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) 

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.

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.

Gretel hates their new home at "Out-With." In Chapter 3, Bruno mentions that he hates it here and says that it's horrible. Gretel agrees with her brother and says, "I know what you mean...it's not very nice, is it?" (Boyne 24). Whenever Bruno mentions that he misses his friends, Gretel tells him that she misses her friends too. After Bruno shows Gretel the view of the concentration camp from the window in his room, Gretel is perplexed, and comments, "Who would build such a nasty-looking place?" (Boyne 32). Gretel notices the size and symmetry of each of the houses in the concentration camp and thinks deeply about their new environment. Bruno mentions that he was right when he told Gretel that there were children nearby. However, Gretel comments that they aren't the type of children she would be interested in playing with. She also says, "Those children look like they've never had a bath in their lives" (Boyne 37). As the novel progresses, Gretel develops a crush on Lieutenant Kotler and seems to occupy her time with fantasizing about him and studying. Overall, Gretel is not happy in their new home at "Out-With" and wishes to go back to Germany. 

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.