Boy In Striped Pajamas: Friendship Over Barbed Wire

The Boy in Striped Pajamas is a 2006 work by John Boyne. Mark Herman later made a film about the book.

The film and the book are very different, but it doesn’t matter for this article, so we won’t focus on that.

Instead, we focus on the main values ​​and themes of the work. Therefore, both the film and the book serve as a point of reference alike.

The boy in the striped pajamas is placed in one of the most cruel and shameful moments in human history.  It takes place during the Holocaust. This is a time we must not forget, because, as they say, history teaches us not to repeat the same mistakes.

The story begins

We are in Nazi Germany, in a military family house. They have very deep-rooted values ​​and ideologies, or at least that’s what family members feel.

The head of the family is a high-ranking army official employed by Hitler. In thanks to his “great efforts,” he is transferred to Auschwitz to continue his work.

The whole family moves to their new home. It is a completely isolated house, very close to the concentration camp. Here we get to know the characters in the book better.

Children:

• The protagonist is Bruno, the officer’s youngest son. Like all boys his age, he doesn’t know much about the world going and just wants to play. He likes adventure books and wants to be an explorer.
• The second is Gretel, his older sister. At first we see him surrounded by dolls. But soon he replaces the dolls with Nazi propaganda-like “decorations”.
• And then there’s Shmuel, a boy the same age as Bruno. But because he is Jewish, he lives in a concentration camp.

Parents:

• Bruno’s father is a high-ranking army official who is very strict and doesn’t spend much time at home.
• Her wife doesn’t know much about the “trouble” her husband sees at first. But we see how this state of ignorance changes during the film. She no longer remains ignorant, and her feelings for her husband change. She is disgusted by the role her husband plays in her work.

Grandparents:

• They are the officer’s parents. Grandpa is proud of his son. But the grandmother is very anti-Nazi and hates what her son does.

Two opposing realities in Boy in striped pajamas

In the book version, we hear how Shmuel and Bruno were born on exactly the same day. And yet their lives are completely different.

Bruno lives in a prosperous family. His father is a soldier, and his biggest concern is that he has no playmate. She is bored and does not like a new place to live. He doesn’t understand why he had to move and leave his old friends.

Shmuel is Jewish. For this reason, he has been sentenced to a lifetime in a concentration camp. Therefore, his concerns are much different from Bruno’s concerns. But even in him we can see the same dreams and the innocence of the child.

These opposing realities show us how our origins can be marked and condemned for life. No one can choose their place of birth. No one can be accused of belonging to one or another cradle.

The boys of the story do not understand these differences but see each other as equals. In another, they see a friend with whom they can play and share their adventures. They cannot understand why there is an obstacle between them to separate them when they are born on the same day when they are so similar inwardly.

The obstacle is real in this case, but we can also see it as symbolic. Two boys born on the same day, two similar boys, but still two very different realities.

Today, we hate the Nazis. But when Bruno was born, he was lucky, or at least more lucky than Shmuel. We can see that this obstacle, these opposing realities, still exist in our lives.

Not in the same way, but there are still differences in being born in different places. A well-to-do family and one with no funds.

Relationship to Nietzsche’s idea of Superman

Nazism was embraced and reformed by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This philosopher believed that there was a group of men with superior qualities: they are strong, intelligent, creative, and capable of thinking and reasoning.

These men were survivors who separated from the herd. The Nazis identified with this “superman”.

But according to Nietzsch, the status of Superman is achieved through many different stages:

• Camel. It represents obedience and the burdens and responsibilities we have to bear.

• Lion. When a camel stops wanting to be a camel, it turns into a lion. This represents freedom from burdens, rebellion, and the rejection of traditional values.
• Child. It represents the final stage of the transformation. The child lives far from prejudice and established values. He creates his own personal values. Almost as if it were just a play, a child builds things from scratch.

Think of this image of a child as the characters of Shmuel and Bruno. Both appear to be free from prejudice, or at least somewhat free. They are the only ones to cross the hurdle that all adults encounter.

When they get over the wall, they challenge established values. It doesn’t matter what other people have taught them, as their friendship extends beyond.

Bruno puts on a striped pajama to set himself on an equal footing with Shmuel. For the boys, their friendship is everything in everything, and there are no more differences.

Instead, they begin to judge others as they get to know each other. They themselves create their own values ​​from scratch… and it is these values ​​that they decide.

The weight of thoughts

The boy in the striped pajamas refers to the problems caused by a particular ideology and the ideas that create them. In the story and in the film itself, we see how thoughts can indirectly cause far more harm than any other weapon.

This is especially true when we keep in mind their power to join forces. Because of this, the beliefs of two people on a particular topic can lead them to act in any way. No matter how unfair and cruel it may seem.

In order for a thought or mindset to survive, it must be implanted in young people. We see this in the lessons Gretel and Bruno attend. Their teacher teaches them history following a Nazi ideology script.

Basically, he conveys to children the values ​​he considers right. And so the idea that they belong to a superior or privileged race persists for generations.

References to Nazi propaganda are also interesting. We see them in the posters with which Gretel decorates his room. Or the way they “sell” the supposed quality of life in concentration camps.

We can already guess from the weather tips how the movie will end.  This is a written concept known as locus Terribilis. The rain warns us that something is going to happen.

The end leaves us to think. We are not aware of another person’s suffering until we become that other person. When we switch roles, we feel another person’s pain on our skin, and then we become aware of and part of them.

All of this, of course, takes place in a historic setting. It is full of horror and human cruelty, but it makes us ask an important question. We ask ourselves if perhaps, in the comfort of our home, we haven’t changed much. We are still ignorant of other people’s suffering.