lauren sands- character sketch

Character sketch-

Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne:

In the beginning, my intuition of Bruno was that he was a spoiled little boy. He was moving out of Berlin with his family to go to a place called “Out With”, which was their residence near the concentration camp. As the house in Berlin is described, you become aware of their wealth. To add to that, their family had to move up to Out With, meaning that Bruno’s father must have played a very critical position in the camp. Bruno reminds me of my younger cousin, because he is naive of what is happening in the holocaust. Bruno didn’t know a lot about Jews or even that he lived next to a camp. My cousin is also a big adventurer, like Bruno. Although Bruno was clearly informed that he shouldn’t explore, it was his nature and he couldn’t contain himself. It was these explorations that lead him to the camp. Judging Bruno from his elegant clothing, you can see that Bruno had to dress to impress. Many important soldiers would come to his house, including “the Fury”. Although, judging that the garment was too small, states that his life wasn’t always about looking fancy for others. From Bruno’s behavior, and the way his family treats him, you can tell that Bruno is like any other young boy; He loves to play and is very curious. He could remember the times at his old house and he recalled when he “used to enjoy exploring. And that was in Berlin, where (he) knew everywhere and could find anything (he) wanted with a blindfold on. (He has) never done any exploring here. Perhaps its time (he should) start (99)”. He starts to explore outside of his household area. Soon after he leaves his home, he walks right into the face of death. The sad thing is that Bruno never did realize what he was doing, or exactly why Shmuel, his companion from the camp, always looked so drowsy and famished. It was his curiosity that set him up to die.