new house, he needs to deal with a dull environment and loneliness. It could be seen from the datum below.
‘Like it?’ replied Bruno with a slight laugh. ‘Like it?’ he repeated, but louder this time
.
‘Of course I don’t like it It’s awful. There’s nothing to
do, there’s no one to talk to, nobody to play with. You can’t tell me that you’re happy we’ve moved here, surely?’ Boyne, 2007:57
The quotation shows Bruno’s anger towards the new house. He thinks that the house is horrible and he wants to move back to his old home in Berlin. The most
important thing from the quotation above is how Bruno wishes that Maria could see from his perspective. Bruno wants to be heard although his voice is not
always right. Children’s situation is similar to Bruno where he chooses to suppress his own
feeling because he feels dominated by other people or he feels useless to speak up. Children could relate to Bruno’s situation where he should obey his parent’s
decision without even understanding the reason behind it. The suppression of anger could lead into spontaneous explosion of anger. This quotation could set
the example.
‘I don’t want to accept it’ shouted Bruno, blinking in surprise he hadn’t known he was going to shout out loud.
In fact it came as a complete surprise to him. Boyne, 2007:52
Bruno bursts out his anger without even realizes it. This is a result of his
suppression of anger . Bruno’s parents should play as the center parts
to make Bruno understand upon their new situation instead of making him suppress his
own emotions. When Bruno shouts, he is afraid that his spontaneous action will
make his father angry. Bruno is afraid of his father’s anger so he thinks that he
should not make his father angry in any condition. Therefore, most of the time, he keeps his anger inside.
b. People’s Oppression Toward Children
The second theme which mostly appears as one of the biggest issue brought in Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is oppression. The oppression towards
children can be seen from various treatments people do towards children. One of which is mistreatment. Mistreatment is a severe problem faced by children in
their daily lives when they interact with adults. Mistreatment also becomes part of oppression to children. It shows how children are treated inappropriately as they
are underestimated. Many adults do not really pay much attention to how children’s feel and how to explain things to children. On the other side, there are
just too many cruel situations which make children put as the inferior ones and easily dominated.
In the novel, Bruno gets many unfair treatments from people around him. Not only do his parents and the other adults around him but also his sister often pick
on him. The datum below shows how Bruno’s sister, Gretel and her friends like
to pick on Bruno. She had some very unpleasant friends too, who seemed to think that it was
clever to make fun of him, a thing he never would have done if he had been
three years older than her. All Gretel’s unpleasant friends seemed to enjoy
nothing more than torturing him and said nasty things to him whenever Mother or Maria were nowhere in sight.
‘Bruno’s not nine, he’s only six,’ said one particular monster over and over again in a sing-song voice, dancing around him and poking him in
the ribs.
‘I’m not six, I’m nine,’ he protested, trying to get away. ‘Then why are you so small?’ asked the monster.
‘All the other nine-year-olds are bigger than you’. Boyne, 2007:22
From the quotation above, Bruno shows how Gretel can be mean to him. As an
older child, Gretel is expected to take care of her own brother. In fact, she often teases Bruno for being short. Gretel also makes his friends to have an eye on
Bruno and together tease Bruno for being short. On the other side, Bruno has a mature side of him when he said that he will never do that to anybody else even if
he is at the same age as Gretel. He seeks no pleasure in teasing the other children. Bruno also experienced a severe bullying from Gretel’s friends when there are no
adults around. From Bruno’s experience in being bullied, it is not only adults who have the power to oppress children. Older children also have the power to oppress
the younger ones. The oppression
towards Bruno does not only come from Bruno’s sister. Bruno’s teacher, Herr Lizst, also preaches Bruno to only study particular things
which he thinks suitable for Bruno. Teacher plays a center part in terms of formal education to children. A teacher is supposed to assist children with their interest
of learning and direct their potential without explicitly telling children what to do
and what not to do. They let children discover their own self. In the quotation below, it shows how Herr Lizst
tries to preach Bruno.
‘Those things are useless to you,’ insisted the teacher. ‘A sound understanding of the social sciences is far more important in this day and
age.’
