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2. Who is "innocent" in this film? Anyone? Is there a difference between ignorance and innocence? How do different characters deal with their dawning awareness of what is happening at the concentration camp?
3. Is innocence always a good thing? How are various characters affected by evil because they are too "innocent" to know better? (See, e.g., the way Gretel becomes smitten with the Nazi lieutenant who works at their house.)
4. When is knowledge preferable to innocence? How do we become, as Jesus said, wise as serpents while remaining innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16)?
5. Have you had to "unlearn" anything that you were taught when you were young, comparable to the prejudices that Bruno's father and tutor try to teach him? How did you deal with the knowledge that what you were taught was wrong? How did this affect the way you perceived your parents and teachers?
6. Bruno's grandmother says that Bruno's father always wanted to be a soldier, and Bruno himself is seen playing at "war" with his friends in Berlin. Is this a dangerous impulse? Is it a tolerable form of childlike fantasy? Is it a problem that Bruno's father became a soldier, period, or that he was assigned to a particular task?

The Family Corner

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is rated PG-13 for some mature thematic material involving the Holocaust, including scenes of Jewish prisoners, young and old, being beaten, verbally abused, forced to strip, and killed. The main character's parents also get into some pretty strong arguments when his mother learns what his father is doing at the concentration camp (which is never named in the film, but is identified as Auschwitz in the book on which the film is based).

Photos © Copyright Miramax Films

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