The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Reflections and Summarizations

A mere reflection upon the children that is put under the atrocities of the Nazis in the concentration camps in World War 2.

POSTER

It depicts a German child meddling with a kid on the other side of the fence (which is a Jew) who wears striped pyjamas. Source: Miramax.

The poster.

REFLECTION

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight year old son of the commandant at a concentration camp. This movie was again probably the top 5 of the best movies we have seen all year. It did a brilliant job of representing how gruesome it was for even German families, especially for the kids we are never really told what is going on but instead taught to hate and despise anybody that isn’t Aryan. Since this film is still recent I was expecting it to be good and it did not disappoint, with a stellar cast of known actors like David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, and this film really gave me a clear understanding of how many German citizens that were not involved in any of this really thinks just like everybody else in the world. The best concept this movie covered is from the list of techniques of Dictatorship, training evident from Bruno and his sister was the thing that really affirmed everything we have been taught in this course. During the beginning of film before they moved it seemed like Bruno had not yet learned anything of what was going on, to do with the war or the concentration camps. Soon after though his Dad says that they will be home schooled and taught everything that every other child their age is being taught. Whenever the teacher comes to their home to teach Bruno and his sister Gretel, right away it seemed like Gretel grabbed all the things she was being taught and embraced it so quick, especially for having a crush on the much older Nazi soldier. Gretel changed so much over the course of the movie, from being a doll loving regular girl to a very fascist Nazi loving girl....

Children in war are not sure of what is happening around them, especially in Bruno’s case, he only knows what he has seen, for example when Shmuel tells him that there are a lot of children on his side of the fence he thinks that it will be like in Berlin where children are happy and playful and have liberty, but when Bruno crosses the fence and experiences what Shmuel does every day he is very surprised and somewhat disappointed to see that the children here and all lethargic and gloomy, this may affect a child very harshly in the long run seeing such a place on the inside, such as Auschwitz. They witness things that should not been seen by a 9 year old like Bruno who can barely understand why he is not allowed to know about the other side of the fence let alone witness it. In the story we see that Bruno cannot comprehend what is happening when he and Shmuel are taken into the gas chamber and they think that it is a building to keep them dry and warm.

Death is the number one destroyer of children during war not only in the fact that their lives may be taken but lives of loved ones as well, a good example of this is when Shmuel thinks that his father has been taken away to work somewhere else, he starts to worry and eventually goes into a state of depression where he only has his mind set on one thing and that is finding his Papa or at least what happened to him. Death also affects children directly as we see when Bruno and Shmuel are gassed they have no knowledge of where they are or why they are their they are only aware that they are their together their deaths are a great way to show the innocence of children in war in the sense that they have so much love and affection...

This was written originally by Jessica Hicap, A Psychology Student by the time this post is uploaded here on the Pitzviews. 

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