What literary devices are used in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

There are many literary devices in John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, including hyperbole, simile, and personification. The main character Bruno is a young boy so he tends to exaggerate things. Thus Boyne uses a lot of hyperbole to show how Bruno interprets what is happening around him. For example, consider the scene in Chapter Five, in which Bruno’s father is speaking to the soldiers. Boyne writes: “Bruno could make out every word because there had never been a man born who was more capable of being heard from one side of a room to the other than Father.” This is hyperbole because it is an exaggerated description of Father’s voice.

Boyne also uses similes, in this text, which are comparisons that use the word “like” or the word “as.” For instance, consider how Boyne describes the men in the same scene by saying “they stood in a row together like toy soldiers.” Another example of a simile is evident when Boyne describes Maria in Chapter Two and says she stood very straight with her hands in front of her “like a person in prayer.”

Boyne also uses a lot of personification in this book, which is when an author assigns human qualities to things that are not human. For instance, when describing Lieutenant Kotler he writes: “[H]is hair flopped down over his forehead in exhaustion.” This is an example of personification because hair is not something that can feel exhausted like a human can.

What are the literary devices used in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Literary devices are any tools the writer uses to make the writing clearer, more vivid, and more enjoyable to read, and to give the story more depth. There are actually hundreds of literary devices. I'll give you a few examples of some of the most common literary devices that you can find in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Imagery: Imagery means the writer writes description so vividly that you have an image, or picture, in your mind as you are reading. There are a lot of kinds of imagery. Imagery can be visual, which creates a picture you can see in your mind's eye. Other kinds of imagery include tactile (what you can feel), aural (what you can hear), olfactory (what you can smell), and gustatory (what you can taste.) You can find lots of imagery in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The first example of imagery is in the very first paragraph of Chapter 1, describing Maria, the family's maid: "... always kept her head bowed and never looked up from the carpet...." When you read this, you have a mental image of a maid standing with her head down, looking at the carpet. This imagery not only tells you something about Maria's appearance, it also tells you something about her character: she is shy and introverted.

Metaphor: Another literary device that is linked to imagery and used frequently is metaphor. A metaphor occurs when the writer describes something by comparing it to something else. A simile is a type of metaphor. You can remember the difference between these two similar literary devices because a metaphor is structured to say something IS something else, while a simile is structured to say something IS LIKE something else. A simile can also be structured to say something IS AS... AS something else, for example as tall as a tree or as big as a house.

When Bruno is showing Gretel the view out his window, he uses a metaphor: "...he was the king of everything they surveyed and she was his lowly subject." This metaphor compares Bruno to a king and Gretel to a servant. It shows that Bruno feels smug about having discovered something that his older sister didn't understand. It also reveals something about his character: Bruno is used to being the littlest in the family, so when he has an opportunity to be significant in some way, it makes him feel very important and powerful.

When Bruno sees his father with a group of soldiers, he uses a simile: "... they stood in a row together like toy soldiers...." This simile compares the men to toy soldiers, and when you read this simile, you can imagine the men standing in the same position as one another and looking very similar to each other.

Hyperbole: Another literary device that is used frequently in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is hyperbole. Hyperbole is an exaggeration. Bruno, the protagonist, is young, and the hyperbole has the effect of reminding the reader that the protagonist is just a little boy, because little children tend to exaggerate or see things as bigger than they actually are. Bruno uses hyperbole to describe his father's voice: "... there had never been a man born who was more capable of being heard from one side of a room to the other as father." This hyperbole shows that Bruno's father has a loud, powerful voice. It also gives the reader some insight into Bruno's father's character. He is a powerful man and influential on everyone around him.

ENotes has a handout listing some of the more common literary devices, which you can view by clicking here. You can also read more about the novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on eNotes here. 

What is the literary style in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a third-person narrative written in the simple language and style of the naive young protagonist. The words are those of a sheltered and very good-hearted young boy who is trying to make sense of the world of Nazism and the Holocaust in real time. Because he has been kept inside a bubble in which he has been taught that people should be good to each other, Bruno finds it difficult to grasp the situation when his family arrives at Auschwitz.

The simplicity of Bruno's language and moral universe make the novel easy to follow. The novel is a romance or fable with a moral message. It is not realistic fiction. In fact, it is utterly unrealistic that the son of a Nazi commandant would be anywhere near the electrified wire fence of a concentration camp or able to enter into a friendship with a Jewish boy. It is even more unrealistic to imagine that he could get inside the camp and accidentally be herded into a gas chamber.

However, the events of the novel, fantastic as they are, leave us with a moral message that the weapons we turn against others can be turned against us. It also conveys the message that the simple hearts of children have a moral sensibility that transcends evil and put the warped values of adults to shame.