The+whole+essay

Chen Shen GD Mr. Giusti 11/16/11

//The Boy in the Striped Pajamas// talks about a firm relationship between the son of a Commandant of Germany called Bruno and a Jewish boy in Auschwitz whose name is Shmuel. Some survivors from Holocaust stated that this story could never happen and the plots are so unrealistic that are not suitable for students to learn about history. However, students nowadays are apparently sick of being feeding knowledge. Coming up a better idea is crucial to save the decline of preserving history. In order to reach the goal, books like this should absolutely be taught in high schools, because they open up a new window for teenagers and provide hopes to increase students' passion on studying history.

People who insist the book is too ideal to be taught seem to underestimate students’ cognitions and good judgments. Since most of teenagers are precocious in this era, they are mature enough to distinguish the facts from delusions. For instance, fellow students found the book was really fascinating. Nevertheless, when asking them about whether they would believe the story, all of them understood the story is not history. For example, in the book Bruno and Shmuel meet every day in front of the fence without being noticed and it is clear that fellow students will understand they are not facts by looking back into the history. Therefore, worrying about the authenticity of //The Boy in the Striped Pajamas// may misunderstand students is unnecessary.

On the opposite, learning Holocaust with this book can draw students into the event without feeling bored. Not all the students are interested in history, so come up with a way to fascinate them is crucial. To demonstrate, students who hate history started to grow interests in it by reading the story which was written in a 9-year-old child’s words, and they said they had never thought about being such crazy in a piece of history. With the development of technology, the new generation has forgotten the importance of history. Books like //The Boy in the Striped Pajamas// should be taught to retrieve the decline of history in a way of evoking students' interests in learning it.

Also, there is not only sadness we can get from Holocaust, but also something can warm up human hearts. People from all over the world should have no scruple to make friends even when their countries are enemies. This book gives us a great example showing friendship has no limit even between a German and a Jew. Even when reading this book which is about Holocaust, you can feel a warm stream flowing through your heart because of the firm friendship between Bruno and Shmuel. They are so optimistic about life and still have hopes even in a depressing situation, which can be a really good model for high school students to follow. Even though they both died in the end, they still hold their hands without regrets, which was really touched and earned readers' tears.

It does not matter whether this book is realistic or not, what matters is how this book influences high-school students from attracting their interests and offer hopes when they are in sufferings. Meanwhile, //The Boy in the Striped Pajamas// should be taught in high schools to support the remaining of history. Believing in those three major reasons, we will receive more advantages in the future commanding the book to the next generations.