Bruno

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

In class, we read the book, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. It was

about the friendship of two young boys and how different their beliefs are.

One of the boys is Jewish and the other has a father who works for Adolph

Hitler and the Nazis, but Bruno (the son of the Nazi Commandant) has no

clue what a Jew is or what a Nazi is. But Shmuel know that he is Jewish and

that him and Bruno shouldn’t be playing with each other and that doesn’t

interfere with their friendship what so ever. Nine year- old Bruno is very

lonely, and ignorant until he meets his new best friend for life; he is very

friendly to this boy that wears striped pajamas all day but still has many

commonalities.

Bruno had to move with his family to a place he thinks is named Out-

With but is really pronounced Auschwitz, because of father’s promotion and

his job is very important. When he left his lovely house in Berlin, he also had

to leave his grandmother and grandfather along with his three best friends

for life, Karl, Daniel, and Martine. Bruno and his family left their friends and

family for a place with horrid scenery outside your bedroom window. The

view you get is of a fence and on the other side; there are badly treated

people. Another down about this new house is that there are soldiers and

lieutenants walking in and out of your house as if they owned the place. The

worst part about the house for Bruno and his sister was that there weren’t

any other boys and girls their age that were on their side of the fence.

Bruno was stuck with his sister, Grettle, the hopeless case, all day. That was

until he decided to go exploring one day and as soon as he was going to call it
quits for the day he saw a speck in the distance and decided to walk a bit

further towards it. The little speck got larger and larger until it formed the

shape of a boy, not much smaller than Bruno. Bruno sat cross-legged in front

of the boy. They each introduced themselves, the boys name was Shmuel,

and it turned out that they were the same exact age! Bruno would feel

extremely lonely when the rain would get in the way of their daily get

together in the spot they met and always meet.

Bruno’s ignorance would agitate the hopeless case all the time.

Especially when Bruno mispronounces words such as Auschwitz, he always

says it Out-With; and that’s the way she told him it was pronounced in the

beginning. She would also get very annoyed when he says the fury for Adolph

Hitler instead of the furor. And she was so surprised at the fact that he

didn’t know what a Jew was and got very angry when he asked her if he and

is family were Jewish. Bruno didn’t understand how people didn’t like the

Jews so he kept on asking about the other side of the fence. It wasn’t

completely Bruno’s fault, but he didn’t quite understand things so much about

the war so he went to the other side of the fence disguised in striped

pajamas as small Jewish boy.

Bruno was a very friendly boy to almost everyone, that one exception

was Grettle who always made fun of and picked on him. Bruno was especially

kind to Shmuel. He always kept him company by sitting there and just

listening. Bruno listened to Shmuel’s memories of his old life in the nicer side

of Poland and Bruno told Shmuel about his house in Berlin. Shmuel and Bruno

talked about how different it was there at “Out-With” then their old homes

and neighborhoods. And Bruno listened to Shmuel’s problems about the

concentration camp. Before Bruno went to their usual spot near the end of
the fence he would try to sneak as much food as possible into his pocket to

give to his abnormally thin friend. His small friend would gobble the food

down too fast for Bruno to tell him to slow down. And then Bruno did the

riskiest thing of all. He went under the fence all dressed up as a small boy in

the striped pajamas. Bruno went under the loose part of the fence that

could fit a small boy just his size, so Bruno crawled under to meet his very

best friend on the other side. Shmuel took Bruno on a tour and just as they

were about to leave to find Shmuel’s papa, they got caught between a group

of soldiers gathering prisoners and marching them to a very large room and

shoved them all in. they were all cramped together, and Bruno and Shmuel,

for the first time ever held hands. Just after that moment, the doors shut

and so did the lights. Neither Bruno nor Shmuel let go of each other’s hands.

And that was the end of their lives.

Young Bruno was a very lonely, ignorant, and very friendly to a very

nice Jewish boy just his age. Nothing got in the way of these two boys and

their friendship; not even their beliefs or their family’s beliefs. The

message of this story, I believe is that you never have a best friend for life

until you have been through the worst with them, and that is the unbeatable

companionship Bruno and Shmuel had.