Characterizations
Bruno
Bruno is a nine year old boy and the protagonist of the book. At the beginning of the book he lives with his family in Berlin, but later he has to move to Out-With (Auschwitz) because of his father’s new job, even though he does not really want to.
When he was in Berlin, he had three friends he really liked: Karl, Martin and Daniel. But after living some time in Out-With, he even forgot their names. He has a good relationship with the maid, Maria. They talk a lot and she even told him things she was not allowed to. He has a tense relationship with his family, especially since they moved. His parents are very strict, especially his father. For example he must not interrupt, when his mother talks. He does not really know a lot about his father’s job, except that he is a soldier. Bruno does not really like his sister Gretel. He always calls her a “hopeless case”. Later, in Out-With, he meets Shmuel, a boy living in a concentration camp. He does not tell anyone about him, because he knew something was not alright with him. Shmuel and Bruno become very good friends. Sometimes Bruno even brought Shmuel some food.
Bruno likes exploring, reading and art. He even likes football and he loves eating chocolate, even though his mother told him it rots his teeth. Bruno hates crying, because he then feels like a baby. At first Bruno does not really like Out-With, but when time passes by he gets used to it and later he even feels home in Out-With.
In my opinion Bruno is a naive, open-minded and kind-hearted boy, who loves to explore new things.
Shmuel
Shmuel is nine years old. He is a Jewish boy from Poland and was born on 15th April 1934. The little boy´s skin is almost grey and he has very large eyes with the colour of caramel sweets. He is skinny and also looks very sad. Shmuel has to live in the concentration camp “out-with” (“Auschwitz”) with his Jewish father and brother. His Father made watches. His mother was a teacher, who could speak English, German, French and Italian. She made a bracelet with a star on, which Shmuel wears, but she was taken away to another camp only for women. In the concentration camp they have to wear striped clothes, which look like striped pyjamas. Shmuel is “The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas”.
Shmuel sits at the fence of the camp most of the time. One day Bruno and Shmuel meet at the fence and become friends. Now they meet at the fence every afternoon, Shmuel on the one side, Bruno on the other side. Bruno always takes food from his home, which Shmuel can eat then. Shmuel is more mature than Bruno. He has a big knowledge of this horrible situation. The outside world makes it look as if it´s nice to live in a concentration camp and Bruno thinks so too. But Shmuel, who really lives in such a camp, knows better.
I was really sad that Shmuel died in the end, because he was my favourite person in this book.
Gretel
Gretel is a 12 year old girl from Berlin. She lives together at Out-With (Poland) with her younger brother, Bruno, her mother and her father, who is a commandant. Her grandparents, who are her father’s parents, still live in Berlin. While living at Out-With her grandmother dies in Berlin.
The relationship between Gretel and her brother is not quite good because they always fight. Gretel is glad that she is older than her brother because she has got a reason to bully him. Gretel has got three best friends, Hilda, Isobel and Louise who still live in Berlin. She really misses them because at Out-With she does not have any good friends. That’s why the relationship between Gretel and her brother gets a bit better during the time in Out-With: “Bruno stood up and for the first time they stood there together, shoulder to shoulder, and stared at what was happening not fifty feet away from their home” (p36).
Due to the fact that Gretel likes dolls she collects them. She has got four large bags of dolls which she has positioned in a shelf. One day she throws them all away because she decides to hang up maps of Europe. “Gretel decided that she didn’t like dolls anymore and had put them all into four large bags and thrown them away. In their place she had hung up maps of Europe that Father had given her, and every day she put little pins into them and moved the pins around constantly after consulting the daily newspaper” (p. 180). This aspect shows that during the time in Out-With her character changes and she becomes older and more mature.
While living at Out-With she gets to know Lieutnant Ktoler who is a man. They both like each other and always talk. One day Kotler leaves Out-With and Gretel is quite sad about it.
To conclude you can say that Gretel believes everything she hears and that she tries to behave more mature than she actually is. She feels like a teenager but she is just twelve years old.
Bruno’s mother
Bruno’s mother isn’t a protagonist like Bruno or Shmuel in the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. She’s a member of the “Hoess family”. “She is a tall woman with long red hair that she often bundles into a sort of net behind her head” (page 1). She sometimes is nervous when she has to talk about serious things. (page 2). Bruno’s mother is married to Ralf, who is a commandant in the Nazi Army. She has two children, who are called Bruno and Gretel. She is a very good mother because she always tries to care for them. Bruno’s mother hates her husband’s job. During the novel she wants to take her children back to Berlin because she thinks that “Out-With”, which alludes to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, is no place to raise young children. With regard to his job she is very obedient, because she is very upset with how the Nazis treat the Jews. At the beginning of the novel she tries to explain to Bruno how important the father’s job is. He earns the money for the family.