‘Grandmother always let us performs in plays back in Berlin,’ Bruno pointed out.
‘Your Grandmother was not your teacher though, was she?’ asked Herr Liszt.
‘She was your grandmother. And here i am your teacher, so you will study the things that i say are important and not just the things you like
yourself .’ Boyne, 2007:97
When Bruno wants to study about literature, the teacher directly resists Bruno’s
wish to study about it. The action of Herr Lizst is the portrayal of some adult’s
action to children. There are adults who still think that fiction books are less important than science book. In the case of Bruno, Herr Liszt explicitly shows his
intentions to make Bruno only study what Liszt’s thinks is important. The oppression towards Bruno could be seen as the teacher does not give Bruno
choices other than to study science and history. In this case, the teacher is the one who gives and decides what should be learned without giving children many
choices. Herr Lizst
’s actions might not be Bruno’s biggest concern as Bruno still thinks that Lizst will give him more adventure in Science. Bruno’s father is the
one who gives Bruno the biggest impression on what he should and should not do. His father is the most respectable figure for Bruno as he has the most power
in his house. Bruno knows that his father has a big position in the army. Their
family moves to Out- With because of his father’s job. Unfortunately, as someone
whom Bruno respects the most, Bruno’s father rarely speaks to Bruno the way he
supposed to. The datum below shows how Bruno’s father intimidates Bruno to behave like an adult.
‘You open your mouth and speak like an adult. The last thing we need is for either of you to start behaving like children
. If the fury ignores you then you do not say anything either, but look directly ahead and show him the
respect and courtesy that such a great leader deserves.’ Boyne, 2007:120 When the fury comes to the new house, Bruno’s father tries to impress the fury.
From the quotation above, Father wants Bruno to keep quiet and to never bother the meeting. Bruno should stay quiet and behave like
an adult. Bruno’s father oppresses Bruno by not giving Bruno a chance to speak.
Bruno’s Father also chooses to act in inappropriate way to his own son and tell Bruno to behave like
an adult. Bruno’s father should give a proper explanation to Bruno on why he
should behave nicely instead of strictly telling Bruno to behave like an adult and stay quiet. Bruno’s father even justifies the fury’s action if he ignores Bruno.
Another perspective of oppression is experienced by Shmuel. Shmuel experienced bad treatments from the soldiers in the huts. His family has been
treated so badly which also traumatized him. The datum below shows how Shmuel is being treated unfairly by the soldiers.
‘No, but when we were told we couldn’t live in our house we had to move to a different part of Cracow, where the soldiers built a big wall and my
mother and f
ather and my brother and I all had to live in one room.’
‘All of you?’ asked Bruno. ‘In one room?’
‘And not just us,’ said Shmuel. ‘There was another family there and the
mother and father were always fighting with each other and one of the sons was bigger than me and he hit me even when i did nothing wrong
.’ ‘You can’t have all lived in the one room,’ said Bruno, shaking his head.
‘That doesn’t make any sense.’ ‘All of us,’ said Shmuel, nodding his head. ‘Eleven in total.’ Boyne,
2007:128 Children should be protected as they are still under the responsibility of the
parents. They should be protected because they have a limited access to the world outside. It is the duty of every parent and also country to protect their children
from any vio lence, discrimination, and war. What happened to Shmuel’s family
was beyond imagination. Shmuel undergoes several bad treatments and oppressions from the NAZI soldiers and the older children around him. He has no
one to share about the pain he hides for a long time. Bruno comes as someone who listens to all Shmuel’s story about his pain and
the bad treatment he receives from the soldiers. Shmuel is forced to stay in one room with the other family and he has to live in a dreadful place. One thing in
common between Bruno and Shmuel is they have a similar experience in being
bullied by other people. They share the same experience which makes them understand each other’s feeling and relate to one another. Bruno’s presence is a
kind of therapy for Shmuel who finds no one to talk with. Their friendship is unique but they complete one another.
Shmuel continues his story by telling Bruno the details when the soldiers separate his family. The bitter story about Shmuel’s past is an extreme violence to
