CHANGE: THE BOY IN THE STRIPED

PAJAMAS

By: Rory

BEFORE I FINISHED THE STORY

I have just finished reading the first couple chapters

of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. An opinion I have

is I think the John Boyne uses really good, visionary

words. He is very detailed in his writing and really

gives me visuals of the story. Some examples

are………

I really like how when the author wrote the book, he

made the characters act very realistic. Bruno acts

how a real 9 year old kid should (I know, I have a

brother around the same age). Gretel is very

impatient, like most 12 year old girls are. She acts

like she knows everything, just like most of the

teenagers in our grade do.

An opinion I have about the John is dialogue. I think

he doesn’t use enough discussion in his writing, and

I got pretty bored after every couple pages not

having anyone talk in it. The story was very

interesting, but I think some of the thing in the book

weren’t as necessary as other things that could have

been put in the book.

I don’t like how the author takes a long time to get to

the point. I know he writes beautifully and very

descriptively; but he writes a lot where he can write

the same thing, equally as beautiful, in a much

shorter amount of time. In the story he exaggerates

a LOT of things. He might take a whole paragraph on

telling me how somebody’s shirt had a stain on it. I

think the author should exaggerate the important

things, but not every single little detail.

AFTER I READ THE REST OF THE B OOK

I think when Bruno and Shmuel went into gas

chamber; “real” 9 year old boys wouldn’t have been

so oblivious. I know they didn’t really know what was

going on, but they were being shut in a room with a

bunch of people they didn’t know. The fact that they

were treated so cruel also was a little suspicious. If it

were my brothers being shut in there, they would

have been curious and maybe even freaking out. I

think in the story they act way too calm.

Another opinion that has changed is the dialogue. I

think towards the end of the story the author used

more dialogue, which kept me interested. There

were still some spots where not a lot was going on,

but overall there was more conversation. I thought

John was good at keeping things moving smoothly.

Another thing that has changed is that the author

was too descriptive. Before I thought that John used

too many descriptive words, but now, I don’t think he

did. I think in the end, when Bruno and Shmuel were

in the gas chamber, he worded the end of the

chapter beautifully. It wasn’t gory, and it didn’t tell a

lot of what happened; but it made the reader use

their brains to figure out what happened.