What a movie! Not easy to watch in many ways, yet it is an incredible example of humanity's need to connect. Think about these questions this week and post any thoughts you might have over the movie and the topics that surface from watching the movie.
Sunday morning we will be talking about the story in Luke about the Good Samaritan - another wonderful story of humanity's love for each other.
Discussion questions for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
1. Prejudice is an attitude while discrimination is a behavior. Explore • these differences?
2. What is a stereotype? Why do people stereotype groups that are different from them? How does the movie depict Nazis stereotyping Jews?
3. When the mother learns that Jews are being exterminated at the camp, she questions her husband. “How can you?” she asks. He responds: “Because I’m a solider.” How do these two perspectives contrast?
4. Why do you think Gretel believes the viewpoints of Lieutenant Kotler, the tutor Liszt, and her father about Jews. Although Bruno is younger than his sister, he questions their viewpoints. Why?
5. One the early turning points for the mother in the movie is saying thank you to Pavel for treating Bruno. What has changed for her at this point? Why do you think she seems open to considering a different perspective?
6. At times, the father is shown as a loving parent and husband. How is this possible given his role as a Nazi officer giving orders to treat people in humanely?
7. How does Bruno justify continuing his friendship with Shmuel despite what his father, sister and tutor said about Jews?
8. The barbed wire fence is a physical separation between Bruno and Shmuel. What other types of separation does the fence represent in this story?
9. Neither Bruno nor Shmuel really know what is going on at the concentration camp. Why is that, and what allows them to keep their innocence?
10. What events and experiences lead Bruno to gradually give up some of his innocence and see things differently?
I have to say the optimist in me kept waiting for someone to rescue Bruno at the end. I just knew one of the other prisoners would recognize that his head wasn't shaven and he wasn't skin and bones like the other prisoners. My ending would have had Bruno being spared and then he would have been able to affect a change in the other people in his family who saw the Jews as less than human...and they all lived happily ever after.
ReplyDeleteBut, that ending would not have conveyed the message that there really are no differences in us. We are all human beings and we all struggle with many of the same problems. My Sunday School class studied a book by Philip Yancey called What's So Amazing About Grace. One of the things that Philip said that stood out to me was that we need to look at others through God-healed eyes and see each person we meet as another human being, not as some stereotype. This kind of eyesight will help us be graceful towards others. It will help us to forgive someone who has hurt us. It will humble us.
Blessings, Joy Perry
Could someone tell me the answer of the question 5 please?
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