The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Book 1

      

      Hi, all! Page Turner here! I hope you are having a great summer! I like to read a lot, and one of my very favorite books is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. While a sad book, it is one of those works of literature that you feel has profoundly changed your life. I hope you enjoy this first review, and read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas sometime this summer! 
   
                                        The Boy in the Striped Pajamas--A Review        
       The horrible events of the past seem like horrors that will never be repeated in the present. After all, the world must have learned its lesson concerning different atrocities. People join in with author John Boyne as he writes,“Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age.”

      The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, written by John Boyne, is a historical novel about a fictional family in World War II. Eight-year-old Bruno moves with his family to a new house. It’s located at a place he calls Out-With, where his father is a German officer. Pulled away from his friends back in the city, Bruno is upset that a distant war is disturbing his fun life. Soon, however, young Bruno finds that grim, boring Out-With is surrounded by an intriguing forest. Beyond that forest lies something strange and new. Bruno, who believes he has discovered a farm, sees a young boy his same age on the other side of a spiraled, barb-wire fence. Bruno sits down across from the boy and meets for the first time his best-friend, Shmuel.

             John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a surprising book about World War II. Unlike other novels set in the 1940s, this book is viewed through the eyes of a happy, sheltered child. Bruno wants to be a brave explorer. He spends his time on large tire swing and running around with his arms outspread like the wings on warplanes that are splashed on wartime posters.
              Bruno's outlook is innocent and naïve. The readers view a world of pain and torture through the oblivious eyes of a kind eight-year old explorer who finds a friend in the woods. Most of the book is poignant, fast-moving, and filled with the wonder of Bruno’s experience. To Bruno, nothing is wrong, not really.  

                In the final chapter of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the truth breaks in like the dark rumblings of thunderstorm. It shakes away the naivete and innocence of childhood and reveals stark pain and grief. With the pounding rain come tears, loss, and reality.
                  The lesson Bruno teaches is twofold. He is the hero of the story, the embodiment of the kindness and childlike faith the world needs. Jesus commands us to love one another deeply as He does, without discrimination. We see that kind of love in Bruno.
               Bruno’s character is also a different kind of allegory. Bruno's naivete is the world’s lukewarm, dangerous gullibility. The world don’t see the dangers that sweep through like hurricanes and rip apart the weak and vulnerable. They are ignored and accepted until they become invisible, we open the doors for suffering while patting ourselves on the back for our humanity.
               We, like Bruno, just can’t seem to see that Out-With is really Auschwitz. . It is easy to look at the horrors of World War II, the horrors of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and say, “Of course, that doesn’t happen now . . ."   Of course it doesn't.  Don't be ridiculous.
             
            ... Not in this day and age.