The Boy in Striped Pyjamas
Personal Response
The book entitled " The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is an expository movie on the holocaust in Nazi Germany which manages to be much more interesting than what will generally be expected from a historical movie. It reveals things about the holocaust in a realistic way and is able to capture the viewer's heart and attention.
The movie tells the tale of two eight year old boys: Bruno, the son of the commandant of a concentration camp and Shmuel, a Jewish boy who lives in the camp. Due to his father's new job, Bruno has to leave his home and friends in Berlin and move to a home near the concentration camp. Over there, he has no friends and nothing to do, like any curious child he wanders into area
…show more content…
Both boys are live on the polar opposite of the social spectrum in Germany, where Bruno is the son of a commandant and Shmuel is a persecuted Jew. The friendship that blossoms between the two boys is a very beautiful one. It's of two boys whose friendship withstands all the outside influences. As a viewer I came to like both boys and felt emotionally affected by their story. I cried when Bruno denied Shmuel which led to Shmuel being missing for few days. The lack of knowledge about his location scared me into thinking that he was dead. And the ending scene was the saddest point of the movie, I could feel the tears welling at the bottom of my eyes.
We are able to see the lies and propaganda spread by the Nazis. Gretel's quick transformation shows how effective the propaganda was and this will have probably worked on young Bruno if he hadn't met Shmuel prior to the arrival of his home tutor. The propaganda movie shown to the army officials also shows how effective the propaganda was; Bruno who had been with Shmuel and had seen the camp still believed the lies in the video. It could be argued that he is just a child but unlike Bruno who had seen the camp, most people had never seen the camp and thus will have been a gullible as