gets little attentions from Mother, who hates the new home and routinely goes to a nearby city ‘for a change of air’ Boyne 70. That is why he searches for a person
who is willing to build a relationship with him. The fact that he only has one friend drives him to do anything he can do to build a friendship with Shmuel.
4.1.2.2 Shmuel’s Motives
Shmuel’s first motive to establish a friendship with Bruno is getting physical and mental supports. Shmuel, as what usually happens to a prisoner, gets only small
amounts of provisions. Although Shmuel are imprisoned together with his father and grandfather, they can only give him little comforts. They can do very little to
take care of Shmuel properly. Therefore, it can be concluded that Shmuel fulfills his most basic needs insufficiently. In the novel, Shmuel shows his motive to have
a friend based on the fact that Bruno may provide him with provisions and comforts. In the novel, Bruno offers physical supports by giving him food Boyne
193. It makes Shmuel very grateful. It can bee seen from Shmuel’s feeling to hug Bruno when they are able to stand side by side together for the first time, just to
thank Bruno for all his kindness and gifts of food, and the fact that Bruno is going to help find Shmuel’s Papa Boyne 206.
Shmuel is a melancholic person. He cannot help himself of being sad all of the times because of his misfortunes and people’s discriminations towards him.
That is why Shmuel wants to get mental supports from Bruno by telling him his experiences and sad stories Boyne 128-129 in a hope that Bruno can comfort him
with sympathy and care. Telling sad stories of his old life helps Shmuel to ease his
sadness although Bruno sometimes misunderstands what Shmuel tells him. All of Bruno’s actions of giving food and listening patiently to Shmuel’s sad stories
motivate him to keep a friendship with Bruno. The second reason why Shmuel keeps his friendship with Bruno is the
needs to love and be loved by other person. A person needs to be loved and accepted by others. As stated by Maslow, in the third level of hierarchy of human’s
needs there are love needs. It deals with human relationships such as friendship. In the novel, Shmuel shows his love needs by establishing a friendship with Bruno.
When doing that, he indicates that he needs a friend. Although he is loner and passive, he still needs a friend because he is motivated by his love needs. The
reason for this action is that Shmuel is a Jewish boy. As a Jewish person, he is treated badly by Nazi soldiers. They do some brutal actions towards Jews such as
murdering prisoners secretly by sending them to the gas chambers, like what happens to Shmuel’s father Boyne 194 and beating people, like what Lieutenant
Kotler does to Pavel when he spills the wine in the dinner Boyne 148 and to Shmuel when he gets caught eating something in Bruno’s house Boyne 174.
People’s treatments towards Shmuel makes him avoid any contacts with everybody including his peers. They boys in the camp do not get along well. They fight a lot of
the time. As a result, Shmuel always sneaks and comes to the spot near the fences so that he can be alone Boyne 110. He becomes a loner boy. When meeting with
Bruno, Shmuel feels different treatment from him. Bruno shows affections and acceptance towards Shmuel. It makes Shmuel very happy because no one else treats
him nicely like what Bruno does. That is why Shmuel tries to maintain his friendship.
4.1.3 The Developments of Their Friendship
