The Boy in the Striped PJ's Chapter 4 Questions

1. The author keeps on using juxtaposition in regards to the two houses by comparing them to each other making Bruno more curious about what the house in the outside is used for and why all those people live there. The author is also comparing these two houses to show that even though Bruno feels that his house is the worst house in the world there is something right next to him that is even worse.

2. Because Bruno and Gretel are children and their innocence blinds them from knowing the truth about the children behind the wired fence it does not let us completely understand exactly what they see through the window and which makes it hard for the reader to know exactly how bad it is.

3. Gretel describes what she sees by starting from the closest thing to the window which is the garden, then the bench where she envisions sitting on a sunny day and reading a book, and then goes through some bush and grass where is is immediately surprised by the huge wire fence and light poles that bend inwards and then the buildings and children. This helps to show the difference to where they'r living and where the children are living.

4. Gretel, when she sees the concentration camp, tries to find another explanation for why all those people and the buildings are placed there. She tries to believe that all of these people are there for some suitable reason and they are living out here for a suitable reason.

5. Gretel keeps on trying to convince Bruno that her explanation is adequate but Bruno always finds something that doesn't make the explanation seem true. Gretel's attempt to make Bruno believe is not successful and when Bruno asks about hot water and why they don't have any she walks away and goes back to her room as she has no valuable explanation for that question which shows that Gretel cannot think of a logical explanation for the children.

6. The children cannot think about why the children are actually there for unlike adults who would have more knowledge about it and would be able to come up with a better explanation.