In the Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, the ending of the story was absolutely surprising, to say the least. This is the reason why I have chosen the topic of Suprised/Puzzled. This is because the ending of the book causes the readers to undergo a sense of cluelessness of not knowing what will happen next. And when we get to the end of the story, us the readers, come out being totally perplexed. So, you may be asking yourself why the ending of the book is so surprising. Let me dialogue what happened, but I will be spoiling the book if you have not yet read it, so you are warned. So, Bruno, after spending a large portion of the story hanging out with Shmuel and befriending him, decides to crawl under the fence of the concentration camp to save him. Once inside, Bruno insists that they must get out of there at once, but Shmuel tells him that he needs to find a certain someone before they leave. Bruno then agrees to help him out, but right before doing so, the Nazi guards call everyone up for a role call. So the nearest Jews around them would go on a march, and that included Bruno and Shmuel. Nowadays, we know that this meant that they would be killed, but the Jews back then in concentration camps weren’t very sure what was going to happen. So all of the Jews were told that they were going to be taking showers, but what really was going to happen was that they would be put into the gas chamber and be killed. Once inside, Bruno somewhat knows what was about to happen, and holds Shmuel’s hand and tells him, “You’re my best friend, Shmuel,’ he said. ‘My best friend for life.” (Page 213). Which leads to the deaths of both Bruno and Shmuel.  I was very puzzled by this because before reading the book I just thought it would be a light-hearted story of a boy growing up in these difficult times of WW2. But in reality, the story took a turn for the worst and ended in a very devastating way. So now, after finishing the story, my perception of the book has completely changed because of the fact that this story can appeal to all demographics alike. Either being a kid or an adult, this story can really interest anyone. So I highly recommend that you read this book if you have not yet!

In The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, there are many examples of having strong themes of Morality and Ethics. For example in the story, Bruno, who even though is a young child, shows many examples of himself having a sense of Morality and or Ethics. This is because Bruno does not view anyone as lesser to him, despite living in a society where that is a very common thing to see. An example of this is when Pavel asks to build a swing for Bruno by Lieutenant Kotler. This leads to Kotler calling Pavel many terrible things and treating him as inferior to himself. An example is in the text where it states, “Come over here, you—”. Where Bruno, on the other hand, does not want to harm Pavel and treats him kindly.

Another example of a character in the story who has a good sense of morality and ethics is Bruno’s mother, Elsa. Even though the fact that she is married to a Senior Nazi General, Bruno’s mother seems to question her husband’s beliefs and ideas. Throughout the book, there are many instances where she mourns the countless deaths that took place in the concentration camp. an example of this is after Pavel is done helping Bruno after he falls from the swing, Elsa walks in and thanks to him for helping her son. Even though “thank you” is only two words, it means a lot coming from a woman married to a Nazi General, to a Jew. This moment shows a lot about Elsa’s identity and shows that we are all human, no matter what the times are.

But also, an example of someone who has a bad sense of morality and ethics is Bruno’s sister, Gretel. Gretel’s ethics are corrupted by Nazi beliefs and are easily tricked into believing something false just to fit with everyone else. She almost never questions anything that is told to her. For example, when Pavel drops the bottle of wine and is beat up almost to death for no reason, Gretel says, “The Jew deserved it.” Overall, having a good sense of morality and ethics is a crucial trait that is always important to have.

“That’s all you soldiers are interested in any way, Grandmother said, ignoring the children altogether. Looking handsome in your fine uniforms. Dressing up and doing the terrible, terrible things you do. It makes me ashamed. But I blame myself, Ralf, not you.” (page 92). This quote in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas really stood out to me when reading. The reason behind my thinking is that to me, this quote is a good example of how many people in this story do not share the same beliefs with one another. Whether a family member or friend, people who were close with one another did not always have the same beliefs. What I mean is that Bruno’s parents do not think the same way. With Bruno’s dad being a Nazi Commander and working at a concentration camp, and his mother who secretly disagrees with what her husband is doing and she knows how terribly wrong all of this is. In my opinion, with this scene occurring, this brings a lot to further develop the characters in the story, which will lead to future conflicts to happen in the book. At this point in world history, many people out there believed that Jews were evil and must be killed. We obviously know Bruno’s father believed that way, but didn’t know about his mother. We never knew what his mother’s stand-point on Jews was, and never knew if she supported Nazism. But in this scene when his Grandmother is talking, she says how she is against Bruno’s Fathers job and what he does, without knowing what it is like to be a Jew in a Concentration Camp. So, this makes me wonder what will happen during the rest of the book. Bruno may realize what is really going and what his father is doing, and will side with his mother and grandmother. This can connect to larger thematic issues because it can show a change in beliefs throughout the book.

In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a young boy named Bruno has moved from his house in Berlin, Germany to a new place in the Countryside that he is unfamiliar with. The reason he was told of why his family moved was because of his dad’s very important job. Bruno, who misses his old life back in Berlin, hates his new lifestyle because he doesn’t have any friends and doesn’t like the house they are living in. He didn’t want to live there any longer and was extremely fed up. Bruno’s father, who at this point in time we don’t know what his occupation really is, is a very well respected man in their society. But, because he is always at work, he never gets to spend time with his family. So, one day, Bruno went up to his father who he hadn’t seen in many days and confronted on all of his issues and complaints. He told him how he hated everything about their new life. Obviously, Bruno’s dad flipped out on him and told him to be quiet and go back to his room. Bruno still had one question for his father though, and that was about the people who lived nearby their house and who they were. This is when his father responded by saying this in the text, “Ah those people’, said father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. ‘Those people… Well, they’re not people at all, Bruno.” (Page 53). The people they were both referring to were the Jews in the concentration camp right next to their house. I find it quite crazy to me how Bruno’s father was referring to the Jews as if they were not human at all and were some other species. Bruno’s father then commences to say “Heil Hitler” to his son and tells him to leave him. At this point in time, us the readers can clearly put the pieces together that Bruno’s father is some sort of Nazi Commander/General. Which is the reason why he is such a big figure in their society and the reason why Bruno has moved to this new area in the first place. So his father can be at this Concentration Camp.

My Stop motion Immigration group (Jack F, Harley, and I) have been done with our project for the past week. And when we finally finished, we had to go over our movie. My group thought that our video was really good, but when we showed our video to Ms. Boyer, she liked it but she said there was only one line for our voice over, that did not have enough research in it so she made us do it again! My group was heart broken, but Harley and I thought it would be a good Idea to make up a script on the fly. Jack F thought that, that idea was crazy! But lucky enough, When my group showed our video to Ms. Boyer, She loved It!

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My group has finally finished our Stop motion immigration project! But it wasn’t to easy to do, especially the voice over part. The thing so challenging about the voice over is that, it was really easy to mess up the script and have to start all over again. But when we finally finished the voice over part, My group (Harley, Jack F, and I) were happy because we knew that it was one of the hardest parts of our project.

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