The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne Essay

A world in which old men can be degraded and abused, a world in which people wearing dirty, unwashed, striped uniforms are not seen as being oppressed, a world in which a starving boy of identical age yet vastly different physique is seen as simply being unfortunate - such a world cannot exist. Or can it? In the world of Bruno, this is precisely the way the world is. John Boynes book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas invites the readers to embark on an imaginative journey at two levels. At the first level, Boyne himself embarks upon an imaginative journey that explores a possible scenario in relation to Auschwitz. Bruno is a 9 year old boy growing up in a loving, but typically authoritarian German family in the 1930?s. His father is a†¦show more content†¦At the end of the book Boyne shows the personal disintegration that can occur when a person is forced to confront this disconnect ? in the case of the book, with the realisation by Brunos father that his son has actually gone into the camp and has suffered the same fate as Schmuel and his people. Boyne also undergoes an imaginative journey in this book as his past childhood imagination inspired him to create a novel that explores the necessity of imaginative journeys. It is interesting to note that this story is totally remote from Boyne?s own experience. Research on Boyne indicates that he was brought up in a stable family where his father worked in the insurance industry and his mother was a home-maker. There is nothing to indicate that any part of his personal background could have contributed to the terrible realism portrayed in this work. One clue as to the source of his imaginative journey may be found in the fact that, as a child, he was an avid reader who loved fiction such as Enid Blyton and the Narnia series. The closest we get to fully understanding Boyne?s imaginative journey comes from an interview with Bookreporter.com where he states: As an Irishman growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I was only too aware of the divides --- the fences --- that existed in my own country, and that caused violence and killing for families throughout Northern Ireland for too many years. And while those problems have for the most part been solved,Show MoreRelatedDavid Ayer s Film Fury And John Boyne s Novel The Boy Of The Striped Pyjamas 1987 Words   |  8 Pagespeaceful. History is violent.’ (Fury, 2014). The actions of mankind shapes society and determines the values of communities; ideologies of the powerful entice the actions that are written down in history. David Ayer’s film Fury and John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped pyjamas are set at two very different spectrums of World War II, each exploring the harsh realities of so many people of that time period. The difference in perspectives offers a true understanding of the different beliefs and idealsRead More Use of Narrative in John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas1012 Words   |  5 Pageseminently evident actuality in John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Through this distortion, Boyne is able to evoke the reader’s empathy, portray the horror of the Holocaust to a younger audience and convey human’s capacity for inhumanity and indifference. This is achieved by Boyne, primarily through the exaggeration of innocence throughout the novel, the content presented to the audience, and the use of a child narrator. 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An Irish novelist, Boyne is acutely aware of the issues of power and dominance as he grew up during the time of The Troubles betw een the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Boyne uses the narrative conventions of style and characterisation in his poignant and moving novel to explore and expose the power relationships