The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas                Discussion Guide             April 11, 2009 

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

What did you think? How did it make you feel?

What were the most important scenes? What were the hardest parts to watch?

What was the most hopeful/encouraging? 

QUOTES TO DISCUSS 

What do you think about the quote from the beginning of the film: "Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows."

-John Betjemen. 

Critic Roger Ebert chillingly says this film “is about a value system that survives like a virus.” And this very evil ever-present human virus continues to inject us in Rwanda, Somalia, Palestine, Israel, Darfur, Zimbabwe and Iraq. This virus is PREJUDICE. And WE ARE ALL INFECTED. It was not limited to the Nazis. –from hollywoodjesus.com review 

Vermont Governor George Aiken noted that “If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.” The only antidote is to “love your neighbor” --regardless who that might be. Death of prejudice begins in our heart. We Must Never Forget! –from hollywoodjesus.com review 

Although it's told from the perspective of a child, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is as shattering as any film about the Holocaust could be, perhaps more so. –Bill Goodykoontz from rottentomatoes.com 

CHARACTERS 

What did you feel about the main characters in the film? 

How did you feel about the friendship between Shmuel and Bruno? 

How does seeing the story from Bruno's eight-year-old point of view affect the way you perceive the characters, such as his father?  

What do we see that is not shown from Bruno's point of view? Why does the film let us see these things? Why does the film not let us see other things? 

Bruno's grandmother says that Bruno's father always wanted to be a soldier, and Bruno himself is seen playing at "war" with his friends in Berlin. Is this a dangerous impulse? Is it a tolerable form of childlike fantasy? Is it a problem that Bruno's father became a soldier, period, or that he was assigned to a particular task? 

INNOCENCE/KNOWLEDGE 

Who is "innocent" in this film? Anyone? Is there a difference between ignorance and innocence? How do different characters deal with their dawning awareness of what is happening at the concentration camp? 

Is innocence always a good thing? How are various characters affected by evil because they are too "innocent" to know better? (See, e.g., the way Gretel becomes smitten with the Nazi lieutenant who works at their house.) 

When is knowledge preferable to innocence?  

Have you had to "unlearn" anything that you were taught when you were young, comparable to the prejudices that Bruno's father and tutor try to teach him? How did you deal with the knowledge that what you were taught was wrong? How did this affect the way you perceived your parents and teachers?