THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

By: Felipe Argote

Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer moves with his mother, father and sister to a place away from the city, where his father has been ordered by the "furius" at a very important mission. It involves administering an activity that Bruno, 10 years old, does not understand very clearly but it is located far from the city, right behind a fence where a lot of sad looking people lives who have the amazing habit of walking in pajamas all day. The site is located far from Berlin, where Bruno has grown into a large and comfortable house. The house was so big that even Bruno had not explored all its nooks. And that what you most enjoy Bruno is explored. In fact he had already decided that he would be an explorer when he was older.

Bruno misses her home in Berlin located in a quiet street where there were many children. In Berlin, he could see people walking or taking on tables at the sidewalk where they chat and drink frothy. The people there should be very funny because whatever they said was celebrated with laughter, but lately also in Berlin people seemed nervous and unhappy. He missed Martin, Karl and Daniel his three best friends for life as they called each other.

But Bruno has no options. In the absence of homes and children in the surroundings and the very bad relationship with his older sister whose hatred was reciprocal. Bruno decides to develop long walks by alone by going to his ability as a scout. There was not much to do in the area where his new home. He decides to walk for hours along the fence of the people living in striped pajamas until a few kilometers he found behind the fence with a sad child dressed in pajamas with a shaved head which he befriends. Bruno finds in him many interesting aspects so he decide a daily walk toward the same distant point to talk long hours with his new friend having the fence in between. Thanks to his new friend whose name is Samuel, who despite being Polish talk fluent in German, he learns that his new housing is not in Germany but in Poland.

Until one day the boy invited him to go under the building near a crack in the earth where no adult could cross but a child of ten years can do it. To blend in with the population of striped pajamas, the boy gets one on his new German friend who blends into the other because his father had decided to peel it clipped to get rid of a nest of lice that had settled in her hair

John Boyne is an Irish writer born in Dublin, Ireland in 1971. Before "The boy in the Striped Pajamas” he had written “The Thief of Time”, ”The Congress of Rough Riders”, “Crippen and Next of Kin”, yet the latter has been his greatest success undoubtedly. The novel has a lot of originality and imagination although at times seems to deviate from the central theme and introduce elements that seem to lead to side stories that are then unfinished. The boy in the Striped Pajamas is a book I recommend for its human message, especially the stupidity of war and how they can hurt people we love most, by not taking into account that the supposed enemy also has a family, wife and children who have more pain and suffering in the conflagrations.