The Boy in The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne Book Analysis

One of the most interesting books released in the early 2000s was the novel “The Boy in The Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne, which described themes of friendship and love with over looming oppression.    It allows the reader to understand the thoughts of a little boy named Bruno, in an intimate setting told from his perspective.  A vital factor that makes this book remarkably interesting is that it has many subtle undertones that would typically go unnoticed during the first read. An example of one of these more minute details would be the symbolism clothing holds in the story, which reflects some of the themes shown in the novel, such as hate, oppression, separation, and innocence.  There are 3 crucial outfits that have these dark and heavy themes, and they relate to the relationship with Bruno and other characters in this novel.

The military outfits in the story are correlated to themes of oppression, suppression, and hate, which are frequently worn by Bruno’s father and Lieutenant Kotler.  You can see themes of hatred expressed throughout the story with Lieutenant Kotler, who had done terrible things throughout the story, and even Bruno loathed the sight of him.  One moment in the story where you can see this is during chapter 7 of the book, starting on page 142, where Bruno’s family is having dinner with Lieutenant Kotler, during the middle of this dinner, Bruno’s servant, Pavel, pours drinks for Ralf and Kurt, where he spills some on Kotler.  He quickly grabs Pavel and begins to beat him to death.  He has done other similar acts and throughout the story of which are hateful and, other soldiers were always hinted at having these violent traits, as vaguely told by Shmuel.  This tells us that Lieutenant Kotler and the soldiers that work in Auschwitz are evil people. The color of the suits in the story itself, black, represents evil, cruelty, and brutality, which connects to the actions of the Nazi soldiers at Auschwitz, and how vicious they were, including Ralf, Bruno’s father who leads the entire operation, enforces it.  Even the swastikas on their arm bands signify the soldier's loyalty to the fury, to Hitler, as shown through Bruno’s father, who wears it constantly and had the chance to have dinner with the man himself about his promotion to commandant during a flashback (Chapter 9 pages 95-100).

One of the more subdued themes that shine through in the story is the military costume Bruno wears during his grandmothers plays which reflects the power and pride of his father Bruno wants to have.  It is described that Bruno feels like his father Ralf when he wears a military uniform for his plays with his grandmother.  This argues that the outfit represents a reflection of the power his father has, Bruno’s expectation in the future, to fill in the shoes of his father.  This is stated again during one of his conversations with Shmuel, Bruno mentions that he wants to become a soldier like his father (chapters 13-14), which shows more of that theme of reflection of wanting what his father has.  And besides wanting to be his father, he also prides his dad and compliments his outfits, to quote Bruno, he has said that his father seemed much “sharper” and “smarter” compared to other soldiers he was talking to, which hints that he admires his father's looks and sharpness, which is respect.  When you put all these ideas together, Bruno deeply wants to be like his father and takes pride in him, which shows how the military costume reflects Bruno wanting to be like Ralf.

An additional prominent uniform frequently shown in the story would be the striped pajamas which shows themes of imprisonment and separation for Shmuel and the innocence of our main character, Bruno.  The physical attire of the pajamas could convey the image of prison bars with stripes of blue and white, and how Shmuel is separated from everyone else outside of the fence.  This shows us that Shmuel is an “outsider,” who is segregated from society and treated worse than some prisoners as a child, he is subhuman to the Nazis, the clothing is what reminds us of these ideas, that Shmuel is trapped and put in a pile, and can never get rid of it, being forced to wear his uniform 24/7.  When Bruno is added to the mix, he seems very innocent in comparison, the first time he sees Shmuel in his pajamas, he says that he must wear his pajamas without exception.  Bruno sees this as a positive aspect in Shmuel’s life, that he can always wear something that is considered comfortable clothing, which is a sign for us that Bruno is still very innocent and learning about the world.  And by the end of the book, during the first few pages of chapter 19, when Bruno disguises himself as a Jewish person in the camp, Shmuel thinks that him and Bruno were the same, and Bruno even commented that this reminded him of dressing up at his mother's plays.  This refers to the same feeling Bruno had when wearing his military costume when performing his grandmothers plays, which shows the same theme of Bruno reflecting the feeling of being connected to someone he cares about when he is dressed like them, as shown with his father.

In general, the Boy in The Striped Pajamas is a novel that expresses many themes and ideas either if it is through its characters, like Bruno or Shmuel, or in the setting and character development.  The clothing is an aspect of the story that symbolizes a lot that goes on in this journey of a book.  Such the Nazi military outfits represent the hate and fear caused by the Nazi soldiers, like Lieutenant Kotler and Ralf.  And more subtle hints of separation and segregation with the striped pajamas, one of the most significant outfits in the story, leading to Bruno’s death by the end of the book.   This is a book that many people in the world will not forget for a long time and remind people of our dark history and should be a book you should check out soon if you have the time.