The Innocence of Youth in Nazi Germany in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Essay Sample)

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1 June 2019
The Innocence of Youth in Nazi Germany in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a novel in which John Boyne, the author, presents an interesting case of friendship. Nine year old boy named Bruno, a son of a Nazi commandant, together with his family, leaves their lovely house in Berlin and relocates to an isolated home in “an empty, desolate place” (Boyne 11) which he refers to as “Out-With”. The fact that Bruno has left behind his friends and playmates and he does not see any homes nearby makes him believe that there will be no friends to play with.Therefore, he sets out in an adventure to explore his new home environment when he comes upon a fence and after walking along it, he stumbles upon a little boy sitting on the other side of the fence. The young boy looks depressed and wears striped pajamas and a cloth cap and an armband with a star on it. Bruno befriends the young boy who reveals his name is Shmuel. The two freely discuss their families before Bruno asks the boy what he is doing across the fence and why there are so many other people on that side.Apparently, being a Jew Shmuel is a prisoner who is incarcerated in the concentration camp. The prisoners at the camp are denied food and therefore, Bruno takes it upon himself to be smuggling food for him.Eventually, Bruno wears a striped pajama and sneaks into the camp to help Shmuel find his father oblivious of the risk this move poses to him. In the end, Bruno gets gassed together with other Jews in the camp. The setting of the novel being the Nazi era, it is amazing that the innocence of the two young boys from “enemy” camps could become such great friends. This essay discusses the innocence of youth in Nazi Germany from the perspective of a German Jew.
The first instance of innocence of youth is seen through the character Bruno. He does not know the job of his father,