Bruno’s mother is helpful and polite, just like a “role model-mother”. During the story she is always there for her children and helps them to get through the situation.
In my opinion Bruno’s mother is a good mother to her children but in the novel she doesn’t play such a big role, because there are other characters that are more important than she is. I personally think that she is important for Bruno’s family, because it seems to me that she is very accountable for her family and holds them together during this bad time. In my opinion she wants to help Bruno and Gretel to get through this horrible situation. You can see that it’s difficult for her to move to another place, even if she partly knows what will happen in the future.
All in all I can say that Bruno’s mother is an open-minded (?) and friendly person, who is an important member of the family and tries to get through all situations, even if there were some little problems.
Bruno’s Father (Ralf Hoess):
Ralf Hoess is the father of Bruno and Gretel. He is a commandant in the “Nazi-Army”.
He is a strict, patriotic person who does not like Jewish people. When he gets a better job, he and his family have to move to “Out-With”. He is very unfriendly to his Jewish butler, Pavel. His behaviour towards his wife has changed, since his wife knows what has happened with the Jewish people. If she did not know what happened with them, she would like the “SS” and the work of his husband, but now she has a different opinion than the one he has.
His son Bruno does not like him and he is not of the opinion of the Nazis, too. Ralf is very strict to his son and he wants him to think like him, but he is too young to understand the situation and he does not see the difference between the Jews and himself. His daughter Gretel is the only person of his family, who is of the same opinion. She believes everything he tells her. He is very powerful and strict to his Army. In the end, he kills his son accidently, because he wants to gasify the Jews in his concentration camp.
Lieutenant Kotler
Lieutenant Kotler is a lieutenant in the Nazi Army who spends a great deal of time with the Hoess Family. He is 19 years old and very boastful. Lieutenant Kotler enjoys talking with Gretel and he is greatly disliked by Bruno. He hates Pavel very much and treats him badly. Pavel spills wine on Lieutenant Kotler`s uniform so he kills him. Lieutenant Kotler is eventually transferred to a different camp, which makes Bruno very happy.
Bruno is a nine year old boy and the protagonist of the book. At the beginning of the book he lives with his family in Berlin, but later he has to move to Out-With (Auschwitz) because of his father’s new job, even though he does not really want to.
When he was in Berlin, he had three friends he really liked: Karl, Martin and Daniel. But after living some time in Out-With, he even forgot their names. He has a good relationship with the maid, Maria. They talk a lot and she even told him things she was not allowed to. He has a tense relationship with his family, especially since they moved. His parents are very strict, especially his father. For example he must not interrupt, when his mother talks. He does not really know a lot about his father’s job, except that he is a soldier. Bruno does not really like his sister Gretel. He always calls her a “hopeless case”. Later, in Out-With, he meets Shmuel, a boy living in a concentration camp. He does not tell anyone about him, because he knew something was not alright with him. Shmuel and Bruno become very good friends. Sometimes Bruno even brought Shmuel some food.
Bruno likes exploring, reading and art. He even likes football and he loves eating chocolate, even though his mother told him it rots his teeth. Bruno hates crying, because he then feels like a baby. At first Bruno does not really like Out-With, but when time passes by he gets used to it and later he even feels home in Out-With.
In my opinion Bruno is a naive, open-minded and kind-hearted boy, who loves to explore new things.
Shmuel
Shmuel is nine years old. He is a Jewish boy from Poland and was born on 15th April 1934. The little boy´s skin is almost grey and he has very large eyes with the colour of caramel sweets. He is skinny and also looks very sad. Shmuel has to live in the concentration camp “out-with” (“Auschwitz”) with his Jewish father and brother. His Father made watches. His mother was a teacher, who could speak English, German, French and Italian. She made a bracelet with a star on, which Shmuel wears, but she was taken away to another camp only for women. In the concentration camp they have to wear striped clothes, which look like striped pyjamas. Shmuel is “The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas”.
Shmuel sits at the fence of the camp most of the time. One day Bruno and Shmuel meet at the fence and become friends. Now they meet at the fence every afternoon, Shmuel on the one side, Bruno on the other side. Bruno always takes food from his home, which Shmuel can eat then. Shmuel is more mature than Bruno. He has a big knowledge of this horrible situation. The outside world makes it look as if it´s nice to live in a concentration camp and Bruno thinks so too. But Shmuel, who really lives in such a camp, knows better.
