Bruno’s impression of his new home was one of disbelief. The narrator describes Bruno’s puzzling view of his new home by detailing his wide-open eyes, O-shaped mouth, and outstretched arms. While it might not be clear at first why Bruno’s eyes are wide open or his mouth is in the shape of an O, the narrator makes things a bit clearer when they write that Bruno “couldn't believe that they were really going to live there.”
Now, this is not a positive disbelief. Bruno doesn’t believe that they are going to live in this new house because it’s so unbelievably wonderful. Bruno’s disbelief is negative. He doesn’t believe that they are going to live in this new house because it’s significantly inferior to their previous house in Berlin.
The narrator stresses how much Bruno loved his family’s “enormous” Berlin home. Even though Bruno had lived there for nine years, he was still uncovering various “nooks and crannies”. This new house doesn’t appear to have corners and spots to explore. It doesn’t contain the depth of his previous home. The new home is described as “empty” and “desolate.”
To make matters worse, the new house means that he won’t be surrounded by the other big houses anymore. These big houses were the homes of his friends. More so, the new house means no more bustling shops or busy city streets.
When Bruno first sees his new home at "Out-With," he is astonished and depressed by the fact that it is the complete opposite of his comfortable, warm home in Berlin. The new house at Out-With is in a desolate, empty place with no neighboring homes or lovely town streets. Bruno feels that he is in the loneliest place on earth in the middle of nowhere. He also feels like there is no laughter or warmth in his new home.
In contrast to his enormous, spacious home in Berlin, the new house at Out-With is relatively boring, cold, and mundane. There are no nooks or small rooms to explore, and there is no large banister to slide down like there was at his home in Berlin. However, there is a mysterious camp encircled by a high fence, which Bruno can see from his back window. Bruno is too young and naive to realize that his home is just outside of a horrific Nazi concentration camp, which explains its desolate location and depressing atmosphere.
Overall, Bruno hates his new home and desires to move back to Berlin immediately. He finds his new home to be boring, cold, and uncomfortable. As the story progresses, Bruno becomes close friends with a Jewish prisoner named Shmuel and seems to adjust to life at Out-With.
In chapter 2 of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno is not at all impressed with the new house. He misses his five-story house in Berlin, where he could slide down the banisters and where he had plenty of friends.
The new house is only three stories tall, and the family sleeps cramped together on the top floor. The servants have the basement. Bruno thinks it's "the exact opposite of their old home." Instead of the hustle and bustle of Berlin, the new house is in a desolate, lonely place. The only thing that resembles Bruno's old home is that his father still has an office, and he is not allowed in that office. Bruno lets his mother know that he thinks moving was a mistake, and she lightly chastises him for complaining. Bruno feels that the new house will never be home.
The house in Berlin was huge. It had lots of room and had a lot of little spaces to explore. The new house had only three floors, which included the basement where the servants slept. However, in both houses his father's office was considered OUT OF BOUNDS. The new house had no other streets around it and no shops or people selling things out of stalls, a memory of Berlin that Bruno enjoyed.
"Everything around him just felt empty and cold, as if he was in the loneliest place in the world. The middle of nowhere." (pg 13)
He remembers how everyone used to laugh in Berlin.
"But there was something about the new house that made Bruno think that no one ever laughed there; that there was nothing to laugh at and nothing to be happy about." (pg 13)
It is clear that Bruno does not like the house from the moment he enters it. He tells his mother that he thinks they should just turn around and go home, back to Berlin His mother tells him that they do not have a choice.
"We're here, we've arrived, this is our home for the foreseeable future and we just have to make the best of things." (pg 15)
Bruno, being told that he has no choice, goes upstairs to help Maria sort out his bedroom, but he says to himself,
"This isn't home, and it never will be." (pg 16)
In Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what did Bruno's old house in Berlin look like?
Bruno loves his home in Berlin for many reasons. First, he is accustomed to it and to Berlin. All of his friends and, most importantly, his grandparents live nearby. In addition, he loves the house itself. It stands on “a quiet street and alongside it were a handful of other big houses.” It is multi-leveled; there are more than three floors. We know this because Bruno describes the house at Auschwitz as having "only three floors."
Thus, the Berlin house is quite spacious. Bruno loves its banister, which “stretched from the very top floor ... to the ground floor.” The top floor in the Berlin house is most likely the attic. It has a small room that contains a window where Bruno can see “across Berlin” if he stands on his tiptoes. The floor below contains his parents’s bedroom and a large bathroom. The floor below theirs is where his bedroom and Gretel's room are, and there is a bathroom on this level that is smaller than the one located on his parents’ floor.
There are “two enormous oak doors” at the bottom of the banister. Although the world “enormous” might be relative here as Bruno is a little boy, these are probably actually very large doors, implying that the house itself is large.
Finally, below the floor where the children’s’ bedrooms are is the ground floor where his father's office is located. Also there is the dining room, the kitchen, and a living room or family area. There are also probably some smaller rooms, because Bruno notes that in the Berlin house, there were “nooks and crannies that he hadn't fully finished exploring yet. There were even "whole rooms” that he was not allowed to enter. The hallway on the ground level is large enough to contain the family’s Christmas tree in December.
In Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what did Bruno's old house in Berlin look like?
