Entry One: Outside Reading II

For this quarter I have decided to read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Now, I know you’re thinking, “I’m pretty sure that book is for 7th graders,” but, I’ve always wanted to read the story and it just happened to be that I finally started it in 10th grade. It starts out with Bruno, a well behaved boy whom is around eight years old. He arrives home from school to find his maid packing all of his things because his family is moving. Bruno’s mom tells him it’s for his father’s job. On page eight Boyne writes, “’It keeps us safe. And who knows, maybe we’ll be in less danger if we move away.’” The speaker is the mother of Bruno who at this point we don’t know much about, but she seems apprehensive about moving also. I think this quote describes a part of the time period. On a previous page, Bruno talks about living in Berlin and how he has to turn his lights off at night for safety. His mom is trying to tell him that when they move they’ll probably be safer because I think it’s right to assume the story is placed during World War II, one of the most devastating wars of history. We see that Bruno is naïve and young because he asks many questions and doesn’t understand several ideas that his mom present to him. I relate the main character, Bruno, to younger kids that I have known. They tend to always wonder, “Why.” It’s quite an intellectual idea, but if you take the time to think it’s not impossible to answer yourself.