Post on 16-Feb-2016
description
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS
FILM STUDY
By Kristen Watson
SYNOPSIS
Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in prewar Germany along with his mother, elder sister , Gretel and SS Commandant father, ralph. The
family relocates to the countryside where his father is assigned to take command a prison camp (Auschwitz). A few days later, Bruno
befriends another youth, strangely dressed in striped pajamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electrified fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to befriend his new friend as he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting
extermination.
Childhood is measured out by the sounds and smells and
sights, before the dark hour of reason groups -John Betjeman
Economic Comparisons
Bruno lived in a stately house with 5 floors
Bruno had never felt hunger, because his parents could afford food.
Shmeul lived in an apartment above his father’s watch store
Shmuel is starved in the internment camp
BRUNO VS SHMUEL
Bruno Shmuel
ARRIVAL TO AUSCHWITZ
Bruno Shmuel
SH
MU
EL’S
D
AD
“He is a watchmaker, but now most of the
time he just mends boots”
-Shmuel
Sleeps alone
Clean bed
Own room
Sleeps with several others
Dirty clothes, dirty blankets
Shares a room with hundreds of people
ZZZ TIME COMPARIONS
Bruno Shmuel
“They are not pajamas. They took all of our
clothes away.” -Shmuel
INACCURATE
“The aim of the Jew is to become the ruler of humanity. The Jew is not creative but
destructive. He is the enemy of culture. Thousands of Germans have been made poor
by the Jew.”
-Gretel (reading from a book)
Social Comparisons
INACCURACY
Bruno and those around him on the “greener” side of the
fence are suppose to be German… Yet they have
British accents in the movie. Shmuel would not have been German, but spoken a form of a Yiddish dilect or polish.
INACCURACY
The relationship Bruno and Shmuel have is very
inaccurate considering children sent to camps were almost immediately killed as they were not strong enough
for such intensive labor.
SOLDIERS
How Bruno saw them How Shmuel Saw them
TREATMENT
How Bruno’s Family Was Treated How Shmuel Was Treated
HUH? POLAND?
Poland must be very far from Germany
Good try Bruno! ;)
“You and I are suppose to be enemies. Did you
know that?”
WHAT TO CHOOSE?
EVEN A SANDW ICH CAN BE INACCU RATE
Religious Ideology Comparisons
Gretel (reading from a book)“The Jew slandered us and incited our enemies. The Jew corrupted us
through bad books. He mocked our literature and our music.
Everywhere his influence was destructive, the eventual result of which was our nation’s collapse.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLAGPnE6jPA
“They smell even worse when they burn, don’t
they?”
THE FENCE
Shmuel: “It is to stop people from getting out!’
Bruno: “Why what have you done?”
Shmuel: “I am a Jew”
DEGENERATE
H T T P S : / / W W W. Y O U T U B E . C O M / W A T C H ? V = O Q K K J V L G F E W
“I saw a film about the
camp and it looked so
nice!” -Bruno
Political Comparisons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqKkJVLgFew
INACCURACY
Sneaking into a concentration camp would be
next to impossible as
the camps were heavily guarded
GERMAN BOY KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT GERMANY? In the book Bruno has
never heard the word Jew before. In the movie the director presents him to completely unaware of what has happened in Berlin… The CAPITAL of Nazi Germany. Tee hee
not that Bruno…
HE
WO
UL
D H
AV
E
SE
EN
TH
IS..
Means for Aryans only
AND THIS…
Jews being denied
streetcar access
AND THESE
The 1938 Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass”
YAY HITLER?
IN THE MOVIES AND IN REALITY
Movie Reality
PROPAGANDA
Movie Reality
OUT WITH? NO AUSCHWITZ!
No th sound in the
German Language
ACCUR ACY / INACCURACY O F CL O THIN G
Commandant Lieutenant
WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN
Commandant Lieutenant
UNDERLINING REASON FOR THE
INACCURACY
The film as is the book are meant to be a fable. Telling the holocaust perspective from a point of innocence. Childhood symbolizes this.
This is why John Boyne chose to see the holocaust through both Bruno and
Shmuel’s eyes.