Bruno's old home in Berlin is a large, ornate home, which has massive oak doors, a grand staircase, and plenty of nooks and crannies that Bruno can explore. Bruno mentions that his home is four floors with a basement, where the family's cook and servants live. The ground floor of Bruno's Berlin home includes a kitchen, a large dining room, and his father's office, which Bruno is prohibited from entering unless he is given special permission. There are two bedrooms on the second floor, which belong to Bruno and Gretel, and there is a master bedroom with a bathroom on the third floor. On the fourth floor, there is a small room with slanted windows that overlooks Berlin. Bruno's favorite thing about his home in Berlin is the massive banister that runs from the fourth floor to the ground level. Bruno's favorite pastimes are sliding down the massive banister and exploring the numerous nooks and crannies throughout the massive home. Unfortunately, Bruno's father is promoted to Commandant and the family moves from Berlin to Auschwitz.
In Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what did Bruno's old house in Berlin look like?
Bruno's old house in Berlin, as he remembers it, functions in the book as a symbol for Bruno's longing for the past, as well as a demonstration of his naivete. Bruno's old home is incredibly spacious, with four stories and plenty of small areas for him to explore. Bruno loves playtime in the old house, and one of his favorite activities is to use the lengthy banister that runs from the top floor to the bottom as an enormous slide.
In contrast, Bruno's home in "out with" seems quite desolate and lonesome, and without its ornate and spacious interior, is far less appealing to explore. This is likely mostly due to Bruno's bias against moving away from Berlin, as the house is still very comfortable comparatively, especially against the harsh living conditions that Shmuel has to endure.
In Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what did Bruno's old house in Berlin look like?
Bruno's old house in Berlin shows how high-status his family is in Nazi Germany. At a time when an average Berlin family lived in a small one level apartment, Bruno's family occupies a four-story home with large double oak doors at the entrance and a grand staircase with a banister Bruno likes to slide down.
His parents have a bedroom and bath on one level, which is a story above where Bruno and his sister Gretel sleep. The house has a dining room and a study, where he is not allowed to go. It is on a quiet street and is similar to "other big houses" on the block.
In fact, we are told that the house is "enormous" and that there are many nooks and crannies Bruno has yet to explore in it. He is growing up in a mansion.
In Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what did Bruno's old house in Berlin look like?
Bruno's house in Berlin has four levels. The family occupies three of these. The ground level has the dining room, living room, kitchen, and father's office. The next level up is where Bruno and his sister Gretel sleep. The master bedroom is found on the floor above the children's rooms. The fourth level is not quite an attic because it seems to be more of an area of extra space. However, Bruno says that there is a window on the fourth floor that allows him to see across the city if he stands on his toes.
One of Bruno's favorite activities is to start on the top floor and slide down the banister to the lowest level. Once on the ground floor, Bruno looks up to see two large oak doors that lead to the front porch. Bruno especially likes the banister, as described in the following passage:
"And Bruno liked nothing better than to get on board the banister at the top floor and slide his way through the house, making whooshing sounds as he went" (9).
The house in Berlin is important because Bruno misses it when he moves with his family to a significantly smaller house next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The home at Auschwitz does not have a fun banister, luxurious fixtures, spacious rooms, a large dining room, or as many levels to explore and enjoy.
In The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, how does Bruno feel about his new home?
When Bruno first arrives at his new home in Out-With, he is discouraged and upset. Bruno cannot get over the difference between his new home in Out-With and his enormous, comfortable home in Berlin. Bruno immediately notices that his new home is located in a desolate environment with no other houses nearby, which means that Bruno will not have any local boys to play with. The house in Out-With is also substantially smaller than his massive home in Berlin. Bruno is dismayed to discover that there are only three floors and a lack of unique, exciting hiding places for him to explore. The new home in Out-With is removed from any towns or neighborhoods and Bruno describes it as the "loneliest place in the world." His new home fills him with a sense of emptiness and he absolutely despises it. Bruno proceeds to complain to Maria and desperately wants to move back to Berlin. Bruno's feelings of loneliness and desolation are appropriate given the fact that his new home is located directly next to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
In The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, how does Bruno feel about his new home?
Bruno is dismayed when he sees where he is going to live because it is in such contrast to his lovely house in an interesting and exciting part of Berlin.
Whereas Bruno's former home was in an established neighborhood in the city, this house near the Polish border is completely isolated and on a desolate piece of land, but his house in the city was surrounded by others with streets to traverse that had fruit and vegetable stands emitting all sorts of smells. This new house is much smaller and seems to Bruno to be "the loneliest place in the world." As if all of this is not bad enough, there is no one for Bruno to play with and his friends are all back in Berlin. He tells his mother, "I think this was a bad idea," but she tells Bruno that they do not have the "luxury of thinking."
Without doubt, the new house could not be more different from the house that the family has moved from in Berlin, and Bruno's feelings about it are equally as disparate.
In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what does Bruno like about his house?
Before moving to Out-With, Bruno enjoys a simple life in his family's magnificent home. Bruno mentions that his home in Berlin is enormous and has four floors, including a basement where the family's cook and servants live. The large home is also ornate, with massive oak doors and an impressive banister that runs from the very top floor to the ground floor. Bruno mentions that the banister is his favorite thing about the Berlin house and comments on the extensive amount of nooks and crannies that he loves to explore. Bruno continually slides down the banister and pretends to be an explorer as he looks for undiscovered places to hide.
He enjoys looking out of the small slanted window on the fourth floor, which overlooks the city. Bruno is fascinated by the mystery surrounding his father's office, which he is not allowed to enter without permission. In addition to the home's massive size, ornate features, and extraordinary banister, Bruno likes the fact that his grandparents live nearby.
Unfortunately, Bruno is forced to move to Out-With when his father receives a promotion from the Fury. Bruno's new home in Out-With is not as impressive or comfortable as his home in Berlin, and he initially cannot stop complaining about their new residence. However, Bruno ends up meeting a Jewish boy named Shmuel and gradually adapts to his new environment.
See eNotes Ad-Free
Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.
Already a member? Log in here.