Jia Yun Chen loves to read and write various genres. Novels, in particular, enable her imagination to take flight across time and space. She is greatly inspired by Jane Austin’ wittiness and F.Scott Fitzgerald’s sense of humor. Through reading and writing, she hopes to enhance the general public’s awareness of human right issues and empathy in forgotten history. “The Boy in the Striped Pyjames: A Review” is her first book review entry.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a story about Bruno moving to a remote town, encountering his new friend Shmuel, who lives inside the fence, and discovering mysteries concerning Shmuel’s background. The bestseller successfully grasps readers’ emotion while reflecting on the cruelty of Nazi’s concentration camps with its brilliant narration and symbolism of the mysterious fence.

Bruno and his family move to a new place due to his father’s job promotion. Surprisingly, he sees men and boys wearing striped pajamas and standing with their hands up from his bedroom window. One day, Bruno sneaks out and heads to the fence which his father bans him and his sister Gretel from going. He meets a sad boy(Shmuel) and talks to him. The two lonely boys soon become friends. However, Bruno denies their friendship out of fear of a high rank soldier, but he later apologizes to Shmuel because he feels ashamed. Almost a year after the relocation, Bruno’s father decides to send the family to their old house in Berlin. Before parting with their best friends, they decide to have an adventure and look for Shmuel’s missing dad inside the fence. Suddenly, they see some soldiers demand people to gather together and then march into a dark long room and they are pushed to follow along. Bruno is lost and never seen after that.

The narrative strategy of this fiction grasps readers’ attention as if they are witnessing the historic tragedy. Mainly told from Bruno’s perspective, the story makes readers aware of the pressing nature of a historical event. At first, the light-hearted narration tones down the bitterness of the historic trauma, and makes it readable for people of all ages. Bruno’s voice slowly reveals the mystery inside the fence from children’s limited observations and maintains the readers’ curiosity. The innocent children's tone also offers a neutral and calm account that allows readers’ own judgment. However, in the last chapter, the perspective shifts to Bruno's father’s point of view to represent the general, universal sadness of losing one’s family members. As he discovers a gap between the fence and the ground large enough for a little boy to crawl under, the readers are presented with an irony that Nazi makes not only the Jewish but also its own people separate from their family. Moreover, the job that Bruno’s father is so proud of makes him lose his child. This suggests that everyone should be treated equally because there’s no lowliness and nobleness between positions in the face of life and death. Ending with an adult’s point of view reminds the reader of the cruelty and serves as a powerful punch that invites readers to reflect further.

The fence, a symbol of the oppression to the Jewish, associates the whole story to mystery and sadness. The mysterious appearance of the fence gives a cold, unsafe impression. Huge wooden posts dotted along the high fence and enormous bales of barbed wire tangled in spirals on top of it, symbolizing imprisonment. Inside the fence, there are low huts and large square buildings dotted around but no grass other than sand-like substance. More than one family is crowded in a hut as if they are reduced to the state of animals. Major mysteries take place inside the fence, including missing family members, and incomprehensible punishments. Outside the fence, Bruno’s family is a foil to the misfortune on the other side. One of the strategies is to let Bruno and Shmuel be born on the same day and move elsewhere from their much missed home. Then, Bruno constantly questions the different positions of the two boys. In a child's opinion, they are the same, and trapping in the fence seems unreasonable. The author consciously compares the difference between inside and outside of the fence, urging readers to question the unequal treatment.

This brilliant book lets the readers rethink the historical tragedy while witnessing a strong and touching friendship. The author reveals how a political tragedy damages the two innocent boys, and reminds readers of the presence of cruelty in unnecessary conflicts among human beings.