Pavel says, "Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer." What does he mean ? How far do you think it is true in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Pavel is a waiter and basically a Jewish slave. He says to Bruno that things and people are more than they appear to be. Pavel does not want anyone to find out he is actually a skilled doctor.

In this book, Pavel is Jewish. Before, he is being caught to concentration camp, he is a doctor (‘I certainly am a doctor…’ P.82) and now, he is a waiter and basically a Jewish slave who serves in Bruno’s house. He tells Bruno that things and people may not be what they appear to be. Appearance can be deceptive. Pavel does not want anyone to find out he is actually a skilled doctor. Pavel says, ‘Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer.’ To me, I think this sentence means that knowledge of something requires work. A basic realization that stars exists does not make one an expert of stars. I also agree that this is true in ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’’. There are few reasons for me to support this. First of all, let me talk about the Out-With. To Gretel, it means ‘Out with the people who lived here before us’. Gretel and Bruno do not know it is a mispronounced word of the concentration camp because they are kept away from what adults are doing. This signify and heightened their childhood innocence. The writer also tried to make the sense of the scene and turn into a vain one. Next, let me say something about Bruno’s father. As mentioned in the last essay question (Father portrayed with kindness and concern to his family, and treat Jews inhumanly), father has dual personality. He is a good man with kind heart which treats Bruno and Maria nicely versus killing the Jews in the concentration camp in Auschwitz inhumanly. On the other hand, when Bruno is playing with a tyre as a swing, he falls off the tyre and hurts himself. The only witness is the waiter, the Jewish slave who is working as a waiter in the kitchen. He is not allowed to talk, touch and communicate with him because Germans thinks that Aryan race is more superior to the other races like Jews. However, Pavel helped Bruno to bind up his wound. This has crosses their boundaries between the Germans and Jews. When mother came back and saw what had happened, he told Bruno to lie that the one who helps him to bind up his wound is his mother. Therefore, Bruno feels surprised and thinks that mother is taking credit for what she hasn’t done. In fact, the truth is that mother wants to protect Pavel instead. Jews are not allowed to get close or get into physical touch with the Germans. People are forcibly divided by the Nazi Party. Jews are subhuman and are imprisoned to perform hard labor or menial tasks before they are killed. This also shows Bruno’s childhood innocence. Also, Bruno says doesn’t know Hitler’s real name maybe because his family never tell him. He says the mispronunciation of “Fuhrer” which is ‘Fury’. It is the title given to the dictator Adolf Hitler. And in chapter 5, the author ends the chapter with ‘Heil Hitler’ which creates tension and a sense of foreboding. This shows Bruno’s childhood innocence through description of how Bruno asks his Father questions and his imitation of the Hitler salute. Besides, Bruno is not happy with moving. His mum comforts him and tells him it’s because of father’s job. After a while, Bruno stops investigating this problem. But he is not told about the truth. In conclusion, the things that Bruno sees are not the same as reality and truth that only adults know. Therefore, the conversation ‘Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer’ is true in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. (615 words)

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