I was really sad that Shmuel died in the end, because he was my favourite person in this book.
Gretel
Gretel is a 12 year old girl from Berlin. She lives together at Out-With (Poland) with her younger brother, Bruno, her mother and her father, who is a commandant. Her grandparents, who are her father’s parents, still live in Berlin. While living at Out-With her grandmother dies in Berlin.
The relationship between Gretel and her brother is not quite good because they always fight. Gretel is glad that she is older than her brother because she has got a reason to bully him. Gretel has got three best friends, Hilda, Isobel and Louise who still live in Berlin. She really misses them because at Out-With she does not have any good friends. That’s why the relationship between Gretel and her brother gets a bit better during the time in Out-With: “Bruno stood up and for the first time they stood there together, shoulder to shoulder, and stared at what was happening not fifty feet away from their home” (p36).
Due to the fact that Gretel likes dolls she collects them. She has got four large bags of dolls which she has positioned in a shelf. One day she throws them all away because she decides to hang up maps of Europe. “Gretel decided that she didn’t like dolls anymore and had put them all into four large bags and thrown them away. In their place she had hung up maps of Europe that Father had given her, and every day she put little pins into them and moved the pins around constantly after consulting the daily newspaper” (p. 180). This aspect shows that during the time in Out-With her character changes and she becomes older and more mature.
While living at Out-With she gets to know Lieutnant Ktoler who is a man. They both like each other and always talk. One day Kotler leaves Out-With and Gretel is quite sad about it.
To conclude you can say that Gretel believes everything she hears and that she tries to behave more mature than she actually is. She feels like a teenager but she is just twelve years old.
Bruno’s mother
Bruno’s mother isn’t a protagonist like Bruno or Shmuel in the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. She’s a member of the “Hoess family”. “She is a tall woman with long red hair that she often bundles into a sort of net behind her head” (page 1). She sometimes is nervous when she has to talk about serious things. (page 2). Bruno’s mother is married to Ralf, who is a commandant in the Nazi Army. She has two children, who are called Bruno and Gretel. She is a very good mother because she always tries to care for them. Bruno’s mother hates her husband’s job. During the novel she wants to take her children back to Berlin because she thinks that “Out-With”, which alludes to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, is no place to raise young children. With regard to his job she is very obedient, because she is very upset with how the Nazis treat the Jews. At the beginning of the novel she tries to explain to Bruno how important the father’s job is. He earns the money for the family.
Bruno’s mother is helpful and polite, just like a “role model-mother”. During the story she is always there for her children and helps them to get through the situation.
In my opinion Bruno’s mother is a good mother to her children but in the novel she doesn’t play such a big role, because there are other characters that are more important than she is. I personally think that she is important for Bruno’s family, because it seems to me that she is very accountable for her family and holds them together during this bad time. In my opinion she wants to help Bruno and Gretel to get through this horrible situation. You can see that it’s difficult for her to move to another place, even if she partly knows what will happen in the future.
All in all I can say that Bruno’s mother is an open-minded (?) and friendly person, who is an important member of the family and tries to get through all situations, even if there were some little problems.
Bruno’s Father (Ralf Hoess):
Ralf Hoess is the father of Bruno and Gretel. He is a commandant in the “Nazi-Army”.
He is a strict, patriotic person who does not like Jewish people. When he gets a better job, he and his family have to move to “Out-With”. He is very unfriendly to his Jewish butler, Pavel. His behaviour towards his wife has changed, since his wife knows what has happened with the Jewish people. If she did not know what happened with them, she would like the “SS” and the work of his husband, but now she has a different opinion than the one he has.
His son Bruno does not like him and he is not of the opinion of the Nazis, too. Ralf is very strict to his son and he wants him to think like him, but he is too young to understand the situation and he does not see the difference between the Jews and himself. His daughter Gretel is the only person of his family, who is of the same opinion. She believes everything he tells her. He is very powerful and strict to his Army. In the end, he kills his son accidently, because he wants to gasify the Jews in his concentration camp.
Lieutenant Kotler
Lieutenant Kotler is a lieutenant in the Nazi Army who spends a great deal of time with the Hoess Family. He is 19 years old and very boastful. Lieutenant Kotler enjoys talking with Gretel and he is greatly disliked by Bruno. He hates Pavel very much and treats him badly. Pavel spills wine on Lieutenant Kotler`s uniform so he kills him. Lieutenant Kotler is eventually transferred to a different camp, which makes Bruno very happy.
heimunidue - 13. Feb, 18:03
