The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas fits into two genres. First, it’s historical fiction, as it tells a story grounded in the real events of World War II and the Holocaust through a fictionalized lens. The novel focuses on the imagined friendship between Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, and Shmuel, a Jewish boy imprisoned at Auschwitz. The lives of Bruno’s family, especially his father’s work as the Commandant of the concentration camp, are the background against which this secret friendship plays out. Through imagining Bruno and Shmuel’s developing friendship, the author examines the devastating realities of the Holocaust in a way that makes them feel personal. The reader learns about the atrocities at Auschwitz through the lens of a child seeing them for the first time. They gain context and understanding as Bruno does, though they quickly begin to suspect more than he understands about his world.