Title: The boy in the striped pyjamas
Writer: John Boyne
Main Characters: Bruno and Shmuel
Theme: war
The writer
The writer of the book is John Boyne. He’s an Irish writer and he’s a journalist too. John Boyne has studied at the university of Dublin and the university of Norwich. He was born on the 30th of April 1971 in Dublin. Boyne has written a lot of books for example: The boy at the top of the mountain, A history of loneliness, This house is haunted, etc.
He has won three Irish book awards, for Children’s book of the year, People’s choice book of the year and Short story of the year. His stories are published in 51 languages.
Summary
One day Bruno, a nine year old boy who really likes exploring, came home from school and he saw Maria, the maid-servant, packing all his clothes in a bag. He asked her why she was doing that and mother told him that they had to move. They had to move because his father got a job in another place. Bruno was very disappointed and he didn’t want to leave his friends over here in Berlin, but his mother said that it was the best choice for them. They were going to move to Out-With. Bruno thought that it was only for a few weeks. In the beginning, Bruno was excited, but when they arrived at Out-With, he started to think different. Bruno was there with his father, mother, Gretel (his twelve year old sister, she really likes dolls and she’s a little bit bossy) and Maria. The old house was very big with very much stuff inside and the new house was very small, old and empty. Bruno was even more disappointed because he had nobody to play with and nobody to talk with over there. Bruno was saying to his mom: ‘We should go home, I think we have to forget this place’, but nothing helped him. At one moment Bruno was looking through his window and he saw a high wired fence and a big building, thousands of people were walking there, all wearing the same striped pyjamas. The people were attacked by the police and they seemed disappointed and sad. The building seemed dark and scary. It was a concentration camp, but they didn’t know. One day Bruno wanted to go on an adventure. He walked along the fence, he saw nothing and after a very long walk he thought it was better to go back home. But then he saw someone with a striped pyjama sitting on the ground at the other side of the fence. The boy’s name was Shmuel. There were a lot of people with the same blue-white striped pyjamas. Bruno and Gretel couldn’t imagine that people could live in such poor places. Bruno did start talking to Shmuel and he asked him about the live behind the wired fence. The two boys had the same age, the same birthday and they had the same length. But Bruno was a very lucky boy and Shmuel was very hungry and lived at a concentration camp but that didn’t matter because they became best friends and Bruno visited Shmuel very often. Sometimes Bruno brought food with him for Shmuel because he was very hungry and skinny. They were talking every day but they couldn’t touch each other because of the wired fence. Shmuel was telling him that he was forced to move to Out-With and he was very angry at the soldiers, while Bruno thinks they were amazing. One day the Führer came for a dinner. The Führer was the name of Hitler in this book. He was very strict, the children and all the people had to work very hard. Bruno wanted to give him food, but Shmuel said no because if the lieutenant noticed it, he got into trouble. He did it anyway, and the lieutenant saw it, he thought Shmuel had stolen it. The next day Bruno went to the fence where they always talked with each other, but Shmuel wasn’t there. Bruno thought that Shmuel didn’t forgive him. A few days later, Shmuel was there and he forgave him anyway. One day, Bruno heart that his mom wanted to go back to Berlin because she missed her friends, and Gretel and he had to return too with their mother. Bruno was very sad because he his best friend Shmuel was there, but he couldn’t tell his parents about him. Dad told Bruno, mother and Gretel that they were returning to Berlin, Bruno was very sad about that. Father would stay in Out-With. He didn’t want to tell Shmuel but he had to. Bruno told him and Shmuel was really sad! Bruno knew this was probably the last time that he could see Shmuel, so he decided to crawl under the fence to play with Shmuel and help him find his dad because Shmuel didn’t know where he was. Bruno thought that wasn’t hard, he thought that he took a free day from his work or something else. Shmuel didn’t believe that. They were walking through the camp, after Bruno had put his striped pyjamas on and while Bruno was wondering about the poor conditions, Shmuel did explain everything. Bruno had a different view about it. Bruno thinks that it is better to go home. Before Shmuel wanted to answer, there came a lot of soldiers who shouted at them and the other people, that they had to march to a place. Shmuel was afraid and Bruno was worried because had to be early at home. It started to rain. They had to walk with the soldiers, otherwise they became angry. They walked into a little building with all the people. Bruno thought it was a shelter for the rain, but it wasn’t. Just before he wanted to go home, the doors were closing, the light turned off and there was chaos. It was the last time that someone ever heard something from Bruno. It looked like he was just disappeared from the earth.
My opinion
I think it was a very good book, because you could read it easily and it’s a very good text. It also was an impressive book, because it’s going about the second world war. I learned more too, for example that you shouldn’t go to a place with another friend, when you don’t know what the situation is there. The story is suitable for children, because the story is going about a child too. The book is for young and old people and it’s a very beautiful book!!