Analysis of Sociological Issues in the Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The boy in the striped pajamas is about a little boy named Bruno who is eight years old, he comes from a well to do family in Germany. He is like most eight years old just wanting to play and explore, he’s so innocent and very obvious and we notice that from the very start of the movie. He’s running through the streets like any young boy not even blinking an eye when passing solders throwing Jews on to the back of trucks.

He and his family must move to the country because his dad was assigned commanded of the Jewish concentration camp as general in the Nazi military. Their house is very close by the camp; Bruno notices a little boy around his age sitting near the fence in striped pajamas. Bruno thinks that the concentration camp is a farm and ask his mother if he could go play with the little boy. His mother does not allow him to play or even speak of the “farm” but Bruno finds away!

The boy in the striped pajamas whose name is Shmuel and Bruno become close friends. Bruno would sneak him food every time he was able to come see him. Shmuel ends up telling Bruno that the soldiers took his clothes and made him wear the striped pajamas. He asks if the barbed wire fence is to keep the animals in and schmuel says no it is to keep me in. Bruno stared to wonder about what the so-called farm. He asked his dad about it and his dad tells his son that the people over there aren’t real people. Schmuel was sent to Bruno’s house to clean one day and was caught talking to Bruno. Schmuel gets in trouble, Bruno is then asked if he knows Schmuel and lies because he was afraid he was going to also be in trouble. Bruno did not go see Schmuel for a few days until he finally got the nerve to finally go back to the “farm” and tell Schmuel he was sorry, he also tells him he is moving away. Schmuel is sad but not only for that reason but also because he cannot find his dad. Bruno comes up with the idea of making himself look like a Jewish boy in the camp and digging under the fence to help Schmuel find his dad before he moves away. The next day Schmuel meets Bruno at the fence with a pair of striped pajamas and they dig a hole big enough for Bruno to be able to crawl through. He puts on the pajamas and then it finally hits him, this was not a farm. It sad and scary on that side of the fence. He wanted to go home but did not want to break his promise. What happens next would jerk at anyone’s heart strings. Schmuel and Bruno went looking for his dad in one of the huts when a group of Nazi soldiers came into the hut and gathered all the Jews in there. Along with everyone in there Bruno and Schmuel were taken to the gas chamber. They held hands until the very end. By the time the parents of Bruno figured out what had happened it was already too late.

This movie is told from a German child’s view during the Holocaust. This movie relates to sociological issues because you see racial and ethnic diversity, gender identity, sexism as well as aging and dying. One culture was the Germans who believed that all Jewish people were bad. Their idea of making their lives better was just taking all Jews and putting them in concentration camps. We see the Jewish culture they are confused and do not know why they are being treated like this. Last is the German military they are a group of people who took their job serious and followed all demands. They were sworn to secrecy and took oath to work for their country. They all had certain look shaved, clean cut, always in uniform.

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