Innocence Under Fire

Is it the innocence of child or the ignorant mind of a child when it comes to their understanding and being aware of the terrors and malicious events such as Slavery and the Holocaust? According to Judy L. Hasday the Jews were discriminated against publicly, "private citizen across the country" were encouraged "to publicly voice their disdain for Jews" with signs such as "Juden Verboten" (61). One can attain a better understanding of the Holocaust ironically enough through a work of fiction like John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The reader may get a better understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust through the naïve eyes and mind of a child. Boyne describes the purpose of his protagonist, Bruno; "through the eyes of a child and particularly the eyes of a rather naïve child who couldn't possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him" (Author's Note pp 217-18.).The theme of innocence and ignorance serves as a contrast through the story to justify the protagonist's actions and decisions. The protagonist is a short, nine year old boy named Bruno who wants to become a soldier like his father. Bruno meets a frail, multi-lingual Jewish Boy who is also nine years old, named Shmuel. The two boys instantly become friends and spend most of their friendship in front of a fence which divides the Auschwitz's concentration camp and Out-With (Auschwitz). Bruno and Shmuel are oblivious to the segregation of Germans and Jews. Ironically, the fence between them is a physical and literal barrier, and it is a metaphor for the segregation The Fuhrer has created between the two kinds of people. The question that the reader is invited to consider throughout the novel is: does Bruno's innocence blind him from the truth that lies around him or does his age justify his ignorance of his country's politics, Shmuel and his setting and the danger they are in? Boyne displays Bruno's naivety and innocence through his questions and the events in Bruno's short ten years.

Bruno's naïve eyes, ears and mind cannot understand all that is happening around him. Soldiers are constantly in and out of his house and now Father and the family are to move to a place called "Out-With" because the Fury (Fuhrer) has "big things in mind" (p.5) for Father. Bruno does not understand that in life "some people make all the decisions" (p. 40) for others. Bruno is not aware what his father does as a soldier but he knows that it is "important work, important to our country, important to the Fury" (p. 48). Of course, Bruno's curiosity brings him to wonder about certain questions but he is placed in the dark when he is given answers. Bruno never sees his father at work but sees him dressed for work and he is not "entirely sure what job Father" (p. 4) does. According to Bruno's grandma, Father is "dressing up like a puppet on a string" (p. 90). Bruno's innocent mind never understands what grandma means by Father being on a string. The reader infers that grandma uses the metaphor of theatre and Father being a puppet to establish the role Father plays in the theatrical devastation for Hitler. Boyne takes the reader on a flashback way before Bruno moves to "Out-with" when Bruno is first told about The Fuhrer. Bruno is introduced in the chapter asking, "who's the Fury?" (p. 117) which suggests that his knowledge of his country and its leader is insufficient for a child of his age. Most children at the age of nine know the president, prime minister, dictator or ruler of their country but Boyne illustrates Bruno's callow mind to be unaware of his country's politics. The responsibility cannot entirely be placed on Bruno's shoulders and naïve mind because no one in the family answers or wants to answer Bruno's questions thoroughly. Questions such as: "What kind of job?" (p.4), "And how far away is it?" (p.6) and "Who are all those people outside?" (p.52) were never answered well enough for him to understand. Bruno is a curious boy who has questions yet to be answered with explanations that will allow him to understand what is happening around him.

Bruno's mind makes criticisms of the new desolate house in minutes upon arrival and realizes that "everything about it seemed to be the exact opposite of their old home" (p. 11). Boyne establishes a beautiful contrast of the two homes; the old home Bruno feels "sweetness and life" and at the new home which is "empty and cold" (p.12-13). The description of the new home as empty and cold is a metaphor for the dead bodies in the concentration camp which are emptied of their soul and have hardened and become cold, just kilometers away from his new home. Bruno does not know this and yet feels cold and empty in the very first minutes of being at "Out-With". Bruno continues to criticize the house and to state his opinion that he does not "like it here" (p. 26). Bruno enters his room and hopes and hopes that if he looks outside of his window he will be able to see "back to Berlin and his house and the streets around it and the tables where the people sat and drank their frothy drinks and told each other hilarious stories" (p. 20) once again painting an image for himself about the sweetness of life. This image however, is destroyed by the contrast of the "cold and unsafe" (p. 20) feeling he feels once again when he sees the reality of life out his window. Everywhere Bruno and Gretel look out the window they seen tall, short, old, young men, all moving around. Bruno's does not comprehend that these people on the other side of the fence are doing hard labour work and will be executed later on. He notices that some people have "crutches and many bandages around their heads" (p. 36). Bruno never thinks that the soldiers hovering above the people are doing them any harm and comes to one last extraordinary conclusion that all the people wear the same clothes as each other " a pair of striped pajamas with grey striped cap on their heads" (p. 38). Bruno can never conceive that his "neighbours" (p. 37) are being treated like "common criminals" (Buergenthal, 20). His naïve mind can never think that the prisoners were not actually in striped pajamas but "in striped prison uniforms" (Buergenthal, 64). The boy decides to tell Father of his discovery of the new neighbours and Father tells him that "they're not people at all" (p. 53), yet Bruno sees men and boys just like himself but Father tells him they are not people. Poor Bruno's mind is in a predicament of understanding as to what they are. Upon Bruno's exploration of "Out-With" "which is banned"

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