Blog 101514

the boy in the striped pajamas and night are similar thematically in that they both seem to be about innocence (and indirectly, hope), thematically. in both situations, their innocence is taken nearly instantly by a single event. In night, this is his father being slapped. In striped pajamas, this is his getting into the camp and seeing the conditions. their hope is different but related. Bruno seems to keep his hope all the way through the movie, saying "we'll stay here until the rain stops" and such, and his hope is cut off not by himself but by his untimely end. In night, the hope seems to last longer, though small and dwindling, it lasts long after the loss of his innocence, ending when his father passed. His hope was rekindled after the war, but after the end of the book as well. Being an advocate for many causes as he is means that you can see a bright future for those you stand for, but at the end of the book, seeing himself as a corpse likely meant that he had still not gained back his spark.