Book Club~ The Boy in Striped Pyjamas

[the.games]

The Habbox Community has voted, and this weeks Book of the Week is...



------------------------------
'Lines may divide us, but hope will unite us...'

Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All that he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of Striped Pyjamas...
------------------------------

The plot continues as the book reaches it's tragic ending.

Remember to discuss the book to be in with a chance of winning 1 months forum VIP.

------------------------------

Discussion is now closed. Congratulations to @Foregetfuhl; and @Umbrella-; who have both been nominated for the title of 'Book Club Member of the Month'.

[Samantha]

I remember when I did history in High School, we had the same Citizenship teacher for both classes and because we had two helpings of History in one day we deemed the final one as Citizenship. We learnt various things there and I remember this inparticular, I was a bit disheartened that I missed a chunk of it due to illness but then I thought it was just another book for me. I'm not one to cry at sad movies, or books for that matter, it did make me feel empathy though and wonder why those events occurred. It shows how friendship has gone through the ages and shows that those from a different religion can like each other, be friends etc.

[x--ha]

did this in my subject English

[Pegle]

I read this last year with school and found it very interesting and gripping. I was looking forward to every English lesson, so that I could read some more. However in comparison to the film I found the ending was considerably more emotional and effective than the book's account of the ending.

[Foregetfuhl]

When the movie was released and I fell in love with that I could do nothing but go out and get the book. I've always been a book lover and it was the same with so many other films to books such as The Lovely Bones, Let Me In and The Notebook. For me the book was well written and I couldn't put it down throughout the time that I was reading it. And its very rare for me to get a one-off book like that. I couldn't help but be left in tears at certain parts and it really was one of them books where the emotions and the history of the writing really do come out in the writing. The writing style is almost unique? And the story although very straightforward finds ways to bring all these ideas and make them so realistic.

The books also takes so many points of views you can really think about all the different people and their views throughout WWII. From his sister converting to some Nazi to his naivety throughout the whole book towards those in the concentrations camps and everything else regarding the camps. But the writing style again reflects that and you wouldn't doubt for a minute this wasn't regarding a nine year old boy. (I loved the pronunciations he had to for the different places like 'out-with')

Although there are some issues with his naivety, as a child of someone high up in the Nazi ranking you would have though he would know of some of the words that he had apparently never heard of, like 'Jew' and I'm pretty sure he didn't know 'Heil Hitler' either from recollection? I actually think he didn't even know the country was at war at the beginning? This I have to admit I found a little unrealistic.

Although it is a fiction, in some retrospects the concepts behind it are all true. Maybe the camps were made out to be a little better than what they were considered back when this was actually happening. But the actual story and everything behind we all know from history to be true. The authors gone for a style and hit the nail on the head with it. It's almost written like a classic and I truly loved every minute of reading it.

[Sloths]

Another book studied in English, god it's so awful trying to hide tears when you're reading in class hehe! In all honesty the movie is way more emotional from what I can remember, not that we watched an illegal download when it wasn't even out in cinemas.. but the characters expressed more than the words could.
Overall though the story is so innocent, how they don't even know what was happening, I think this shows more emotion than just showing Hitlers rule and the amount of deaths. These two innocent boys befriending each other unaware of their parentage or background or anything. I know this is high school musical but I think it fits well with this 'Do you remember in kindergarten, how you'd meet a kid, and know nothing about them, then 10 seconds later you're playing like you're best friends, because you didn't have to be anything but yourself?' This is exactly how we should be behaving and how I think Boyne wanted to get across with the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel, how they were just themselves rather than their religion.
I think the whole family relationship shows how in control the dominating father is, uprooting the family to take then minutes away from a concentration camp. The mother fighting just enough to protect her children and obviously their lack of knowledge around the subject is her doing, attempting to protect them from the dangers outside. Turning a blind eye to what her husband is actually doing to make sure her family is safe and sound in their almost perfect bubble. How Bruno referred to the camp as a farm and the uniforms pyjamas, it's just so innocent. I'd like to think that after the horrible ending the father quits his post (if that was even possible back then).

[the.games]

Discussion will close when I have eaten, so you have just over 30 mins. to be in with a chance of winning 1 months VIP!