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What does Father’s and Bruno’s conversation tell you about Father in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? How would you explain Bruno’s willingness to speak…

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What does Father’s and Bruno’s conversation tell you about Father in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? How would you explain Bruno’s willingness to speak freely to, even shout at, his father?

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In chapter 5 in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno is feeling confused about why he and his family had to leave the comforts of Berlin to move to the desolate and ominous location of “Out-With,” which is actually Auschwitz. After watching his father speak with other military leaders downstairs, Bruno decides to try to get some answers for this seemingly unexplainable move.

When Bruno enters his father’s office, which is typically off-limits, his father comes around the desk and shakes his hand; this symbolizes that he believes that Bruno is maturing and leaving the world of childhood behind. When Father asks whether Bruno is enjoying the new house, Bruno honestly responds that he is not and that he believes the family should go home.

Father entertains Bruno’s complaints, reflecting that he also had to do things in life that he “didn’t have a choice in.” It is now Bruno’s turn to accept the reality that “Out-With” is their home for the foreseeable future.

After thinking for a while, Bruno suggests that perhaps Father is being “punished” by this new assignment and adds,

I don’t think you can have been very good at your job if it means we all have to move away from a very nice home and our friends and come to a horrible place like this. I think you must have done something wrong and you should go and apologize to the Fury and maybe that will be an end to it.

Bruno immediately realizes that he has gone too far; he has never spoken to Father in such a way, and for a long while Father remains silent and “stony-faced.” After all, Father is a respected military leader, and he is accustomed to being treated with tremendous respect.

Father finally suggests that perhaps Bruno is being “brave” instead of “merely disrespectful.” This suggests that Father and Bruno have shared a close relationship in the past, and Father wants to recognize his son’s potential—not just his shortcomings. Bruno trusts his father and feels safe enough to voice his deepest concerns, even if he feels that those views might create an “uncomfortable” tension between them. He also recalls that Father “rarely became angry,” which characterizes Father as a complex man. He has built a close-knit and secure family within his own home, yet his military strength and persona must be quite severe in order to rise to such a trusted position under “the Fury,” or Hitler.

Bruno is deeply troubled by all he has seen so far, and he is willing to risk some tension with his father in order to receive some answers; he also feels safe enough with his father to take such risks.

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