Chapter 4 Boy in Striped PJ's

• (pg 31) How does the author continue to use juxtaposition in regards to the two housing situations? (the Jews and Bruno's family) The traditional juxtaposition of the Holocaust story was the Juxtaposition of the Jews and Nazi's. Once again the Author places another juxtaposition in when the family is placed in a house which is even though described as horrible by Bruno and Gretal it is still a house and the Jew's in a dirty concentration camp. Even though the Nazi's view the Jews as so different to themselves they are actually not even though they went through so much to separate by means of the huge fences both around the house and around the camp.
• What is it about the children that makes it difficult to understand exactly what they see through the window and just how bad it is? As the reader we cant really tell how bad the situation is with the Jews in the concentration camp becuase of the lack of knowledge of the kids. Bruno is the symbol of innocence and we get he sense that he doesn't fully understand whats happening at the camp becuase his perspective is 'why are all those people wearing striped pajamas'. Even though Gretal is a bit older and more knowledgeable we still get the sense that she is naive about the whole situation when she concludes that the Jews are dirty and disgusting becuase they haven't been taking regular baths.
• Summarise how Gretel describes what she sees. We get mixed signals about what Gretal sees and how she concludes about what she sees. From what I said in the previous question this is an example of a naive thought but when she tries to convince Bruno it is the countryside we can infer that she is trying to convince Bruno into a different conclusion to hide him from the truth.
• What does Gretel attempt to do when she sees the Concentration Camp? How does she attempt to understand what she sees? We get the sense that she is trying to understand what she is seeing directly from a educational point of view. As soon as she saw the empty land she thought of what she was being taught in Geography at school which can also be evidence of her trying to convince herself into believing something else to hide the horror of  what she's really seeing.
• Is her attempt successful? Does she convince Bruno that she understands? What does she eventually give in to? What does she say/or not say? (pg 32) 'Gretal looked at it again and nodded, because she was not so silly she insists on being in the right all the time when it was clear the argument stood against her' from this quote we get confirmation that she has unsuccessfully tried to convince Bruno that the land around their house and where they are living is a holiday house in the country.
• What can't the children do when they see the Concentration Camp that the adults seem to be able to do? Which group can understand what they see? Why do you think that this is the case? I think the Adults are able to understand what they see obviously becuase they either have some part in whats happening or they are going along with all the actions that are being taken against the Jew's. Part of the reason why the children cant understand what is happening becuase of the freedom of speech that was absent in Germany at this time. We can infer from this story so far that adults don't like being asked questions and we get evidence from this at the end of the chapter when Bruno asks his dad about the camp and all he says is 'they aren't really human and they don't have anything in common with you' from this quote we can understand why the children have no idea about whats going on because the Adults don't like it when people ask questions and have their say in whats going on.
• How does the author use understatement through the children's description of the Concentration Camp?