“You’re my best friend … My best friend for life” (Boyne, 2008, p. 213)
This week’s blog is about the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. A fictional Holocaust story about a forbidden friendship between Bruno and Shmuel in wartime Germany. Although they were both born on the same day, their lives appear to be so different. The boys’ story gives insight into a naïve or even child-like worldview during wartime, which is surprisingly super interesting.
Nowadays, books written for young adults are more grown-up than ever before. “The result is that the line between children’s fiction and adult fiction has blurred” (Rees, 2003, p.1). This crossover genre anticipates both young and adult reader’s needs. Similarly, Boyne’s novel blurs age-restricted lines, mainly because of the powerful but child-like narrative which is adored by YA and adults but more importantly, engages readers (Said, 2003 & Rees, 2003). To illustrate, the book is written in the third person omniscient point of view. Therefore, while reading, you will get to know the world according to Bruno’s descriptions of people and places which makes him a strong narrator. Nevertheless, most events are shown through the eyes of Bruno, a young boy with childish ignorance. During class, we discussed how readers of age can detect the underlying message and structural irony of the book. We concluded that since adults have a better understanding of the setting of the story, they can detect clues that younger readers might fail to notice. For example, the name of the new house Bruno moves to sounds like Auschwitz, Out-with which portrays the strongly present racism during World War 2.
However, crossover books can be written towards a specific audience. In this case, I think this book might be targeted towards a younger audience because of the literary genre and archetypal conflicts.
To start with, the literary genre is a tragedy and therefore, very suitable to just an adolescent audience (12- to 18-year-olds). “Tragedy is the literary genre that suits the adolescent’s realization that the real world is not the green world of romance but a much darker and more dangerous place” (Appleyard, 1991, p.15). According to Appleyard (1991), adolescents like to read about stories that reflect realistically the darker parts of life. A typical archetype of this genre is sacrifice. To illustrate,
“Bruno sighed, but he knew that his friend was right, and he took off the boots and his socks and left them beside the pile of clothes on the ground. At first, it felt horrible putting his bare feet into so much mud; they sank down to his ankles and every time he lifted a foot it felt worse” (Boyne, 2008, p. 129).
In the story, Bruno sacrifices himself to be equal to Shmuel by wearing the striped pajamas which represent the uniform the inhabitants of Auschwitz had to wear.
Subsequently, this crossover story is in particular, relatable to adolescents because it describes how characters cope with internal conflicts which are typical adolescent behavior. The principal characters’ personal development can be linked to Erikson’s theory. According to Erikson (1970), while facing an identity crisis, adolescents develop a sense of self and personal identity. Along with, in the search for identity, you become more prone to environmental influences, (Hall, 2016). Especially by people who reflect similar interests and beliefs. In the book, Gretel, Bruno’s older sister, has been persuaded by Nazi ideologies. In her coming-of-age story, she changes from a naïve girl to a brainwashed teenager. Greta’s motivation to fit in and become a perfect Arain girl stands on the fact that she wants to impress her crush, Kotler. Although Bruno was also exposed to Nazi theories, he doesn’t become influenced by them. He is simply too naïve to have a greater understanding of the situation and because of his dislike of Kotler, a handsome and strong fanatic, Nazi ideologies do not impress him. At the end of the story, Bruno appears to have worked out a balance between his “newfound sense of possibility and the restrictions with which adult society often appears to be threatening them” (Appleyard, 1991, p. 3). Although the setting of the book might not be relatable, the characters’ problems are archetypal and therefore, relatable to adolescents.
Even so, the book also includes elements that are targeted at adult readers. Namely, the book shows the psychological effects of the main characters’ upbringing. Nazi believers raised their children Bruno and Greta, in a strict authorial style which is according to Baumrind (1966, 1968), characterized by strict control and limited emotional support. Strict authorial upbringing causes restriction of the child’s autonomy, demands for obedience, and stringent control over the child’s self-will. What results in having low self-esteem, decision-making difficulties, and a depressed mood, (Wenar & Kerig, 2000). Bruno and Greta both deal with them differently because of their age difference. For example, Greta focuses on dedicating herself to being a good Arian and Bruno escapes.
To conclude, this is a great crossover book for people who like fiction books that are quite realistic and show darker parts of life. Because of the underlying message, literary genre and an interesting coming of age story for adolescents, and adults to reflect on, this book is indeed suitable for a wider audience and therefore, could be considered a crossover.
Bibliography
Amazon Digital Services LLC (2020). The Boy In The Striped Pajamas [image]. Retrieved on March 1, 2020, from https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Striped-Pajamas-Asa-Butterfield/dp/B00628RFPM
Appleyard, J. A. (1991). Becoming a reader: the experience of fiction from childhood to adulthood. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Baumrind, D. (1966). Effects of authoritative control on child behavior. Child Dev. 37, 887–907. doi: 10.2307/1126611
Baumrind, D. (1968). Authoritarian vs. authoritative parental control. Adolescence 3, 255–272.
Boyne, J. (2008). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York, United States of America: Penguin Random House.
Erikson, E.H. (1970). Reflections on the dissent of contemporary youth. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 51, 11-22.
Hall, G. (2016). The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Rees, J. (2003, November 17). We’re all reading children’s books [pdf]. Retrieved March 1, 2020, from https://hubl.hu.nl/archive/file/23621
Wenar, C., and Kerig, P. (2000). Developmental Psychopathology: From Infancy Through Adolescence, 4th Edn. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill)
Literature II: Youth Literature 