In John Boyne's book, The Boy in the Striped
Pajamas, Bruno, a young boy whose parents have tried hard to protect him from
the evil and ugliness of the Nazis' regime in Germany during World War II, finds himself
friends with a young prisoner in Auschwitz, one of the most notorious concentration
camps under Hilter's leadership. Bruno offers friendship and acceptance to Shmuel who is
behind a puzzling fence, wearing "pajamas with stripes." Bruno's fate rests upon his
desire to help Shmuel find his father. When Boyne ends the book with: "This will never
happen again. At that age!", the reader can interpret his meaning in two ways. A common,
world-wide response to the Holocaust is that we must never let something like that
happen again, ever. This may be what Boyne is referring to. However, he may also refer
to the loss of a young boy's life because he does not know what is happening around him;
and that offering friendship to another young boy in a totally different situation
should never have resulted in the death of Shmuel or
Bruno.
NOTE: Please check that the quote by Boyne is
correct: there was a typo...I assumed this was the
quote.
No comments:
Post a Comment