Week 3-option 3

There are many themes and issues throughout John Boyne's compelling novel, 'the boy in the striped pyjamas'. Perhaps the most significant are the following:

Bruno moves to Out-with and his house only miles away from one of the most horrific and brutal concentration camps in history.

Bruno has no idea what's going on around him and thinks these strange pyjama dressed people are farmers are playing a game.

His father is feeding him lies letting him believe they are farmers.

Let's explore these issues and themes in more detail:

1. Bruno's father has been promoted and his job requires him to move and temporally leave their hometown Berlin in Germany to live in Out-with, Poland.  This makes Bruno mad as he isn't prepared to pack up leavings all his friends behind. However Bruno soon finds that's his unpacking his crates and living in the old fashioned house Bruno isn't used to. The issue is the location of their new house. From Bruno's window he can see what he calls, "strange farmers" that are numbered and are wearing pyjamas. This concentration/death camp is only miles away from their home and consequently the family has to live with the horrid smell of Jews burning and also witness and respect the brutal ways the Jews are treated by their respected soldiers and father.

2. Bruno is what we call an unreliable narrator in the book meaning he has no idea what this camp/farm is however we do. A concentration camp only miles away from their home is an adventure in Bruno's eyes. He becomes curious as to why these people are treated poorly, wear pyjamas and why he is told not play with them. But Bruno doesn't care, he is bored out of his brain and would rather rip out his hair than play with his sister Gretel so despite the consequences he is unaware of he make friends with a Jew named Shmuel on the other side of the fence.

3.Another issue is that Bruno's father is feeding him lies about this camp in order to protect his word and job. Bruno one day walks in to his office with many questions and although we know his father is lying Bruno doesn't. His father is saying "those people aren't people" and "that smoke is probably the burning of the rubbish" this of course is not true.