The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

I can only hope that I raise my children to be as accepting and open-minded as I raised to be. Although we have come a long way as a society we still have work to do. I still can’t grasp that it wasn’t that long ago in our own country here where hate and racism was abundant and people thought nothing of uttering hate-filled words to one another or causing each other harm. It was just really hard to swallow for me, someone who is very accepting of other people, other faiths, and differing view points from my own.

On the other hand I commended the parents for not exposing them to those views. I have not watched the movie, but have read the book several times just because I was in such shock the first time around I thought that I had missed something somewhere. For a father, who was so actively involved in what was happening on the other side of the fence, you would have thought that his children would have been tainted with same feelings and beliefs that he held about the jews and people who were not included in the “perfect race.” I found it hard to believe that they were clueless as to what was going on and I blamed the father for his death. There is something to be said about the innocence of children but this almost angered me in some ways. Many books have moved me, but nothing like this. I remember turning the last few pages and crying so hard that the words blurred on the page and I had to actually put it down until I could see the words again. I read this book months ago and it has stuck with me. What did you think of this book, this movie? Did you prefer one over the other? If so – why? Is Bruno a realistic character? Have you read other books about the Holocaust? Feel free to get this conversation going….

but unfortunately my head is all tied up in the ending again that has left me a sobbing mess. the innocence of Bruno, and even of Shmaul. I know there is so much more to discuss in this book….

Bruno looked down at Shmaul and did something quite out of character for him, he took hold of Shmaul’s tiny hand and squeezed it tightly. “They are not my best friends anymore anyway. pretty close tot he book ending except there is a couple of lines in the book that are not in the movie at the end and should be because even though I knew what was to come… it still brought me to tears…. And as I said I seen the movie first so what you seen above was “the ending” for me.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne