How Are The Characters Of Bruno And Shmuel USED By The Writer Essay

Submitted By penny_edwards
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Pages: 3

How are the characters of Bruno and Shmuel USED by the writer, to help the reader think about the ideas explored in the text?
Bruno an innocent 9 year old German boy and Shmuel an innocent 9 year old Jewish boy are the protagonist in the novel The Boy in the Stripe Pyjamas. Bruno narrates the story and meets a Jewish boy called Shmuel as he was exploring just outside a concentration camp. They quickly develop a friendship due to their similarities and loneliness. The Juxtaposition of their lives shows how the holocaust has infected them and others. The boy in the stripe pyjamas explores the ideas of war, innocence and injustice. These three themes create a fact filled book that can still be related to today.
One technique the writer uses to show the idea of war and injustice is through characterisation and Juxtaposition. They open up the lives of Bruno and Shmuel showing the differences that the boys have to go through considering the war and their different religions and beliefs. Some differences were of how they travelled to the place now. “There were too many of us in the carriages for one thing and there was no air for us to breathe. And it smelt awful.” (pg. 69) This is what Shmuel had to go through being Jewish, they were forced onto trains, hundreds of people cramped up not being able to move making things hard to breathe whilst Bruno went through the complete opposite, having rows of chairs free and having many luxuries such as food and drinks. “Our train was nearly empty” (pg. 14). At the same time they talk about their similarities ignoring their differences and developing an even stronger relationship with loyalty and trust. “We’re like twins” (pg. 110) this is showing how close they are and how you could barely tell them apart in appearance. This quote was also foreshadowing the scene of when Bruno goes under the fence and how he could get away with it as they looked very similar.
Another technique used is nationalism between the two boys. Bruno believes that Germany is the