-
Bruno and family move house
When nine-year-old Bruno comes home from school one day, he is surprised to find the maid, Maria, packing up all his belongings.They move houses. -
Period: to
The boy in striped pyjamaa
-
Bruno's dissapointed with new home
To Bruno's extreme disappointment, everything about the family's new residence is the exact opposite of the beloved home in Berlin. The new house is the only building standing in "an empty, desolate place," and it is small, having only three stories instead of five. All of the bedrooms are crammed together on the top floor, the servants sleep in the basement, and the ground floor contains a kitchen, a dining room, and an office for Father. -
The surrounding
Directly below Bruno's window is a small, well-tended garden with pavement surrounding it and a wooden bench highlighted by a plaque. Further out, however, the scenery changes drastically, and it is this sight that so astonishes Gretel when she looks out of the window.
About twenty feet past the garden and the bench is a huge fence topped with bales of barbed wire extending as far as the eye can see. The ground beyond the fence is barren, and there are dozens of low huts and large, square build -
Bruno reflects upon his final morning in Berlin
Father had already left the city a few days earlier, and Bruno remembers that his mother had been very nervous. With tears in her eyes, she had said abstractedly:"We should never have let the Fury come to dinner...some people and their determination to get ahead!" -
Bruno hates everything
Out of boredom a few days later, Bruno is lying on his bed staring at the ceiling when he notices the paint above his head is cracked and peeling. This observation only adds to his unhappiness with his new home. He decides that he "hate[s] it all...absolutely everything." At this point, Maria the maid walks in carrying a stack of laundered clothes. Bruno attempts to strike up a conversation with her, asking her if she is as dissatisfied with their new living arrangements as he is. -
Bruno wants to be occupied
After several weeks at Out-With, Bruno concludes that he had better find a way to keep himself occupied or else he will surely lose his mind. One Saturday, when neither Mother nor Father is at home, he decides to make a swing in a large oak tree a good distance from the house. For this project, Bruno will need a rope and a tyre. He finds some rope in the basement of the house, but to secure a tyre he will have to ask Lieutenant Kotler. -
Bruno walks to fence and finds a boy
Bruno walks along the fence for the better part of an hour. He does not see anyone or any opening that will allow him to cross over to the other side. Just when he is about to turn back, he spies a boy sitting in the dirt on the other side of the fence, "minding his own business, waiting to be discovered." Cautiously, Bruno approaches him and says hello.
The boy is smaller than Bruno and wears the same striped pajamas as all the other people who live beyond the fence. -
Bruno talks to him
Bruno has asked Shmuel why there are so many people on his side of the fence and what they are doing there; Shmuel reflects upon his past in searching for an answer. He recalls that before he came there, he had lived with his parents and brother in a small flat in Cracow. Shmuel's father had been a watchmaker and had given him a beautiful watch that was taken away by the soldiers. -
They talk in afternoons
Bruno continues to meet Shmuel by the fence in the afternoons. He asks every day if he can come over to Shmuel's side so they can play together, but Shmuel says:
I don't know why you're so anxious to come across here.... It's not very nice. -
Bruno's grandmother's funeral in berlin
Almost a year has passed since Bruno and his family moved to Out-With. Grandmother dies, and the family must return to Berlin for her funeral. Bruno had missed his home acutely when they first had to relocate, but in the intervening time his memories of life in Berlin have slowly faded, and the two days they spend back home are very sad. Father is particularly remorseful because he and Grandmother had fought before she died and never made it up. -
Bruno's adventure before depart
On the day of Bruno and Shmuel's scheduled "great adventure," Fortunately, the weather improves in the afternoon, and Bruno is able to make his way down the fence to their regular meeting place. When he arrives, Bruno finds Shmuel waiting for him with an extra pair of striped pajamas "exactly like the one he is wearing." Bruno tells Shmuel to turn his back then he Bruno strips off his own clothes and dons the striped pajamas. -
Bruno dies
Bruno follows Shmuel into the shower room, when all of a sudden the lights are turned off and soldiers come rushing in. Gas fills the room and kills everyone in minutes.