Bruno Loss Of Innocence Essay

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Although constant evil swirls around Bruno, he is able to hang on to his innocence, which shields him from the knowledge of the situation he is in, but ultimately leads to his and Shmuel’s downfall. Bruno’s innocence becomes quite apparent throughout the course of the novel. He portrays this childish innocence through his lack of understanding on many of the changes that have been happening in his life. Bruno portrays this quite clearly by asking his father : "Did you do something bad in work? I know that everyone says you're an important man and that the Fury has big things in mind for you, but he'd hardly send you to a place like this if you hadn't done something that he wanted to punish you for." (page 50) As no one had explained…show more content…
This, however, is not the case. All Bruno sees is : “crowds of people sitting together in groups, staring at the ground, looking horribly sad” (page 207) This image is a stark contrast to what Bruno expected to see. Bruno envisioned the people in the camp to be having fun, playing school games and that the huts would be filled with happy families. This however, is not the case, and the only people that Bruno sees happy are the soldiers, who are clearly abusing the Jews. Shmuel’s hatred of the soldiers is finally justified, and to Bruno, a boy who idolized soldiers, such as his father, the abusive soldiers were anything but idols. Bruno then comments that he “doesn’t like it here”, to which Shmuel replies “neither do I” (page 208) It is at this point in the story that the reader realizes how innocent Shmuel is. Although Bruno has been shielded by his parents, Shmuel has had to experience hardship and suffering, giving him the image of a child who had forgone his innocence. However, like Bruno, Shmuel is unaware of the situation he is in, which is shown when he

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