The Boy in Striped Pyjamas
Pyjamas, as we usually see sometime could mean something contrary.
There is a spectacle deeply ingrained in my heart after watching the film “The Boy in Pyjamas”:
Under the clear and azure sky, there are two little boys sitting on the ground, talking to each other face to face. Between them, however, there is an ugly—looking wire meshes, separating them into two entirely different worlds. One of the boys sits inside the wire netting with the warm sunshine of afternoon fondles his drooped head gently, which makes the atmosphere a little bit tender and soft instead of sad or even bitter. The ill — fitted clothes are too shabby and filthy that its original color can hardly be identified. His eyes are liquid and innocent, which, right now are peering at the other boy and his question outside the meshes.
----why? What have you done?
----I’m a Jew.
He answers peacefully without any grief or joy, as if it is true yet we all know it clearly that it’s not. Then the screaming whistling pierces the calmness, he hurries stand up with panic and despair in his eyes as well as voice:”I have to go back now”. He then staggers back, helplessly and hopelessly.
This film “the boy in pajamas” is based on the Irish novel of the same name. Ultimately, the film explores the great horror of the World War Two concentration camp through the naïve but pure eyes of the two 8-year-old boys, one of which is the son of the camp’s Nazi commandant, while the other boy is a Jewish inmate.
The story took place in the 1940s in Europe; Bruno was an 8-year-old boy growing up in Berlin with his loving family. His father was an officer who has recently been promoted to “Commandant” and to Bruno’s dismay, was taking the whole family to move away to a remote place in the countryside called “out-with” which then turned out to be the notorious concentration camp in history named Auschwitz. That place, filled with a mixture of everyone’s feelings: rejoice, hatred, fear and disparity is the location of the catastrophic tragedy which has shaken history violently. Naturally, Bruno found his new life tedious and upset. Nevertheless, during his exploration, he one day spotted a boy of his age in striped pajamas in the other side of the wire fences; this has captured his attention and curiosity. From then on, the two boys met each other, talking and playing, been apart by the wire netting. Afterwards, Bruno always brought food to Shmuel, they also played chess, talked about each other’s world they lived in----till one day, Shmuel couldn’t find his father, so Bruno decided to get through the fence to help him to find his dad. Bruno dug a hole beneath the fence, changed into prison clothing that Shmuel has stolen for him, and entered the camp. However, the truth was not exactly as what he had imagined before. Bruno was horrified by what he witnessed: the dehumanization, starvation and sickness were the antithesis of the propaganda film that had shaped his prior impressions. While searching for Shmuel's father, they were taken to the gas chambers by mistake. The film concluded with tragedy. That two boys’ dying miserably was powerful condemnation of the war and violence.
It’s remarkable that the film judges that special age with children’s angle of view, those blood and massacre which seems hardily to be looked steadily at have generated peculiar and interesting reflection in childish eyes, magnifying the brutality and absurdity of the war. What heavy sarcasm had the author made by characterizing the war in children’s innocent eyes!
There are two dialogues in the movie leaving me great impressions which will never fade away with time. The first:
----It’s not fair, me being stuck over here on my own while you’re over there, playing with friends all day.
----Playing?
----Well, that number. Isn’t it a part of game or something?
----It’s just my number. Everyone gets given a different number.
The second:
----Perhaps you can come and have supper with us sometime.
----I can’t, can’t I. because of this.
----But that’s to stop the animals getting out, isn’t it?
----Animals? No, it’s to stop people getting out.
After hearing these conversations, I came to realize how nice and precious it is that peace can be! The world should just be as simple and pure as the boys’ friendship and their heart. Meanwhile, their words are bitter satires on the savage actions of the fascist. Neither cultural diversity nor racial misunderstanding should be the obstacles of the communications and improvement between various peoples. The call of peace is the battle cry deep from the soul rather than just saying. The ruthless behavior of the insane, beastly heart can never be allowed and forgave.
In the 29th second of the movie there appears a sentence marked by John Betjeman: “Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.” I think that the “dark hour of reason” is supposed to be lying dormant in our body and soul, waiting to be rekindled as soon as the advent of proper time. Inhumane behavior can be invasive with their ambition and greed masked by the pretext such as so called reason, liberation or things like that.
This film is a huge success, it has a long and profound impact on the heart of audience, making people self-examine and cherish the peaceful life they have got. I can also remember at last of the film, the frame froze with a cell full of countless pajamas of the dead Jews and Bruno. The gloomy, damp, jam-packed jail was soaked densely in grief and evil, this silent image gave rise to infinite sadness and sympathy inside me, and loud cry surged for the adversity that they had ran into. Even till the poor boys died they had no idea about the dark and disgraceful side of the world, maybe they were even planning for what to play for the next day, but they had no chance, never. In front of the headquarter of the UN, there is a statue named beat the swords into ploughshares which represents strong desire of the world. I strongly convinced that: there could be such day ----the day kids from different races may get along well with each other, in spite of their vague knowledge of the world around them, the whole world means no harm to them, everything is going to be ok. History cannot repeat as well as tragedy cannot be put on again and again, just as the lines I can in the movie ”Titanic”: “God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither shall there be sorrows or dying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former world has passed away. ”That bloody, cruel times has been long gone, may the dead go in peace and the living go in hope. We are thought keep a sober awareness of the horrors of the Nazis’ mass extermination of Jews. What’s more, we must be strongly against some kind of thoughts such as Fascism, militarism and racism. Bear it in mind that no matter which group people have determined to choose, no matter what kind of excuse the slaughterer has ever found, the kindhearted and vulnerable common herd can always be the only victim of war, they suffer most from the war. War is ridiculous and merciless.
