The Boy in The Stripped Pajamas by Johny Boyne: A Review

The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas is the poignant tale of Bruno, the nine year-old son of a Nazi Commandant, who moves from Berlin to live in a house outside "Out-With" (Auschwitz) after the "Fury" (Furher) comes to visit his father and transfers his father to the command at "Out-With". Bruno hates his new home because there is nothing to do and no one to play with until he decides to go exploring one day and he follows the fence until just as he's getting tired and about to turn back he sees "a dot that became a speck that became a blog that became a figure that became a boy".

Bruno meets Shmuel, a young Jewish boy, on the other side of the fence. Bruno is excited to have a new friend and in his naivety, does not understand the horror and the tragedy that is unfolding around him. Bruno knows that some of the soldiers who come to his father's office are mean and scary, and that one in particular, Lieutenant Kolter, is particularly nasty. But Bruno seems oblivious to the horrors of the war and the concentration camp. Bruno seems to begin to understand that something is very wrong when Pavel, their cook and butler, who used to be a doctor, disappears one day. But Bruno never seems to truly understand that "Out-With" is a concentration camp nor does he seem to understand the horrible occurences within, until perhaps the end.

Boyne did a wonderful job of narrating this tale from the perspective of a 9 year old; he kept Bruno's child-like innocence throughout the bulk of the novel but did a great job of showing Bruno struggling with some of the things he saw as he watched people he thought were servants (and not prisoners from the concentration camp) being treated rudely by others while not realizing that more than just mere rudeness awaited them.

I also think Boyne did a good job of juxtaposing Bruno's naivety with Shumel's loss of innocence as it was stripped away sometimes little by little and sometime horrifically.

I think perhaps one of the best parts of Boyne's writing was not just his development of the characters but his use of puns such as "Out-With" and "Fury", especially since puns are often meant to bring humor to writing but these bring an overarching darkness to the work almost immediately.

***Could be Considered a Spoiler***
And even though I knew full well how this would end because the ending was clearly forecasted through the two boys being the same age and sharing the same birthdate, among other events, I couldn't help but gasping at the end and then crying. (There was even a point when I whispered "Don't do it, Bruno; please, don't.".)

I must admit that I'm not sure I would have tagged this as a coming of age novel because coming of age, in it's purest sense, means that the character learns something and moves from childhood into the early stages of adulthood. I'm not sure I would agree that Bruno ever did. Yes, he lost some--well, a tiny bit--of his innocence, but it wasn't really possible for him enter the early stages of adulthood as I don't think he or Shmuel ever realized what was happening to them.

Although, perhaps it could be argued that it was a coming of age tale for his sister Gretel.