"Shoah" is the word the the Jewish people generally prefer when discussing the Holocaust. "Shoah" is a Hebrew word meaning "calamity" or "disaster". The Nazis referred to the Shoah as "the final solution".
There are many good websites where you can find more information on the Shoah. Here are some websites, for your information, only if you are interested in reading more about the Shoah. There are very disturbing words and images on these pages. Here is the official website of the Auschwitz memorial and museum. Here is The Holocaust / Shoah Page, with lots of text. Remember.org has lots of information and pictures, including a virtual tour of Auschwitz as it looks today. There are also "then and now" pictures, where you can click to move from photographs of Auschwitz today, to artist's pictures of what happened in those locations. I want to remind you that these images are not pleasant to look at.
One of my classes discussed some strategies that could help when reading; this is their list. Remember that each person is different, and a strategy that works for one person may not work for you. Do what works for you!
Vocabulary
I've created a dictionary with challenging words from each chapter. If you are reading this book, I have given you all a paper copy and I will email you all an electronic copy. The dictionary is organised by chapter and not alphabetically.
Discussion Questions: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Chapter 1: Bruno Makes a Discovery
1. What is your first impression of Bruno?
2. Who are the other characters in the story?
3. Are there any clues to where and when the story takes place in the first chapter?
Chapter 2: The New House
4. What are some differences between the new house and the old house?
5. The novel is written from Bruno’s perspective. How do we know what the other characters are feeling?
6. What are some of the things we learn about Bruno in this chapter?
7. What does Bruno think about the soldier that he sees on the first day in their new house? Why?
8. What do you think Bruno saw outside the window at the end of Chapter 2?
Chapter 3: The Hopeless Case
9. Describe Bruno’s relationship with his sister.
10. What are some of the things we learn about Gretel’s character in this chapter?
11. What do we learn about the new house in this chapter?
12. This chapter ends almost the same way as Chapter 2, only this time Gretel looks out the window and sees the children that Bruno saw earlier. What were you thinking as you read the last sentence in Chapter 3?
Chapter 4: What They Saw Through the Window
13. Describing the people outside, the author writes, “They were everyone.” What do you think the author means by this sentence?
14. Why don’t Gretel and Bruno understand what is happening outside their house?
Chapter 5: Out of Bounds At All Times and No Exceptions
15. When Bruno tells his father that he doesn’t like Out-With and wants to move back to Berlin, his father wonders if he is being brave or disrespectful. Why does Bruno talk to his father in this way? Is he being brave? Or disrespectful? Or something else?
16. Bruno asks his father about the people in the striped pajamas. His father answers, “Those people . . . well, they’re not people at all, Bruno.” What does his father mean by this?
17. At the end of this chapter, we see Bruno saying the words “Heil Hitler” to his father. Although we have heard about “The Fury” before, this is the first time we have read the Fury’s name. How did you feel when you read this?
Chapter 6: The Overpaid Maid
18. A symbol is something that represents something else. Symbols can be visual: ü is a symbol that something is correct, J is a symbol that means “happy”, and N is a symbol that means “poison”. Words can also be symbols, and novelists love to use words as symbols. Look at the opening paragraph of chapter 5. What do you think the cracked and peeling ceiling symbolizes?
19. Why is Maria’s story important? Is Maria overpaid?
20. What changes do we see in Bruno in this chapter?
Chapter 7: How Mother Took Credit for Something That She Hadn’t Done
21. What do learn about Gretel in this chapter?
22. What do we learn about Lieutenant Kotler?
23. In Chapter 7, we meet a new character, Pavel. What do we learn about him? What kind of person is he?
24. Why does Mother say to Pavel, “If the Commandant asks, we’ll say that I cleaned Bruno up.”?
Chapter 8: Why Grandmother Stormed Out
25. This chapter is not in chronological order with the previous chapters. Why do you think the author put it here?
26. From Bruno’s perspective, we learn something more about some of the characters in the novel. What do we learn about Grandmother is this chapter? About Grandfather? About Mother? About Father?
Chapter 9: Bruno Remembers That He Used to Enjoy Exploration
27. On page 99, Bruno thinks, “When I was a child . . . I used to enjoy exploring.” Why has Bruno forgotten that he used to enjoy exploration? What else has Bruno forgotten?
28. Why does Bruno begin to wonder about the people in the striped pajamas?
29. Bruno has lived at Out-With for “months now” (p. 99). Is it believable that Bruno still does not know what happens in the Out-With camp?
30. When Bruno touches the brass plaque ion the bench, he finds it very cold (p. 102). What does the cold symbolize?
Chapter 10: The Dot That Became a Speck That Became a Blob That Became a Boy
31. What does the chapter title mean? Have you ever seen a dot that became a speck that became a blob that became a person? How did you feel?
32. Writers sometimes use coincidence, or a chance occurrence. Bruno and Shmuel have the same birthday, April 15, 1934. Why do you think John Boyne gave the two boys the same birthday?
33. Describe Bruno and Shmuel’s first meeting. What do they have in common? What separates them?
Chapter 11: The Fury
34. Chapter 10 ends with Bruno asking Shmuel, “Why are there so many people on that side of the fence? And what are you all doing there?” (p. 115). When you turn the page, expecting an answer to this question, you see that Chapter 11 begins with the words, “Some months earlier. . . .” Chapter 11, like Chapter 8, is out of chronological order. Why do you think John Boyne put this chapter here, instead of at the beginning of the book?
35. What does Bruno think of the Fury? Of Eva?
36. What do Bruno’s parents think of the Fury?
37. What is your impression of the Fury, from Bruno’s description of him?
Chapter 12: Shmuel thinks of an answer to Bruno’s question
38. Chapter 12 begins with Shmuel answering the question that Bruno asked him at the end of Chapter 10. Is this effective? Or do you think that Chapter 11 should have been placed at the very beginning of the book, where it belongs chronologically?
