set of striped pajamas behind a barbed wire fence

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne

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Student Question

How does the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas utilize effective word choice?

Expert Answers

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I'm not sure that there are any rules set in stone, as it were, regarding "effective" word choice. Different writers tend to have different ideas about what qualifies as "effective." George Orwell, for example, was a very economical writer and argued that one should never use a long word when a short one would do just as well. Stephen King has argued that one should avoid adverbs and that an adverb is only employed when one can't think of the correct verb.

If we look at some quotations from The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, we may be able to infer what rules or ideas about language and word choice the author may have had in mind. For example, let's look at the following passage:

He looked up at the skies, and although they were still very dark he thought the day had probably had enough rain.

In this quotation, Boyne's use of the word "rain" is certainly effective because it has a clear metaphorical meaning. The "rain" here metaphorically represents misery. The word "dark" is also effective in much the same way, as, although it refers ostensibly to the skies, it also alludes to the dark and troubling times that lie ahead. One might also speculate that Orwell would have considered the word choices in this example to be effective. Boyne uses simple vocabulary, like, for example, the phrase "very dark," where he might have used longer words, like "especially" or "exceptionally" in place of "very."

But still there are moments when a brother and sister can lay down their instruments of torture for a moment and speak as civilized human beings and Bruno decided to make this one of those moments.

In this second example, Boyne's word choice might be considered effective because the language is playful and thus convincingly evokes Bruno's perspective. The phrase "instruments of torture" is a playfully exaggerated reference to the usual teasing and provocation that takes place between a brother and sister. By using language like this, Boyne evokes Bruno's childlike attitude toward his sister, an attitude which is at once combative, playful, and affectionate.

From just these two examples, we might infer that Boyne considered "effective" words to be those which lend themselves to metaphor and simplicity and which effectively evoke the protagonist's perspective.

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