The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

RETELL

"The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas" is about the son of a Nazi commander and his friendship with a Jewish boy in a concentration camp. It starts off with Bruno and his family moving to Berlin where his dad, a soldier gets transferred to. Their new house is beautiful but isolated since there are not any houses nearby. Eventually, Bruno looks through his bedroom window and sees a fence which he assumes to be the farm of their neighbors. Soon Bruno realizes that there are no kids to play with and feels a sense of loneliness. Bruno is a very adventurous child and wants to explore. However, he is told by his mother to not explore especially the backyard and the forest behind. Bruno and his sister, Gretel have a tutor come by twice a week and this makes Bruno feel even more lonely. Building up from the loneliness, Bruno has the need to explore and in his backyard he finds a way to get to the forest which is through a small window. He goes to explore and reaches the fence where he meets a eight year old boy the same age as him and they become friends. Shmule and Bruno meet everyday, where Bruno lies to his mother saying he is going to swing on the tire swing outside and sneaks food to give to Shmule. In the middle of the movie Shmule is sent to Bruno's house to clean the dishes for a gathering that Bruno's father was going to have with other Nazi's. Bruno is surprised to see him there and offers home food since Shmule is always hungry so Shmule accepts the baked good and starts to eat it until a Nazi solider walks in and catches him. The soldier asked Bruno if he gave Shmule the food and Bruno lies because he is scared. Bruno kept trying to find Shmuel at their meeting spot the fence, but he was not there. Then finally one day Shmuel shows up and he was bruised and bloodied. There Bruno asks him if they still are friends and Shumel agrees that their friendship has not been harmed. Since Shmule seems quiet and sad Bruno asks him what is wrong Shmule says that he can not find his papa anywhere and doesn't know where he went. So Bruno and Shmule made a plan in which Bruno brings him food and then he digs hole underneath the wired fence so that Bruno can disguise as a Jew at the concentration camp by wearing "the striped pajamas" to help Shmule find his father. However, at home Bruno's mother does not think that the house is a safe environment for the children to grow up in so the next day they will be moving to another house Gretel does want to move as the solider that she fancied as been put on the front to fight and Bruno does not want to move as he wants to keep seeing Shmule at their meeting place. So the day that they are moving Bruno asks his mother if he can swing on the tire swing for the last time as it is there last day here. Bruno's mother hesitantly agrees and tells him to be back. Bruno sneaks a sandwich in his clothes and goes to the backyard through the shed's window he goes into the forest where he meets Shmule. There Bruno switches his clothes to the striped pajamas and digs a hole underneath the wired fence with a shovel and meets Shmule on the other side however he realises that he doesn't have the sandwich on him and thinks he must have dropped it. Shmule and Bruno go to find his dad at one of the bunkers. all of a sudden nazi soldiers come and start pushing the men outside and Bruno and shmule get stuck in the middle of it and are unable to escape. they are put in a room and told to remove their clothes, little do they know that this is a gas chamber and eventually die. Bruno's mom notices that he is not swinging so she starts t find him everywhere and still can not she then tells his father and they go to the back yard and see the shed window open and a sandwich laying there so they know that he went to the forest. they all run into the forest and reach the fence where they see Bruno's clothes and a shovel laying beside the hole underneath the fence. Soon Bruno's father sees the empty bunker and runs to the crematorium but Bruno and Shmuel are already dead.

RELATE
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" shows in depth on what happened in the second great war but from both main sides of the war; the Jews and the Nazi. Also tells it from the a child's point of view, which is very interesting and different. This reminds me of the movie "Schindler's List" that I watched in history class. "Schindler's List" is about a German businessman, Oskar Schindler who saves Jews from the Auschwitz concentration camp. He does this by opening a manufacturing factory and uses Jews as an excuse to save money because he does not need to pay them. This movie showed the Jews side and how they felt from being in the concentration camp. Also from a Germans point of view who did not agree to what was happening to Jews. This relates to "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" movie because Bruno's mother does not agree to the Germans burning the bodies so she wants to take her kids away because she doesn't want her kids to grow up and think its right to burn Jews or any other race. Bruno's mother and Oskar Schindler have the same perspectives on war; they do not agree to what is happening to the Jews and instead of rioting or speaking against Bruno's mom prevents it by making sure her kids do not grow up to be like their father and Schindler prevents Jews from being sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to be burnt.          

REFLECT

My thoughts and emotions toward this movie were very straight forward. Overall the movie made me feel depressed and I knew how the plot was going to go because my friends told me that Bruno and Shmuel are going to die. Also besides me knowing the ending the story line was very predictable as well.