Leo Fried The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Week #2

“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.