The+Boy+in+the+Striped+Pyjamas

 The story is about two boys. They have got the same age but very different childhoods. One is the son of a Nazi commandant and the other is a Jewish boy in a concentration camp. The novel, set in Nazi Germany, begins when the nine-year-old boy (Bruno) and his family  ( his mother, elder sister, and Commandant father), because of his father's job as a nazi officer, must move from their lovely and huge home in Berlin, to a new house in an unfamiliar place called "Out-With" (‘Auschwitz’ in German sounds like that phrase) in the countryside. From his bedroom window, Bruno spots a fence behind which he sees men in 'striped pyjamas'. These are Jews, and they are in a nazi concentration camp. Bruno wonders what is going on at "the camp and why people are always dressed in striped pyjamas there. One afternoon, tempted to explore his new environment, Bruno goes exploring, and meets a Jewish boy called Shmuel. Shmuel soon becomes Bruno's friend and Bruno visits every afternoon to talk. Bruno is told that the people in the striped pyjamas on the other side of the fence are Jews and that he and his family are "the opposite". The story ends when Bruno must return to the family's old home in Berlin. As a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pyjamas and climb under a loose wire in the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who went missing in the camp. The boys are unable to find him, and just as it starts to rain and get dark, Bruno decides he would like to go home, yet the Nazis in the area of the camp force the boys to go on a march without knowing where they are being led .However, they are soon crowded into a gas chamber, and the story ends with Bruno holding Shmuel's hand.   I think that the plot of this novel is interesting but from my point of view it´s a very sad book with an unhappy ending, I don´t like the way it finishes. Undoubtedly, the author´s descriptions of people and places help readers get to know and understand the lifestyle of those times. Also, it gives us information about different lifestyles according to religion -Jews living at the concentration camps and those “opposite” living in big and confortable houses, without any shortage of clothes or food. Although it´s a sad story, it was the harsh reality of a past in which many innocent people died due to a few people's political and religious affairs.  (Pilar Palencia, A2)