Important quotesLiterary Techniques

Key words

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne Term Definition

Figurativelanguage

When writers use similes, metaphors or personification to describe something in a non-literal way.

Metaphor When you say something is something else but you know it can’t be - “she is a star!”

Simile When you compare two things using ‘as’ or ‘like’ - “as brave as a lion”.

Sibilance A repeated ‘s’, ’sh’ or ‘z’ sound.

Plosives Repeated hard sounds such as ‘b’, ‘p’ or ‘d’.

Assonance The repetition of a vowel sound “Go slow over the road”.

Emotive language

Language used to create a particular emotion in the reader.

Semantic field A group of words in the poem that are all about the same thing/idea.

Juxtaposition When two contrasting ideas are placed together to highlight their differences.

Foreshadowing When a writer hints at a future event.

A sense of foreboding

When the writing creates a feeling that something bad is going to happen.

Dramatic irony When the reader knows something that the character doesn’t.

Hyperbole Extreme exaggeration

Indirect characterisation

How a character speaks and acts in a way that shows us what they are like.

Personification Giving an inanimate object human qualities

Pathetic fallacy Giving human qualities/emotions to animals or other features of nature, e.g. the weather.

Allegory A story, poem or picture with a hidden moralor political meaning.

Mondegreen A misunderstood word from a song or speech that gives it new meaning.

Quote Questions for you to consider:

“But there was something about the new house that made Bruno think that no one ever laughed there; that there was nothing to laugh at and nothing to be happy about”

How does this quote create a sense of foreboding?

What is the effect of repeating the word“nothing”?

“To begin with, they weren’t children at all. Not all of them, at least. There were small boys and big boys, fathers and grandfathers. Perhaps a few uncles too. And some of those people who live on their own on everybody’s road but don’t seem to have any relatives at all. They were everyone…”

What is the effect of listing all the different family members?

‘They were everyone’. What does this mean? What is the effect?

‘Ah, those people,’ said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. ‘Those people… well, they’re not people at all, Bruno.’

Bruno frowned. ‘They’re not?’ he asked, unsure what Father meant by that.

’Well, at least not as we understand the term,’ Father continued. ‘But you shouldn’t be worrying about them right now. They’re nothing to do with you. You have nothing whatsoever in common with them.’

How does this quote make you feel?

What is the effect of repeating the word “nothing”?

What is the effect of the sibilance in “smilingslightly”?

Term Definition

The Holocaust

The Holocaust was a genocide during WW2 by Nazi Germany. They targeted Jews, Roma, homosexuals and disabled people. Over 6 million Jews were murdered between 1941 and 1945.

The Nazi Party

The Nazi Party was a German political party led by Adolf Hitler. They believed in the purity of the Aryan race and persecuted those who threatened this.

The Aryan race

Hitler believed in creating a “master-race” of people. The Nazis tried to create this Aryan race and created posters showing the ”perfect family” with blonde hair and blue eyes. To achieve this, they believed they had to get rid of anyone who might stop them achieving this.

Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian man who became the Führer ("Leader") of the Nazi Party from 1934 to 1945.

Antisemitism Hatred/persecution of the Jews

Concentrationcamp

Large camps where Jews and others who the Nazis persecuted were sent. These were extremely harsh places where many died from disease or from being murdered in the gas chambers.

Auschwitz The largest and most notorious concentration camp in Poland.

Hitler youth

This was a youth organisation created by the Nazi Party which indoctrinated children and young people with Nazi ideas.