Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Assignments

Qayyum + Kenric + Hong Yi + Sean
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dnn-LqHtRg1FzK49G-CdUGrMQcWBCKJKrpd5DXqtfmg/edit?usp=sharing

note from sean: my pages are messed up as the pdf version i am reading from is wierd.

Sorry ><

Themes	Characters and Specific examples
Prejudice and Discrimination	[kenric] Lieutenant Kotler was very rude and disrespectful to the Jews, even those older than him. He treated them very unfairly and always spoke to them in an insolent tone. This can be proven from pages 42 to 43 and , evident in, “‘Hey, you!’ he shouted, then adding a word that bruno did not understand. ‘Come over here, you--’ He said the word again, and something about the harsh sound of it made Bruno look away and feel ashamed to be part of this at all.” This clearly indicates that Lieutenant Kotler has no understanding or rather does not want to practice human rights towards the Jews and deems himself superior. Even though the obey his instructions, he still treats them like dirt and even treats them like labour animals. Thus, we can determine that he has no thoughts towards humane fairness and equality.
Childhood and Innocence	[sean] Bruno was very young and innocent, not able to understand many things about him. This is easily shown in the whole book when Bruno referred to Auschwitz as Out-With, instead of it’s actual name. As Bruno did not understand his current situation fully , he did not know what the was the actual name of the place he was living in , only knowing to refer to the place he was living in as something that Auschwitz sounded like. This clearly shows that Bruno was young and innocent, not mature enough to understand most things yet.
Obedience and Conformity	[sean] Bruno had to obey many strict and unorthodox rules laid by his father despite his own opinions and feelings about the tasks. This is elucidated multiple times in Page 40 , for example,  “‘I didn’t mean-’, ‘But you will be quiet now,’ said Father, raising his voice and interrupting him because none of the rules of normal family life never applied to him.”Firstly , this is one of the many instances where Bruno had to do something for father despite his reservations. By saying that “the rules of family life never applied to him” , it shows that the father had greater superioty that anyone else in the family and Bruno was forced to listen to his father. Therefore, this shows that Bruno had to comply with any rules and his requests set by his father.
Humanity	Bruno did not break up Shmuel despite knowing that he was supposed to despise Jews. Although he was scolded for bringing Shmuel home, he still visits Shmuel with a chocolate bar thinking that he is always hungry. He also offered to help Shmuel to find his father despite knowing how horrible the camp is like and in the end died with his friend, Shmuel. He also did not rat out Shuel intentions to the officers despite of all the confusion and fear. He also defied his father’s rules by visiting Shmuel. This shows that despite of all the prejudices, Bruno still believes that Shmuel deserved to be respected and treated equally.
Friendship and Loyalty	[Qayyum] Bruno was very close to his friends and would stick by them through everything. This was shown in page 8 through the way he reacted when he found out they were moving away. The first thing he asked was about his friends Martin, Karl and Daniel.This shows that he will always think of his friends first when he says”say goodbye to Karl,Daniel and Martin?” in a shocked manner as it is the last thing he wanted to do. Also when he was in Auschwitz, the thing he missed most was his house and his friends as they are very important to him.

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Characteristics of a Fable	Examples from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Teaches a moral [Sean]	Friendship and loyalty can overcome any other factor like discrimination and rivalry. (this one is hard to explain): Although Bruno was a German and/or a “Nazi” too, he was treated the same way as every Jew in the end , as the had the same death as them (gas chamber). Hence, if Bruno’s parents had found out the way their son had died, they would have thought that it was a very cruel way to kill someone, although they would have not felt any compassion for the Jews that had already been killed that way. One can choose to accept discrimination and let it change their views on something , or listen to one’s own moral compass and let that allow the person to have his own opinions on a certain subject. The latter is displayed very valiantly by Pavel when he he helps Bruno find a tyre for his swing and helps to clean Bruno’s wound after he was hurt. We later find out in the book that Pavel is a Jew and we can understand from that that Pavel could have chose to not help Bruno as he was Jew and Bruno was German , but Pavel was still very kind and accepting of Bruno, cleaning his wound humbly and even chatting with him. This proves that One can choose to accept discrimination and let it change their views on something , or listen to one’s own moral compass and let that allow the person to have his own opinions on a certain subject.
Main characters are broadly drawn (Qayyum)	In The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the main characters, such as Bruno and Shmuel are described intricately. Their backgrounds are described in depth to help us understand them better Also they are like that so that we can better relate to the characters and learn their lessons as well.
One character displays a flaw that leads to a downfall (Bruno’s father	Bruno’s father have a prejudice against Jews which led to his son being accidentally gasses due to his stubborn defiance against his father who hate jews. This shows that his hate against Jews could result in himself causing the death of a loved one.
Highlights what makes us human	“And that’s the end of the story of Bruno and his family. Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age.” This shows that human can change their way of thinking about others to a more positive way and they are willing to forgive and forget to move on with life.

[sean chiu]:

I’ve never read alot to do with the WW2, or just war in general too.

However, I have read BSP and that still counts, so this is my book review of it.

i just finished reading boy in striped pyjamas and dear classmates who think thats its a bad/boring book I BEG TO DIFFER PLS

read on if you have time (its going to be long)

I'm currently in a extremely emotional state right now and i'm simply caught up in all my emotions , while i may be physically here typing this, i'm still lost in the world of Out-with, caught up in the conversations of Bruno and Schumel.

