Narrative Techniques in the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...

Narrative Techniques in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a novel by John Boyne. This novel is set during World War 2 and explores themes such as prejudice, racism, war, innocence and friendship. What sets it apart from other novels is that it uses a third person limited point of view, and mostly depicts events as they are seen by a young and naà ¯ve boy. This was one of the main narrative conventions that engaged me in this novel. The point of view is the most interesting and important narrative convention of this novel. It is written in third person limited mostly from Bruno, the young boys, perspective. This means it does not use ‘I’ or ‘we’ but we do get to find out what the main character is†¦show more content†¦He merely parrots back things that he has heard others say as he thinks this is normal and he has no way to know otherwise. One particularly poignant example is â€Å"‘Heil Hitler,’ he said, which, he presumed, was another way of saying, ‘Well, goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon.’† p.54. This made me as a reader wonder wether I would be blind to the harsh reality if I had been raised in that way. I think that this is one of the most important things Boyne wants this novel to make us think about. In parts of the novel Bruno begins to actually lose his innocence and learn and understand more about the world around him. For example, when he is talking to Maria about his father and she starts to speak to him about her earlier life he â€Å"realized for the first time that he had never fully considered her to be a person with a life and a history of her own,† p.60. This process is not fast enough as this innocence still leads to his early death in a gas chamber. However, he thinks that he is just going on a march while he was trying to help his friend, and this means that he is not afraid. His innocence acts like courage, and shields him from fear while placing him in danger. There are also symbols and comparisons made in the novel. Mostly these are during interactions between Bruno and Shmuel, and often they are very unrealistic, and do not further the plot but instead are there just to make a point. ForShow MoreRelated Use of Narrative in John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas1012 Words   |  5 PagesNarrative is a rhetorical structure that distorts reality in order to reveal it. This is an eminently evident actuality in John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Through this distortion, Boyne is able to evoke the reader’s empathy, portray the horror of the Holocaust to a younger audience and convey human’s capacity for inhumanity and indifference. This is achieved by Boyne, primarily through the exaggeration of innocence throughout the novel, the content presented to the audience, and theRead MoreIts Not Finished,, , but My Speech on Reflect Upon How Your Understanding of Representation, History and Memory Has Been Shaped by This Elective1173 Words   |  5 Pageswide range of text types as well as our own knowledge of events represented in the text then we are able to more deeply and with more certainty, define what history and memory is. The poem â€Å"Requiem for the Croppies† by Seamus Heaney, â€Å"The Boy in Striped Pyjamas†, a novel written by John Boyne and the Smithsonian September 11 Website, â€Å"Bearing Witness to History†, enable us as readers to grasp the complexities that are represented between the interplay of history and memory. Representation refersRead MoreEssay on The Short Life of Anne Frank by Gerrit Netten2196 Words   |  9 Pagescinema dramatization of real events ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by Mark Herman. I will be focusing on how each director uses techniques to show true aspects of real life, and how this persuades the audience into believing that they are witnessing something accurate, and true to the directors intention. Gerrit Netten’s 2001 documentary ‘The Short Life of Anne Frank’ and Mark Herman’s 2008 historical drama based film ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, are both based on the innocence perceivedRead MoreEssay About Pajamas And The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas936 Words   |  4 Pages Imagine this! Becoming close friends with a boy that lives on the other side of a fence in a Nazi camp and only being able to talk to them through a fence never being able to run around together or just play a game of tag. Well that’s what happened to a little nine year old boy named Bruno that had to move very far away for his dads work. Bruno wondered beyond the fences when he met a little boy that seemed just like himself but yet his life and circumstances were extremely different then Bruno’s