The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Foil 1 key example

Bruno grows up with a prominent Nazi for a father but is utterly shielded from the horrors of Auschwitz. His life on the outside of the fence offers comfort and freedom. Indeed, his main problems at the beginning of the novel tend to be tiffs with his sister and boredom after leaving Berlin. His curiosity about the world pushes him to question things he cannot understand, but he doesn't always seem too keen to absorb the answers. When he becomes friends with Shmuel, their interactions reveal how limited his perspective truly is. For example, at first Bruno can’t grasp that Shmuel is always wearing the Auschwitz uniform because he is forced to. Shmuel tries to cushion this information by saying he doesn’t have any changes of clothes, a version of the truth Bruno can understand. It simply doesn’t occur to Bruno that Shmuel would not be allowed to visit him at his home for dinner, because nothing in Bruno's life has prepared him for what is happening in the camp. Bruno’s lack of awareness and well-meaning questions are almost unbearable to read.

Shmuel, on the other hand, represents the harsh truths of life inside the camp. Bruno lives with his whole family, but Shmuel has been separated from his mother and sister and loses his father and grandfather to the gas chambers. He tries to protect Bruno from learning the truth about the horrors he endures, often skirting around the truth or refusing to explain the cause of his starvation or his various injuries. While Bruno asks questions, Shmuel often remains silent, because he’s aware of Bruno’s inability to fully comprehend what’s going on. Shmuel’s quietness is frighteningly adult, a resignation to the brutality of his surroundings. His physical confinement and closeness to death directly contrast with Bruno’s freedom and comfort.

This dynamic exposes the cruelty of the system that separates them. It also mirrors what is happening in the world around them. Bruno’s lack of awareness is a smaller version of the denial many Germans lived in about what the Nazis were doing with all of the people they kidnapped. Shmuel’s inability to describe his experiences, conversely, represents the silencing of the oppressed and dehumanized prisoners that the Nazis attempted to enforce.