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Idioms
Definition of Imagery
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Small Boys, Grandfathers:
When Bruno looks out of his bedroom window, he sees hundreds of people beyond the fence, all wearing the same clothes. In this passage, the author uses visual imagery to show the uniformity and dehumanization that the Auschwitz uniforms imposed on the people the Nazis imprisoned and murdered:
[...] [H]e watched the hundreds of people in the distance going about their business, and that was the fact that all of them—the small boys, the big boys, the fathers, the grandfathers, the uncles, the people who lived on their own on everybody's road but didn't seem to have any relatives at all—were wearing the same clothes as each other: a pair of grey striped pyjamas with a grey striped cap on their heads.
The Nazis removed all possible physical identifiers of difference from the people they imprisoned in the concentration camps. Removing their autonomy and individuality was a way to dehumanize them for their captors and was intended to make killing and torturing them easier. Here, the reader and Bruno experience seeing the prisoners not as individuals, but as part of an undifferentiated mass. The long sentence listing "small boys, big boys, fathers, grandfathers, uncles" shows the vast scope of people Auschwitz contained. Boys of Bruno’s age were not safe from Nazi inhumanity. The visual imagery of the "grey striped pyjamas" and "grey striped cap" illustrates the physical uniformity that Auschwitz’s striped uniforms forced on the camp's prisoners. The repeated mention of "grey" also reinforces the lifelessness and monotony of existence in a concentration camp.
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Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Became a Figure:
Bruno worries that Shmuel has stopped wanting to visit him and sits anxiously by the fence. The narrator employs visual imagery to show Bruno's anticipation and relief as he sees his friend approaching from a distance:
[Bruno was] extremely worried that he would have to leave Out-With without seeing his friend again, when a dot in the distance became a speck and that became a blob and that became a figure and that in turn became the boy in the striped pyjamas.
The progression of visual imagery from "dot" to "speck," then "blob," "figure," and finally "the boy in the striped pyjamas” brings Shmuel’s approaching figure to life for the reader. Each step of this imagery reflects Bruno’s growing recognition and relief as the physical distance between the two boys resolves. Shmuel’s transformation from an indistinct "dot" to a recognizable "figure" mirrors Bruno’s emotional journey from anxiety to reassurance. The bigger and clearer Shmuel gets, the more assured Bruno is that his friend has not abandoned him.
Tellingly, the description avoids using Shmuel’s name. Bruno only identifies him here as "the boy in the striped pyjamas." Although Bruno is worried about his friend, the phrasing Boyne uses here emphasizes Bruno’s limited understanding of Shmuel’s individuality. For Bruno, Shmuel remains defined by his striped uniform. While Bruno loves Shmuel, he has no idea what the other boy has been going through. His perspective remains shaped by ignorance, especially as he often glosses over the implied pain in things Shmuel says. Bruno’s problems are tiny in comparison to Shmuel’s, but Bruno struggles to see beyond his own limitations. This depiction heightens the reader’s awareness of the tragic circumstances surrounding their friendship. Bruno wants to see Shmuel before he and his family leave “Out-with,” while Shmuel is never sure whether someone or something at Auschwitz will kill him before he sees Bruno again.
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Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Shut In:
Bruno doesn’t know why he, Shmuel, and the large group of prisoners around them have been forced into a crowded room. However, everyone else seems to be all too aware. Boyne uses auditory imagery to capture the horrifying finality of the moment as the gas chamber doors close behind the crowd of men and boys:
Shmuel may well have opened his mouth to say something back, but Bruno never heard it because at that moment there was a loud gasp from all the marchers who had filled the room, as the door at the front was suddenly closed and a loud metallic sound rang through from the outside.
The auditory imagery of the collective "gasp" captures the fear and shock the adults in the crowd feel as they realize the gravity of their situation. It’s unclear whether or not they know they are being taken to a gas chamber before this, but the “gasp” indicates that everyone is now certain what is about to happen. It’s a moment of unspoken shared understanding among the prisoners. Bruno still has no idea what is happening,and whatever Shmuel “opens his mouth” to tell him is drowned out by the group’s larger expression of terror. The "loud metallic sound" of the door then punctuates the scene, cutting through the “gasp.” Its harsh, mechanical “ring” overrides the sound of the "gasp." The metallic clang also silences any potential response, reinforcing the prisoners’ helplessness.
For Bruno, the loud metallic sound is merely that of a door closing. In his previous experience that hasn’t been frightening, but it means something very different to the Jews around him. Bruno has never had to fear barriers or imprisonment, but he’s the only person in the Auschwitz gas chamber for whom that’s true.
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Explanation and Analysis—In the Crowd:
As they are searching for Shmuel’s father in the camp, Bruno and Shmuel are accidentally swept up in a line of marching prisoners being herded into the gas chambers. The narrator employs tactile imagery and metaphor to immerse the reader in Bruno’s overwhelming physical experience of this horrible moment:
Bruno closed his eyes for a moment and felt it wash over him. When he opened them again he wasn't so much marching as being swept along by the group of people, and all he could feel was the mud that was caked all over his body and his pyjamas clinging to his skin with all the rain and he longed to be back in his house, watching all this from a distance and not wrapped up in the centre of it.
The tactile imagery of "mud caked all over his body" and "pyjamas clinging to his skin with all the rain" conveys Bruno’s helplessness and physical discomfort at being swept away. The unpleasant sensory details immerse the reader in his experience, as they can almost feel the unforgivingly wet and oppressive environment around him. In contrast to his warm street clothes, which now lie on the other side of the fence, Bruno is chilled to the bone and soaking in his “striped pajamas.” The combination of the pajamas “clinging” to him and the description of his longing for home also make the reader feel the emotional heaviness and fear Bruno endures.
The metaphor of sensations "washing over him" compares the crowd to a flood, which illustrates Bruno’s lack of control as he is swept along. He has no power to escape, the crowd carrying him helplessly as though he were caught in a literal current. Bruno doesn’t know that none of the prisoners can escape the “current” that has seized them. However, he’s come too far to turn back and knows he’s “wrapped up in the centre of it.”
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