The main character, Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a nine year old boy who is very clueless and naive about the world outside of his hometown. His father gets promoted at his job and is forced to move away to a very rural place far away from their original home. Bruno is an important character because the author wanted to show us how a person with an open mind sees things from a different point of view.

When Bruno meets Shmuel he talks and treats him like any other boy that he would meet. Knowing what happened during WW2, Bruno’s father is a German commander who would look down on the boy. Bruno is the protagonist because he hasn’t really done anything wrong yet and is just an innocent little boy. Bruno is very naive and doesn’t get why his family had to move and why there were people on the other side of a fence. “Bruno nodded and felt quite pleased by this as he assumed that he would finally be given an explanation for why they had all been forced to leave their comfortable home and come to this terrible place, which must have been the greatest wrong ever committed to him in his short life.” page 98 Bruno admits that he doesn’t know anything about his country’s history other than stories from the Middle Ages.

When Bruno meets Shmuel he learns about who and where the people inside the fence come from. Bruno still is learning why and who the people are beyond the fence and is getting to know Shmuel as a friend. Bruno will most likely meet Shmuel again since he’s the only person Bruno’s age around the concentration camp. If Bruno ever reveals that he’s friends with a Jew, who knows what his father will do.