What is the significance of the setting in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?
The setting of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas conveys Bruno’s innocence, that which his parents seek to maintain, ultimately resulting in his death. Nine-year-old Bruno lived a comfortable life in Berlin as the son of a wealthy German officer, completely sheltered from the genocide and the war. Bruno calls the facilities near his new home in Poland “Out-With,” while readers understand he is referring to Auschwitz. This concentration camp was the largest and most infamous of all the Nazi death camps; historians estimate that 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, representing 1 in 6 Jews who died during the Holocaust. Bruno’s use of the term “Out-With” is thus a trivialization of the horrific facility, conveying his naivety to the camp’s function.
Bruno’s father, a Commandant of the camp, simply tells his son that the place beyond the fence is forbidden. Naturally, Bruno’s childish curiosity leads him to the...
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boundary of the camp. Bruno sees himself as an explorer and that to enter the camp is to embark on an adventure:
The thing about exploring is that you have to know whether the thing you've found is worth finding. Some things are just sitting there, minding their own business, waiting to be discovered. Like America. And other things are probably better off left alone. Like a dead mouse at the back of the cupboard.
Bruno’s innocence is further emphasized in this quote; the most unpleasant thing he can think of finding is a dead mouse in a cupboard. He is completely unaware of the thousands of people who are being killed in the camps and how ominous the results of his explorations are.
When Bruno sneaks through the fence and Shmuel brings him a uniform, Bruno thinks they are “striped pajamas.” The boys are tricked into entering the gas chambers along with the other prisoners, having been told they are going to take a shower. Bruno is completely unaware of the danger he is in and that he will be mistaken for a prisoner in the striped uniform. Bruno and Shmuel are led into the gas chambers, never to be seen again.
For more information on Auschwitz to gain a deeper perspective on this setting, refer to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessible through the United States Holocaust Museum Memorial website.
References
The setting is incredibly important to the plot of the novel; young Bruno and his famiily move from their comfortable home in Berlin to a remote house in a place which Bruno mistakenly calls 'Out-with.' 'Out-with,' the reader realizes, is of course Auschwitz, and Bruno's father has been summoned to be the new commander in charge of the concentration camp. Bruno's father warns him against exploring too far around his new home, but the boy's curiosity and boredom lead him to discover a delightful new playmate on the other side of a peculiar, long fence. The author uses the setting and the reader's prior knowledge of Auschwitz and concentration camps to describe the horror of the camps from a completely different and naive perspective. The father never tells his son the truth about his job and what those fences really mean, and Bruno's ignorance of the true purpose of the camp ultimately lead to his death.
How does the setting present the theme in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?
The setting of World War II Germany, specifically, in Auschwitz where the Nazi death camp is located, creates a sinister and foreboding atmosphere where the naive Bruno encounters hushed tones and cryptic words such as his mother's response to his wonderment that they would leave their beautiful home in Berlin for such a crude house in such a barren area.
"We don't have the luxury of thinking....Some people make all the decisions for us."
Bruno's mother's words are prophetic, indeed, as they underscore the situation of those in "striped pajamas" who are confined behind a formidable fence, symbolic of the genocide of the Jews under the Nazi Regime. And, they prove sadly ironic as, once Bruno steps on the other side of the great dividing fence, his end, too, is decided by a terrible fate.
In a nightmarish depiction of what Robert Frost wrote about in his poem "Mending Wall," "good fences" have not made for "good neighbors." Nevertheless, the same idea is present in both works: In their distrust and hatred, people create barriers that divide them from others; when some attempt to break down these barriers with love, as is so often the case, the brotherhood established among the few, when they manage
...to get to that one part of Out-With that didn't seem to be guarded all the time, a place where [one is]... lucky enough to meet a friend.....
cannot survive and is, consequently, destroyed by others.
The character of Bruno's father also illustrates the destructive power of many engaged in hatred as his allegiance to Nazism overrides his kinder nature. For, as Maria explains to Bruno in Chapter Six, years ago the commandant of the camp took her in out of charity and love for the memory of a loved one when she was starving and gave her the job of maid because she was the daughter of the seamstress for Bruno's grandmother. But, in his loyalty to "the Fury," as he is ironically called by Bruno, the father's allegiance to an ideology costs him his son. Indeed, the influence of death and hatred extends beyond the confines of mere fences, and setting gives great meaning to theme.
What are the effects of setting in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?
The novel has two main settings: Berlin during the early years of World War II and Auschwitz in Poland.
In first setting, Berlin, we see how affluent and comfortable Bruno's life is with his family in Berlin. Due to his father's position in the Nazi hierarchy, the family lives very well. Bruno enjoys his large house with servants and plenty of food. His privilege has the effect of keeping him blissfully sheltered from awareness of the brutality and cruelty that his good life is built on. He does not understand the evil of the Nazi regime that benefits his family so strongly.
This childlike innocence follows Bruno to Auschwitz, where he lives in a fine house and continues to lead a comfortable life. However, his new setting has the effect of making him aware that others, on the far side of the barbed wire near his home, do not live as well. He wonders why the people he sees from his home wear striped pajamas. The proximity to people unlike those he was ever known inspires his curiosity. He meets and becomes friends with a Jewish boy named Shmuel who lives in the concentration camp and shares the same birthday with him. Being in the new setting of "Out With" (Auschwitz) expands Bruno's awareness of what life is like for suffering people under the Nazis.
The story may seem fanciful—and it is—but it brings home the reality that sheltered settings can provide a warped view of society by shielding privileged people from the harshness of other lives.
How does the setting negatively affect characters in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas?
That the setting is "bad" for these characters is something of an understatement, I would argue. I mean, let's be honest, choosing to bring up your family next door to a concentration camp isn't going to be the most popular choice for people in terms of their "dream home." In particular, you might want to focus on the way that the mother responds to the reality of living next to a concentration camp and how she withdraws from life as a result.
Of course, the major impact is on Bruno, and as we see the story through his eyes, we can see the way in which his childlike point of view misinterprets massively what goes on around him and how he develops a rather skewed picture of reality. So much of what we as adults can see as the truth is skewed and misperceived through his innocent gaze which leads the story to its tragic conclusion. Bruno is unable to believe that his father could be involved in something like a concentration camp, and so the idea never enters his mind. The setting places Bruno and his family into contact with direct evil, and they all respond in different ways as they try to come to terms with this.