Part One: The Story
What
happens in the story?
Activity:
Tell the story to
your partner in two minutes.
What
was your favourite
moment in the play?
Why?
 John
Boyne: “I have
described the book
as a fable, which I
define as a work of
fiction with a moral at
its heart”
 What do you think a
story “with a moral at
its heart” means?


Can you think of any
other examples of
fables?
What do all of these
examples have in
common?


A fable is a fictional story with a moral: a
lesson that you can learn from
Activity: What do you think is the moral at the
heart of the story of The Boy in the Striped
Pyjamas? Come up with a one-line summary
of the message of the play.
 Activity: Look
at the following list of Bruno’s
actions from the play. Discuss if you think he
was right or wrong to do each of these.
Why?
 Bruno steals food from the kitchen to give to
Shmuel.
 Bruno goes exploring after he has promised
his parents that he won’t.
 Bruno lies to Kotler and tells him that he has
never seen Shmuel before.
 Bruno crosses into the camp to help Shmuel
look for his father.
Activity: In small groups, make a frozen picture of
each of the following images. Make the first image
in each pair, then when the teacher claps, change
to the second image.
 Friendship / Sworn enemies
 A dividing fence / A dividing fence with a boy on
each side
 Superior / Inferior
 A secret / A horrifying discovery
 A Doctor / A slave
 Betrayal / Forgiveness
 What sort of story do you think these conflicting
images might come from?
