“A true friend is someone you can confide in without fear of being judged or betrayed.” Write

about one example of a friend confiding in another in a story you have read.

It is always good to have a friend in whom you can confide. A true friend is a good listener – one with whom you can share your thoughts and feelings without worrying whether they will judge you or tell other people about you. You should be able to trust a friend, particularly when you are in need of someone to share your problems with.

In “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne, Bruno, the main character is in need of a good friend. He is unhappy, having been forced to move away from his home in Berlin and ‘his three best friends for life’ because his father has a new job. Bruno, his mother and sister accompany the new commandant to the new house at “Out-With,” as Bruno calls it. This new house is small, dark, and strange. Bruno spends long days gazing out the window of his new bedroom, where he notices people dressed in striped pyjamas and rows of barracks surrounded by a barbed wire fence. With nobody except his sister ‘The Hopeless Case’ to talk to, bored and lonely, and not really understanding the circumstance of his new existence, Bruno sets out to explore the area, despite being forbidden to do so by his parents. He discovers Shmuel, a very thin Jewish boy who lives on the other side of the fence and an unlikely friendship between the two boys is formed.

Over the next few months the two children swap life stories through the wire fence. Shmuel explains how he and his family have been transported here from a ghetto in Poland. Unable to comprehend the gravity of Shmuel’s situation, Bruno is simply content to have found a playmate. In particular he finds it amazing that they are the same age and born on exactly the same day. In return for Shmuel’s tales of implicit horror, Bruno tells Shmuel stories of his rich and fulfilling life in Berlin. Bruno is confused by Shmuel’s constant hunger and the strange “pyjamas” he wears but nevertheless the boys forge a fast and genuine friendship.

Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship is tested in the story because it is a secret one. Although they know they can both trust one another they are also both aware they shouldn’t be friends. In the novel Bruno says, ““We’re not supposed to be friends, you and me. We’re meant to be enemies. Did you know that?” Although Bruno doesn’t really understand the world in which he finds himself and the actions of his father he is aware that the fence is there to divide two worlds. His sister Gretel also helps to point out the differences between them when she gives Bruno a clear description of how he is different from a Jew.

The biggest test for their friendship comes when Bruno walks into the kitchen one day to find Shmuel there cleaning glasses. The boys talk and Bruno gives Shmuel food from the fridge. However his delight at seeing his friend ends when the very unpleasant and vicious Lieutenant Kotler arrives

and accuses Shmuel of stealing food. Kotler implies that the Jewish boy will be beaten as a punishment and Bruno has to pretend he doesn’t even know Shmuel or their friendship would be over. Bruno feels terribly guilty after this incident and fears Shmuel will no longer want to be friends. He is also fearful for Shmuel’s safety. However Shmuel forgives him, demonstrating what a true friend he is.

The climax of the boys’ friendship occurs when Shmuel tells Bruno that his father has disappeared within the camp. Being a true friend Bruno offers to help Shmuel find him. Bruno agrees to help because he wants to have a last adventure with his friend before he returns to Berlin. It is only when he has put on a spare pair of pyjamas and crawled under a gap in the fence that the true horrors of Shmuel’s existence in the camp start to dawn on him. He is shocked and frightened by what he sees in Shmuel’s world. Nevertheless Bruno does not turn back and he gathers himself and makes a clear decision to face his fear in order to help his friend.

Even when the two boys have been herded into the gas chambers about to face their death, Bruno stands by his friend, holding Shmuel’s hand, forgetting even the names of his friends in Berlin and saying that Shmuel is one true friend for life.

To conclude, Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship is both strange and genuine. Bruno confides in Shmuel, at first, because he is lonely and innocent. However as the novel develops their friendship grows into something authentic which crosses the boundaries of race, religion and culture. Over the course of the novel there are times when the friendship is tested, threatened and almost betrayed but Bruno and Shmuel remain true to their friendship even in the darkest and devastating of endings.