Analysis page 24 - 25 the boy in the striped pajama

4 min long

This extract starts with Gretel and Bruno looking thru the window, they describe that they can
see boys and mans but not woman’s, they are having a conversation and started wondering
what’s in the outside, they describe a large garden, forest, full of flowers and a bench. Gretel
describes it as a “little dark but a good place for picnics”, this shows her lack of knowledge
about what’s really happening in there and also her personality , in the concentration camp,
she’s naïve enough to think about how great it would be, or she knows whats in the inside but
she just don’t care. The most important think that they describe seeing is that beyond the
bench that is facing the house there is a huge wire fence that ran along the length of the house
and turned in at the top, extending further along in either direction, further than she could
possibly see. Seeing this left both of the very surprise, as in the extract says neither of them
could find words to describe their surprise, they had no idea what that was, so they started
wondering who. Would build something so. “nasty looking”. And in they ignorance about the
real atrocities that were happening in there they wonder if that’s maybe a modern type of
house. Finally they come to the conclusion that this is the countryside and. Possibly their
holiday home, again this shows their lack of knowledge; making a further analysis not only
about the knowledge them both share but how as Gretel says she’s one of the most brilliants
students in her class and she had never hear about this; this shows that the German kids in
general were clueless about the situation in concentration camps.

As I said before the only two characters in this extract are Bruno and. Gretel, she’s quite alert to
what's going on outside their house, while Bruno is not. She tends to annoy him a great deal;
and Bruno refers to her as a "Hopeless Case", one who does nothing but cause him grief,
basically she’s describe as the stereotypical annoying older sister, as. For Bruno has a really
sweet boy, innocent and. Naïve, does not have bad intentions, very interested in things and
love adventures overall.

The symbols that I can find in this extract are two, the window and. The fence, the window as
what allows them, specially Bruno to see what’s outside their house, is thru this that he sees
foe the first time the fence, after seeing the prisoners through his window, Bruno starts to
question what's going on. and as more he sees more he wants to know and understand, it
represents that he is not happy with living in ignorance and also kind of the loss of innocence
because after this point in the story he starts to slowly learn more and more. There is also the
fence, which is the most important symbol in the entire story, by its meaning a fence is
something that separates and for example mainly to prevent someone from entering your
house. In this extract and story it means the exact same thing, it separates and contains the
Jews prisoners from the Nazis Germans, in this case Bruno and his family; Bruno and his sister
may assume that those inside this type of fence may be inferior, criminal, not the same, or even
dangerous in some way to those on the outside. It represents discrimination and a clear
separation among people as they were not the same, there is also one last symbol, maybe not
as obvious as the other ones, the bench that is describe as facing the house; usually a bench is
facing something nice to look at, or maybe a beautiful landscape, In this case its obvious that ir
is not facing the fence because it is something disgusting to look at even though the land and
the forest is describe as really pretty

The main theme in this extract would be human rights, obviously because of hos eve tho the
kids don’t notice, this fence and concentration camp is a clear violation though human rights,
their making people stay in one place against their will

- Gretel and Bruno were looking thru the window, and having a conversation
- they describe that they can see boys and mans but not woman’s, they are having a
conversation and started wondering what’s in the outside, they describe a large
garden, forest, full of flowers and a bench
- They see the fence, the people, etc. (description of what they see)
- They are naïve and don’t know what’s in there, they think is a modern type of house
or building … they say its so “nasty looking”
- -The fence and the bench facing the house ¿what does it mean?
- -there ignorance about what’s happening inside the fence and why did they move in
there
- Gretel description
- She tends to annoy him a great deal; and Bruno refers to her as a "Hopeless Case",
one who does nothing but cause him grief, basically she’s describe as the stereotypical
annoying older sister
- Bruno description
- .For Bruno he is a really sweet boy, innocent and. Naïve, does not have bad
intentions, very interested in things and love adventures overall
- “she’s quite alert to what's going on outside their house, while Bruno is not.”
- Symbols: fence, bench and window
- Bruno first loses ignorance the first time he looks thru the window
- What they mean
- Main theme: human rights