A Doll's House vs The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
World Literature I
11 December 2013
A Doll’s House vs The Boy in the Striped Pajamas When something horrible happens or is happening around people one of their first instincts is to cover it or ignore it, but of course the world would be a perfect place if that actually worked. A Doll’s House and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas have two very similar storylines. Both deal with controversial topics and “ugly things” like women leaving their families and Jewish people in concentration camps. Also neither of them contain extremely happy endings and that’s something an audience will remember. The stories deal with ugly things that people do not like and how just making a temporary fix or ignoring it will not work out in the long run. The main character in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno, is a young boy who lives in a wealthy town in Germany but his family relocates to the countryside where his father is assigned to be in charge of a prison camp. Bruno goes exploring and meets a boy named Shmuel who lives behind an electric fence and is wearing “striped pajamas”. Bruno eventually finds out Shmuel is a jew and he is not allowed to be friends with him. Also the fence where Shmuel lives in a camp for jews about to be executed. In the end Bruno goes over the fence to be with Shmuel and is executed along with him. In A Doll’s House the main character Nora is at first a seemingly dumb girl who makes a mistake and commits fraud. She is later blackmailed with it and doesn’t want her husband to find out and hopes if he does he will try to take the blame to protect her. When he doesn’t she realizes he isn’t the man she thought he was and she leaves him and their family.
Both Nora and Bruno don’t really understand things in the beginning of their stories. For example in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the family moves in right next to an execution camp and only the father knows at first. He doesn’t have a problem with the jews being killed but Bruno
11 December 2013
A Doll’s House vs The Boy in the Striped Pajamas When something horrible happens or is happening around people one of their first instincts is to cover it or ignore it, but of course the world would be a perfect place if that actually worked. A Doll’s House and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas have two very similar storylines. Both deal with controversial topics and “ugly things” like women leaving their families and Jewish people in concentration camps. Also neither of them contain extremely happy endings and that’s something an audience will remember. The stories deal with ugly things that people do not like and how just making a temporary fix or ignoring it will not work out in the long run. The main character in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno, is a young boy who lives in a wealthy town in Germany but his family relocates to the countryside where his father is assigned to be in charge of a prison camp. Bruno goes exploring and meets a boy named Shmuel who lives behind an electric fence and is wearing “striped pajamas”. Bruno eventually finds out Shmuel is a jew and he is not allowed to be friends with him. Also the fence where Shmuel lives in a camp for jews about to be executed. In the end Bruno goes over the fence to be with Shmuel and is executed along with him. In A Doll’s House the main character Nora is at first a seemingly dumb girl who makes a mistake and commits fraud. She is later blackmailed with it and doesn’t want her husband to find out and hopes if he does he will try to take the blame to protect her. When he doesn’t she realizes he isn’t the man she thought he was and she leaves him and their family.
Both Nora and Bruno don’t really understand things in the beginning of their stories. For example in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the family moves in right next to an execution camp and only the father knows at first. He doesn’t have a problem with the jews being killed but Bruno
Cited: Herman, Mark, dir. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Miramax Films, 2008. Film. 15 Dec 2013. Ibsen, Henrick. A Doll 's House. 1879. Print. 1020-1079.