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Imagery
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Out-With:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas relies heavily on dramatic irony. In a work of fiction, dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows more about what’s truly going on in a story than its characters do. Aside from its final chapter, the entirety of this novel is written from the naive perspective of Bruno, a nine-year-old child. Bruno is old enough to be curious, but is also too young and sheltered to understand the horrors around him. This approach creates tension between the reader’s awareness of Auschwitz and the Holocaust and Bruno’s simplistic, often misguided interpretations of what the adults around him are doing.
Bruno’s inability to recognize the atrocities occurring beyond the fenced boundary of Auschwitz demonstrates the power of propaganda and societal indoctrination. No one in a position of authority in Bruno's life is telling him that what’s happening at Auschwitz is bad. Even his Grandmother doesn't explain, although she stops speaking to her son when he becomes the Commandant of the camp. Bruno is forced to come to conclusions about what is happening by himself through conversations with Pavel, Shmuel, and Maria. Although kind-hearted and curious, Bruno has also grown up in a Nazi household and been educated in a Nazi environment. Boyne’s use of dramatic irony, in addition to driving the plot of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, urges readers to reflect on how much children are affected by the ideologies of their parents and teachers. Bruno’s belief in Germany’s supposed “superiority” and his initial, casual dismissals of Shmuel’s suffering show the toxic influence of his environment.
The reader also sees this in Gretel, who tells Bruno that they and their family are better than Jews but cannot explain why that’s the case. The novel's dramatic irony pushes readers to consider how ordinary people, especially children, were conditioned to accept and overlook systemic cruelty. By using Bruno’s sympathetic perspective, Boyne raises difficult questions about complicity and ignorance for his reader.
However, the novel’s dramatic irony also reveals how even a sheltered child might be able to sense the underlying wrongness in his surroundings. Bruno’s questions about the camp, the people within it, and Shmuel’s life show that he sees the injustice in the difference of their living conditions. Even though his love and respect for his father prevent him from hating the Nazi soldiers, he’s troubled by the casual cruelty of people like Lieutenant Kohler. The novel’s climax, where Bruno enters the concentration camp and is swept into a gas chamber in a crowd of Jewish men, is its most painful moment of dramatic irony. The reader gets a horrible sense that Bruno won’t come back to the “safe” side of the fence, but is powerless to warn him about what seems inevitable.
Related Themes:
Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Imaginary Friend:
On a rainy day, Gretel bullies Bruno into telling her about Shmuel; Bruno lies and says Shmuel is an “imaginary friend.” Here, the author uses idiom and verbal irony to show Gretel’s dismissive attitude toward her brother’s playmate:
'He sounds like a barrel of laughs,' said Gretel. 'I wish he was my imaginary friend.'
The idiom "a barrel of laughs” is normally used to describe someone exceptionally entertaining. The phrase implies that such a person contains a huge volume of entertainment within them. However, the phrase carries a verbally ironic meaning here. Gretel employs the phrase sarcastically to suggest she actually thinks the opposite is true. As she uses it here, the phrase implies that Bruno’s friend must be dull or unimpressive.
This sarcastic use of a typically positive expression is sisterly meanness. She’s making her mockery of Bruno even more dismissive than it would be otherwise. By saying she thinks Shmuel sounds like a “barrel of laughs,” she’s trying to make Bruno feel bad about how he entertains himself in their lonely life at "Out-with." Her words directly contradict their literal meaning in a way that makes them acutely cruel. This irony shows Gretel’s dismissive attitude and her lack of empathy for Bruno. She often treats him as though she knows far more than he does and belittles his lack of experience, and this moment is a prime example.
Related Themes:
Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Bruno and Shmuel:
When Bruno puts on the camp uniform Shmuel brings him, he and his friend suddenly look almost identical. The situational irony in this passage highlights the frailty of the imaginary distinctions the Nazis imposed during the Holocaust:
It was quite extraordinary. If it wasn't for the fact that Bruno was nowhere near as skinny as the boys on his side of the fence, and not quite so pale either, it would have been difficult to tell them apart. It was almost (Shmuel thought) as if they were all exactly the same really.
The situational irony in this passage shows the artificial and cruel distinction that the Auschwitz uniform represents. Bruno and Shmuel look very different when Bruno is in his street clothes. Bruno is a healthy weight, whereas Shmuel and his fellow prisoners are being starved and worked to death inside the camp. In comparison to Bruno’s clean, high-quality clothes, Shmuel’s dirty, weathered “striped pajamas” make him look dingy and woebegone. However, when both boys wear the camp uniforms, they appear nearly identical, despite leading drastically different lives. This visual similarity that Shmuel and Bruno both suddenly see exposes the absurdity of the prejudice and divisions that Nazi ideology enforced. The similarities between the boys here show how baseless the imagined hierarchies among people groups really were.
The phrase "almost (Shmuel thought) as if they were all exactly the same really" deepens the irony. The word "almost"—as Boyne uses it here— highlights the artificiality of the differences between Bruno and Shmuel. Concentration camp uniforms were intended to strip their wearers of individuality and humanity. However, the uniform actually unites the boys visually in this instance, making their similarities even clearer to Shmuel than they were already.
Related Themes:
