the same striped pajamas that all the other people on that side of the fence wire, and a striped cloth cap on his head. He wasn’t wearing any shoes or socks and his feet were rather dirty. On his arm, he wore an armband with a star on it.” The author uses the technique of the reader knows more than the character to show the friendship of Bruno and Shmuel which lead to conflict in the future of the story. The reader knows that whoever is in the concentration camp is not liked by the Nazis and that may be Jews or disabled people. But despise all the clues Bruno is given during the book that Shmuel is a Jew who is a prisoner at the camp he doesn’t find that out. Since he doesn’t know that and is in search for a friend he makes friends with Shmuel. But when Bruno finds outs that Shmuel is a Jew and Nazis can’t be friends with Jews then that sets up a conflict for Bruno not wanting to be friends with Shmuel. Another conflict that would happen is Bruno’s parents finding out he was friends with Shmuel who is a Jew at a camp that his father is in charge of running. If they find out they would be very mad and Bruno and if Bruno believes what they are doing to everyone in the concentration camp is dreadful then they would be extremely agitated. This is because their own son is telling them they should release everyone at the camp even though they moved to the camp because his father was in charge of the concentration camp. To sum up, the author uses the friendship of Bruno and Shmuel to set up numerous problems in the future of the story. The reader knows that Shmuel is a Jew and Bruno is a Nazi and two of them cannot be friends or lots of conflicts