Discussion Topic
Herr Liszt's Role and Significance in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Summary:
In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Herr Liszt plays a significant role as the tutor to Bruno and his sister Gretel after their family moves from Berlin. His teachings focus heavily on the Nazi ideology and the concept of the "Fatherland," attempting to justify the regime's actions. This instruction prompts Bruno to question his surroundings and the injustices he perceives, leading him to explore and develop his own understanding of history, separate from Herr Liszt's teachings.
Why is Herr Liszt significant in Chapter 9 of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?
I think that one particular quote that reflects why Herr Liszt is significant is his repeated stress on "the fatherland." For Herr Liszt, educational instruction is geared towards propping up the Nazi Regime. When he speaks to the children of “all the great wrongs that have been done,” his motivation becomes clear. Herr Liszt is significant because he is meant to provide the justification behind why what is happening in Germany is happening.
Herr Liszt's significance rests in this support of the Nazi regime. Virtually each of his lessons about "the fatherland" acquires significance because it seeks to justify that which is unjustifiable. His instruction to the children is based in substantiating Nazi actions. Part of Bruno's intense questioning arises in why the world is the way it is. This is not a moralistic quest. Rather, it seeks to figure out why he had to move from his home in...
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Berlin and why the "pajama people" are the way they are. In a way, Herr Liszt's significance is that he provides a belief and value system merged into historical teaching that explains such a condition. In Herr Lizst, Bruno begins to understand what history means. Yet, rather than accept the Nazi ideology that Herr Liszt teaches, Bruno personalizes it. He makes it his own and seeks to construct his own narrative as opposed to the standard one that Herr Liszt wishes to teach to the children.
Why did Herr Liszt start visiting the house in The Boy in The Striped Pajamas?
Bruno's family, in The Boy in The Striped Pajamas, has had to move from Berlin to what Bruno describes as a "desolate" place. Bruno and his sister Gretel have very little to occupy themselves and Bruno reflects on the unfairness of the situation.
After the family has settled in and Bruno's memories of Berlin are less prominent in his mind, Bruno's father decides that it is time to resume the children's education and Herr Liszt becomes their tutor. He has a propensity for the subjects of History and Geography and, whilst Bruno hopes that this will clear up his confusion about all the "great wrongs"done to him personally, it seems that Herr Liszt's preoccupation is with the "Fatherland."
Bruno is irritated by Herr Liszt's teaching and begins to reflect on his own recent past and becomes more curious about the people he sees in their striped pajamas compared to the men who visit his father in "uniforms of varying quality and decoration and caps and helmets with bright red-and-black arm-bands." So Bruno's desire to explore is reignited.