Perceptions and ideas of belonging, or of not belonging, vary. These perceptions are shaped within personal, cultural, historical and social contexts. A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. People may consider aspects of belonging in terms of experiences and notions of identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding.
Through Boyne’s novel, The boy in the striped pyjamas it reveals how belonging can enrich our identity and relationships. This would subsequently portray how acceptance and understanding may be obtained through the enrichment of ones identity.
The character of Bruno has been established by Boyne to enable the audience to understand and build an image of an 8-year-old boy whom through his innocence is confronting a plethora of different approaches towards belonging.
Bruno shifts from his home at Berlin where he feels secure as he had developed a strong connection towards it. His sense of connection is due to his “three best friends for life” and his loving grandparents live there. Hence Bruno’s life alters as he leaves his warm and loving neigbourhood where he had grown up, to “outwit”, a house in the middle of no where, that is cold and not at all like his old home.
Repetition of the phrase “I want to go home” represents Bruno’s longing to return to Berlin and his sense of alienation towards Outwit. Although his family is around him, he is unable to enclose a sense of belonging towards the house. With a strong desire to “go home to Berlin”, Bruno finally learns to change and believe that “home is where family is” and adapt to his new home.
Bruno distinguishes “the farmers” on the other side of the fence, as “strange”. The imagery of the stripped pajamas represents how they are physically “different”, and hence Bruno thinks he would find it hard to be able to