39. When Shmuel draws the Star of David on the ground, Bruno draws a swastika. Why does Shmuel say, “Yes, but they’re different, aren’t they?” (p. 127).
40. As Shmuel continues telling his story, what is Bruno’s reaction?
41. Why doesn’t Shmuel answer Bruno’s question, “What time do you have [your dinner]?” (p. 131).
42. Read again the last sentence of this chapter: “Bruno was of the opinion that when it came to parents, and especially when it came to sisters, what they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them.” What does this mean? Do you think that what Bruno doesn’t know could hurt him?
Chapter 13: The Bottle of Wine
43. Bruno and Shmuel have been meeting for several weeks now. Does Bruno understand anything more about Shmuel’s life behind the fence? How do you know?
44. Bruno says that Lieutenant Kotler “strides around as if he owns the place and laughs with your mother and whispers with your mother” (pp. 139-140). What do you think is happening here? Look at how Mother reacts when Gretel touches Lieutenant Kotler’s arm on p. 144.
45. This is a long chapter, with three scenes: first Bruno talks with Maria about Pavel, then Bruno talks with Shmuel about Pavel; and finally, we have the dinner
scene, with Pavel serving the family and Lieutenant Kotler dinner. How does John Boyne prepare us for the violence at the end of the chapter?
Chapter 14: Bruno tells a Perfectly Reasonable Lie
46. Why does Bruno lie to Gretel?
47. Bruno tells Gretel what Shmuel had told him about his grandfather’s disappearance. As Bruno speaks, he realizes for the first time that Shmuel must be very sad. Why does he only understand this now?
48. Now that Bruno has lied to Gretel about Shmuel, do you think he will ever tell his parents about his new friend?
Chapter 15: Something He Shouldn’t Have Done
49. On p. 163, Bruno tells us that "whenever Father was called away to Berlin on an overnight trip [Lieutenant Kotler] hung around the house as if her were in charge; he would be there when Bruno was going to bed and be back again in the morning before he even woke up.” (p. 163). What can we infer from Bruno’s observation?
50. Shmuel has told us that there are “hundreds” of children in Out-With, yet Lieutenant Kotler has chosen him to come and polish glasses in Bruno’s house. This is a coincidence. A coincidence is something important that happens by chance, without being planned. What other coincidences happen between Bruno and Shmuel? Are all these coincidences believable?
51. On page 168, when Bruno finds Shmuel in the kitchen, he eats in front of him, even though (to us) it is obvious that Shmuel is starving. Why doesn’t Bruno see this?
52. Does Bruno do more than one thing he shouldn’t have done in this chapter? What do you think the “something he shouldn’t have done” in the chapter title refers to?
53. Why does Bruno deny that he knows Shmuel? Were you surprised at Bruno’s lie? Is this lie “perfectly reasonable”, like the lie Bruno tells in Chapter 14? How is this lie different?
54. When Bruno finally sees Shmuel again, he sees his bruised face and asks him if he fell off his bicycle. Why do you think Bruno can’t understand what has happened to his friend?
Chapter 16: The Haircut
55. How does Bruno feel about Grandmother’s death?
56. Based on what happened in Chapter 13 and your inference for question 49, why do you think Lieutenant Kotler was transferred from Out-With?
56. Foreshadowing is the word used to describe when an author puts clues in their writing to warn us that something bad is going to happen. Can you predict why Bruno’s haircut is so important to the novel? Can you find examples of foreshadowing in this chapter?
57. What can we infer from Mother’s naps and medicinal sherries?
Chapter 17: Mother Gets Her Own Way
58. What does Mother get her own way about? How does Bruno feel about this?
59. Bruno tells his father that there are “hundreds” of children at Out-With. After questioning him, Father “hesitated again, and then nodded his head, as if he had made a final decision.” (p. 191). Do you think Father was almost ready to tell Bruno about Out-With? Why didn’t he?
Chapter 18: Thinking up the Final Adventure
60. When Shmuel tells Bruno that the soldiers hate the people in the striped pajamas, Bruno is surprised and says, “I’m sure they don’t hate you” (p. 195). Bruno has seen for himself the cruelty of Lieutenant Kotler. Do you find it believable that he still does not understand what is happening at Out-With?
61. In this chapter, we see Bruno’s father from Shmuel’s perspective: “He had seen Bruno’s father on any number of occasions and couldn’t understand how such a man could have a son who was so friendly and kind.” What can we infer about Bruno’s father from this statement?
Chapter 19: What Happened the Next Day
62. When Bruno puts on the striped pajamas that Shmuel has brought him, he quotes his grandmother, “You wear the right outfit and you feel like the person you’re pretending to be” (p. 205). How important is this idea to the novel?
63. When Bruno finally sees Out-with for himself, he finds that the camp is not at all as he imagined it would be. John Boyne describes the camp from Bruno’s perspective by first of all saying what it is not (p. 207). Did you find this an effective approach? Why or why not?
64. Bruno talks a lot about chaos throughout the book. Here is the last paragraph of the second-last chapter:
And then the room went very dark and somehow, despite the chaos that followed, Bruno found he was still holding Shmuel’s hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go. (p. 213).
How is the chaos here different from the other time in the book when Bruno has talked about chaos?
Chapter 20: The Last Chapter
65. All the other chapters have interesting titles. Why is this chapter called simply, “The Last Chapter”?
66. How does Bruno’s father react at the end of the book when he finally realizes what has happened to Bruno? What do you think he feels?
67. Bruno’s story ends at Chapter 19. Do you think the book would have been better if it hand ended after Chapter 19? Is Chapter 20 necessary?