The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Literary Analysis

Hate is taught. Always.
While some may argue that people are born either good or evil, John Boyne, the author of the boy in striped pajamas, highlights that hate is something that you are influenced by, not something you are born with throughout this book. John Boyne constantly chooses to have the readers know more than the characters to shine a light on the characters overall innocence throughout the story. This book tells the story of a boy named Bruno, who moves to a house just outside of Auschwitz after his father, a high ranking Nazi officer, gets a new job. Bruno is fascinated by the people ‘in striped pajamas’ on the other side of the fence. One day, Bruno summons the courage to go up to the fence and forms a strong bond with a Jewish

117) When Bruno pronounces this wrong, it really shows how his innocence reflects that children are born without Hate. In a way, as Bruno calls Hitler, the Fury, he is refusing to call him by the proper title; and in turn, refusing to worship him as his mother, sister and father do. As he calls the Fuhrer the fury, Bruno is showing readers that even though he lives in a house with a full-blown Nazi supporter, he still disagrees with the hate. This supports that children are always born in love… they do not take hate well. On P. 122, Bruno meets the Fury for the first time, “The Fury, who was the rudest guest Bruno has ever witnessed…” it goes to say that Hitler had not made a good impression on Bruno, giving his nickname, the Fury even more depth. Fury reflects Hitler's thoughtless and ruthless actions during WWll, “what a horrible man, thought Bruno” Bruno mispronouncing this gives the story more depth- as the readers know that Bruno is doing something wrong. And in turn, it goes to prove Bruno’s Innocence- and his rejection to the Hate he is being influenced

One example of Bruno's innocence is shown when he doesn't understand Shmuel's problem, even though we as readers understand that Shmuel is Jewish. On P. 169 the text says, “I’m just supposed to be cleaning the glasses. He said, he’s not going to mind said Bruno, who was confused by how anxious Shmuel seemed its only food” at this point in the story, Bruno is going to give Shmuel food. The readers know that if a Jewish prisoner was caught eating while serving for someone else, they would be in big trouble. But Bruno wants to give it to him anyway. If Bruno's father had been in his place, he would have ignored Shmuel, But Bruno chooses to be humane and try to give Shmuel food. When the reader knows more than the character in this situation, it really shows how kind and unaltered Bruno’s vision of people is. Bruno thinks that Shmuel should have food no matter how ‘different’ he was from Bruno. You can see this blind innocence from children all over the world and through history. How many movies have been made about the 1960’s where a white child loved a black person, or even today, when children will protect Homosexuals or people of any minority, without a second thought. This is the true meaning of the book, children are born with love and can only be influenced and made to become