John Boyne is truly brillant and it's not the use of flamboyant words, or fancy descriptions of everything, but personally i feel that its how subtle his writing is , how he gives me clues to lead me on about how the character is feeling.

The way he portrayed Bruno's ignorance to everything and anything around him , his mild lack of social EQ when he talked to Schumel and the stark differences between the two boys really impressed me and brought the story alive for me. I was sincerely teleported into some other world where i was living in the 1950's and saw life through the eyes of a 9-year-old.

The childlike and innocence was so well written and i really appreciate the character development and the attachment that i grew to the two boys, like they too were my best friends.

However, it's truly the ending of the story that really hit me like a sack of bricks and came in like a wrecking ball. I read the last chapter 7 times and i cried harder each time. Their ignorance in the face of death and their loyalty and friendship to the end really impacted me and i couldn't help myself but break down. As i write this , the feels start to come back yet again and i'm tearing again.

The lines and quotes, the specific words and how John wrote them was so touching and well crafted that i'm speechless. "I'm sorry that we didn't really get to play, but when you come to Berlin, that's what we'll do." "he took hold of Shumel's hand and squeezed it tightly. "your my best friend, Shmuel,he said."my best friend for life"

i lost it at "Bruno found that he was still holding Shumel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go."

Reading the last 2 chapters was truly a heart wrenching experience , and each time i read it again i understood and managed to analyse their feelings, putting myself in their shoes and knowing how painful but sweet it was.

The boy in the striped pyjamas is truly a good book , i'm sick and tired of rubbish (ok maybe not that bad) books like Percy Jackson and The Mortal Instruments, books that have no impact and pales in comparison to this.

This book is the first that has made me cried so much, and the only 3rd book that i've cried to. what a great story, hats off to you John Boyne. This is what i call a truly satisfying ending to a book. u r d man

there won't be another book like The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas , not in this day and age.

tl;dr

BSP made me cry like a little girl

11/10

222

{Qayyum}

I have read a book titled Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter. It explained the hardships faced by the Jews during WW2. The book touched me as it also showed how a Jewish boy could not be with the girl he loved just because of religious differences. They were prejudiced against if they did not change their religion and could only practice their religion in secrecy. Even those that were well educated had to take up low paying jobs just because they were not respected and seen as leeches.

(Kenric) I have read a book called Mein Kampf (Volume I) by Hitler himself. The book basically describes his life as he matures both physically and mentally. It also describes why he wanted to be involved in the war in the first place and his surprising past. The book hit me in the guilt chord as it opened up the war in Hitler’s eyes and actually, he had a passion for art and history. Although he caused much sorrow and harm to many families, all he wanted to do was help his country due to what was happening to it. He was a hardcore patriot, relentlessly doing anything for the country and the society always refer to him as an animal or a beast. Although that is seemingly true, why can’t the society refer to him as a patriotic beast? It is understandable that some people might not agree with this due to the pain caused by him but if you look into his life, he actually cares for his country a lot. When he went to participate in the war, he killed many of the Jews as the Jews were technically more inclined in education (I may be wrong) and he was afraid that they might outsmart him and overthrow him or something along that line.

[Hong Yi]

Hanna’s suitcase.

Exposition: Hanna got gassed in a gas chamber and died but her brother survived the holocaust.

Feeling guilty about Hanna, her brother started to search for her after the war.

Rising Action: A teacher is introduced to the story. She wants her students to learn more about the Jewish holocaust. She wants her students to learn important lessons from the holocaust and she hopes that that would reduce the rate of violence within her students.

Climax: The teacher contacted George, the brother of Hanna and informed him about the dreaded news. After that, although he was sucessful in life, he still kept having nightmares about her.

Falling Action: He went to Japan to share his experience with the students.

Resolution: The children like his sharing and got very interested in Hanna’s suitcase. They enjoyed his presentation and he had fame after that when the whole of japan knew about him.

[sean]

i felt like doing my own one.

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Language Features	Examples
Exposition	The protagonist is introduced to us in the first 3 paragraphs with many insights into who he is like  character(eg.rude), Appearance(eg.”ugly”), friends(eg.his pug)(mild affection shown). “What an ugly dog. But then again so am I.” -His appearance (paragraph one)
Rising Action	The complication is introduced in paragraph 4 when we are told that a building is on fire and the protagonist is in the area near the fire. The situation is aggrvated when the protagonist’s dog runs into the building. Paragraph 4 “The smoke was coming from a burning building, and that psychotic pug thought it would be a good idea to run toward the fire. Smart guy.”
Climax	This is when the narrator decides to pry open the door to the building. But instead of having nobles reasons like to save the people inside the building, he opens the door with the intend of saving his dog instead. He rushes into the building and frees the teacher and her students, but his dog is deeper in the building with another child, forcing him to run in and save his dog, which in turn saved the child.
Falling Action	The protagonist exits the burning building after saving everyone inside, and receives thanks from the teacher.News teams and the fire department arrive.
Resolution	The protagonist is interviewed by the reporters only to his dismay and dislike, annoyed by the attention he is getting.He is lauded as a hero when all he really intended to do was to save his dog.