Featured Article: The Most Important Message of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has different messages that could be interpreted in a variety of different ways. Although, the message that I believe John Boyne tried to get through to those who read the book was the importance of the equality of people.
One of the main factors in the equality of people is to treat others how you expect them to treat you. E.g. If you're mean to someone, the idea is that you shouldn't expect them to be nice to you. In the book, what is loosely based on this is how the commandant (Ralf) imprisons the Jewish people and has them tortured and killed, which inadvertently leads to the death of his son, Bruno.
Lieutenant Kotler works at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He himself is the embodiment of prejudice. Boyne expresses how prejudice is a disservice to humanity through Kotler, who is motivated by the fear of the Commandant finding out about his father. To prevent this, he looks down on those who he believes he is above. He treats the maids, butlers and Jewish prisoners as if they were nothing more than a dog, and he is also mean to Bruno. Schmuel expresses his detest of the man when he is asked about Kotler.
The Nazis saw the Jewish people as inferior, so they captured them and sent them to work at concentration camps that worked them to death because of the horrific conditions. The Nazi’s saw no equality between themselves and the Jewish. John Boyne expressed his message in a time where the message was needed most, but still not perceived.
John Boyne expressed the message of equality perfectly. He made it simple to understand, yet taking a lot of in depth discussion to fully realise the actual meanings behind the cover of the book. The way prejudice affects the characters is interesting to say the least, and proves that prejudice will always have a punishment in store.