Hello blog readers! When I last concluded reading my exciting assigned portion of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, our protagonist, Bruno, had just moved into his new home. Since my last blog installment, very little has happened. In a short, the last 4 chapters consisted of Bruno inquiring about the ominous and unfriendly looking Concentration Camp near his house, and his family refusing to make the situation clear to Bruno. I have recently made several inferences from the text. Throughout the introduction of the book, Bruno’s sister Gretel was not referred to by name, but simply referenced as the “Hopeless Case.” I inferred that Gretel had a mental illness, as in the early 1940s, people (Nazis are no exception) were less accepting of those with disabilities. I also infer that the place next to Bruno’s house that has only been described as “a nasty place…” (37) with a “very high fence…” (31) and “no greenery anywhere to be seen in the distance…”(32) is a Concentration Camp. When Bruno asked his father to tell him who the people behind the fence were, his father clearly stated, “They’re not people at all.”(53) This leads me to conclude that the mysterious place next to Bruno’s new house must be a Concentration Camp, as Bruno’s father is a commandant in the Nazi regime, and it is common knowledge that the Nazis thought of Jews as if they weren’t people, but were rather a scourge, plaguing the superior Aryans. I have one question of the text as of right now. My question is, “What string of events will lead Bruno to encounter the title character?” Throughout the duration of the book, Bruno has often fantasized of running away from his new home, back to Berlin, and I believe that it will be this desire to get away that will lead Bruno to lose his way and end up at some part of the perimeter of the Concentration Camp. Bruno is also a curious child, and I think it is also a possibility that his curiosity got the best of him, and he took a stroll down towards the Concentration Camp.
Thanks, Ben. You've asked some good questions. I'm not sure about the sarcasm at the beginning of this post. It seems artificial and unnecessary.I am beginning to guess this might not have been the best book choice for you. Think carefully during the next selection process, please. In any case, you did make some appropriate inferences and used text clues to support your thinking. Please consider separating paragraphs when you address different skills. For exmaple, inferences and questions would make for strong paragraphs alone.
ReplyDelete4.5/5 points.