The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Literary Analysis

John Boyne’s novel, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, gives the reader an insight into the deceiving and inhumane nature of the holocaust. He perfectly portrays the innocence of childhood and the harsh diversity between race, family and culture through elements of literature: setting, fable, theme and symbolism. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is illustrated through the eyes of the child, as children are naive and unaware of the horrors around them. Instead of examining the big picture of the Holocaust and its atrocities, the novel focuses on individual relationships and gives readers a portrait of two nine-year-old boys seeking one thing; friendship. Boyne develops this message through a fable with morality and uses symbolism which deepens the reader’s awareness …show more content…
Bruno's Dad was promoted by ‘an important man’ and now operates the Concentration camp of Auschwitz. At Bruno’s old house he could see all of Berlin, now he sees the whole concentration camp. Bruno gets upset that he has to stay in his house with no one to play with when ‘next door have hundreds of boys their age to play with’. Bruno is oblivious to the fact that his Father is destroying ‘the neighbours’ one by one. John Boyne uses symbolism to deepen the readers understanding of the inhumanity of the concentration camps during World War II. The concentration camp fence symbolises the separation between the Nazis and Jews by making the reader aware of the many divides that still exist in our world, and how they dealt with them compared to now. The fence keeps the boys seperated for majority of their friendship, making it clear that forming friendships across religious lines is no easy feat. ‘There was 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 could possibly see’. The fence: nothing like your usual fence, was used to keep the prisoners (jews) in, and others out so they were not