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The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Descriptive Language

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John Boyne’s historical fable, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, depicts the optimistic narration of the curious mind of nine year old Bruno as he explores the notion of fear in the background of the ominous World War Two. Through this exploration, it is apparent that Boyne’s characterisation is the basis for which the controlling and inescapable element of fear is developed. Boyne relies on the characters’ attitudes towards the unknowns when leaving Berlin and arriving at Out-with, the action and inaction of the characters’, and the relationship between the Bruno and Father to relay the notion of fear in order to compose his whimsical didactic text. Boyne expertly applies descriptive language to establish the dramatic, control which results …show more content…

When Bruno arrives at Out-With he is filled with a feeling that it is “cold and unsafe” (p.20). Boyne’s remark towards Bruno’s fear of the house reveals the depth of Bruno’s indifference by using two words with solely negative connotations. This creates a subtle link for the reader that what is beyond Bruno’s window, relates to the horrors of the war. This is a familiar feeling for many people. Society avoids the unknown because it is unreliable, unpredictable and as a result, not considered to be safe. It is our natural survival instincts to avoid danger. Bruno 's instincts give him a bad feeling towards the house and told him that the move was a “big mistake” (p.17). This unsettling fear haunted his thoughts, forcing him to discover the truth behind the new house and put his fears at rest. This reaction is reflected in contemporary society through our infatuation with space and what lies beyond our solar system, fearing what we do not know and cannot see. Boyne’s use of descriptive language to build highlight to the audience how Bruno’s fear of the unknown’s caused by moving house are impacting his life. The tension which rises from Bruno’s fear of leaving builds a sense of nervousness within the audience, the language preparing them for the horrors to be faced at

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Additionally, some may even consider what their role might have been in the Holocaust: bystander, resister, perpetrator, or victim. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas has received much acclaim. The novel won two prestigious awards in Boyne's native Ireland: Children's Book of the Year and People's Choice Book of the Year. In addition, the book was short-listed for numerous awards, including the Ottakar's Children's Book Prize, the British Book Award, the Paolo Ungari Prize, and the Border's Original Voices Award.

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War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.

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Elie Wiesel has a somber mood in the text ‘Night’. He does this by using imagery and symbolism, Wiesel does this so curiously, as not to plunge into a sad mood, but slowly eases the reader into the despair. The author describes a boy as “angel faced” that slowly moves towards a tragic ending. The angel is a power symbol throughout all cultures, and using that symbol to be placed onto a boy, and expressed through imagery creates a sense of dread and despair. Eliezer depicts a young boy to a “sad faced angel”, in the sense that the boy seems holy, and innocent, yet being in a labor camp, reinforces our idea that the Nazis have no respect for anything good or sacred in the world.

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He brings his experience from the bombing of Dresden and recalls his encounters during the tragedy. Through the subject of Billy, he describes the aftermath of man’s destructive power through the bombing, “It looked like Dresden after it was fire-bombed-like the surface of the moon” (). From this quote, he paints a true sight of war where nothing is left but dust. He relates this event to emphasize the fact that war is a place of sadness and despair and from Billy’s viewpoint he observes the hurtfulness and all the destructiveness of the world when the city of Dresden gets

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“‘I have terrible news,’ he said at last. ‘Deportation.’ The ghetto was to be completely wiped out. We were to leave street by street the following day” (Wiesel 11). Throughout the vast novel, Night,by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist Elie had gone through agonizing experiences, for the duration of the gruesome and unspeakable genocide.

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Erich Maria Remarque’s classic account of misery, woe, and war overrides the plot of All Quiet on the Western Front, recreating the devastation and emotional dismemberment of German soldier, Paul Baumer, and his childhood acquaintances. Baumer is violently ripped through a symbolically eternal dispute between opposing nations; however the entirety of the novel is seen through Remarque’s eyes. As a vessel for propaganda and persuasion, Remarque attaches parasitic personalities, desolate descriptions, and vivid verbs to convey desperate times on The Western Front. Without Remarque’s vocabulary and literary devices, the novel would be stripped of its ability to evoke passionate emotions in the reader.

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The memoir ‘Night’ provides a feeling of darkness and emptiness, displaying the actions that people take when in fear and despair. These actions are shown clearly when the farmers throw food inside the cattle carts that the prisoner are riding in, in order to get a good show of them act like savages as they murder each other for a slice of bread. Right after another example is shown when a son kills his own father over a piece of bread. The memoir also displays a stripping of not only physical property, but of their humanity as well. Overall the mood of night is best described as desperate and tragic.

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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.

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He descriptively tells the readers he grew up in a state of chaos due to war and that he did not have a peaceful childhood compared to normal kids. While he was afraid of the soldiers who are “strolling the streets and alleys” (line 8), the untroubled child in him was afraid of the “boarded-up well in the backyard” (line 4). Here, he contrasts the idea of home and foreign place by presenting different experiences that a child faced. He is showing an event that caused him to have fragmented self. He hints the readers lack of personal belonging because he has experienced war in his early youth.

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