Leo Fried The Boy In the Striped Pajamas Week #4

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!