Books and more: The boy in the Striped Payjamas by John Boyne: Hard hitting, thought provoking and deeply saddening. That’s how I would describe “The boy in the stripped payjamas” by John Boyn...
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
The boy in the Striped Payjamas by John Boyne
Hard hitting, thought provoking and deeply saddening.
That’s how I would describe “The boy in the striped payjamas”
by John Boyne. The book came out in 2006 and was then adapted into a movie in
2008.
I had seen the movie and ever since wanted to read the book.
I finally got it from Bookephia last month. The language is simple,
straightforward and something even children can read. Unfortunately, the current
generation might not understand the gravity and depth of the story because
thankfully they have not seen hard times.
The book is a simply told story of a boy – Bruno, who lives
with his family in Berlin, in Nazi Germany during World War II. When his father
gets promoted and posted in Auschwitz-Birkenau which is an extermination and
labour camp in Poland. The family reluctantly leaves behind the comforts and
familiar sights and sounds of Berlin and move to Auschwitz.
Having no friends to play with, Bruno sets about exploring the
stark surroundings of his new neighborhood. There beyond the barbed fence separating
his house from the concentration camp he comes across Shmuel, a Polish boy who
is now housed in the camp with hundreds of other inmates. Over the course of
time, the two boys become friends and share stories of their childhood.
To the innocent Bruno, Shmuel seems a little strange and the
place he stays in, even stranger. Shmuel is a secret that Bruno cannot disclose
to his sister or his parents or just about anybody. Shmuel is a Jew who is
housed in a Concentration camp, while Bruno’s father is the Commandant in charge
of the camp!
During one family dinner Bruno hears that Bruno, his sister
and mother are to return to their Berlin home and he runs over to share the
news with his friend. Boys being boys, Bruno wants to see where Shmuel lives
and so he changes into the stripped pajamas that everyone in Shmuel’s world wears
and enters the camp. What happens next is what questions the very essence of
the camps and Hitler’s regime.
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| John Boyne |
John Boyne has touched upon a raw nerve through this book and
it is indeed a book I would recommend as reading material in schools. History
cannot be taught simply by reading textbooks; such true to life books must be
read to understand the magnanimity of the situation.
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