User:Chase Jablon/New sandbox

Background
Boyne has described the conception of his novel as an idea popping into his head of "two boys, the mirror of each other, sitting either side of a wire fence." While the conception of the book came about fast, his inspiration for writing has a more lengthy foundation. Boyne has stated that his style and writing process has been influenced by Malcolm Bradberry at the University of East Anglia, who suggested he write every day without rest days.

Much like other novels he has written, Boyne has described how he wrote the first draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in roughly two and a half days, with the idea for the novel coming to him on Tuesday, April 27th, and then proceeding to write non-stop until Friday at noon. Afterwards, he ended up writing ten different drafts before sending his book to the editor. As for the subject material and research that Boyne undertook to write the book, Professor Gern Bayer from the University of Erlangen has stated that Boyne relied on "well-known facts" to create his narrative.

Genre and Style
The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas fits into the genre of Holocaust fiction. Boyne uses general knowledge about the Holocaust to create a self-described "fable," that relies more on a story of moral truth than historical accuracy. This type of literature, as shown in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, has a tendency to be told to children, from a child's perspective. By having one child share the "bitter herbs" of history with another, the novel instills moral obligation in children.

Trevor Agnew, a New Zealand literature critic, says a fable format, like the one Boyne uses, may downplay the seriousness of the Holocaust by dramatizing it and creating false impressions. In contrast to this, Kenneth Kidd, professor of English at the University of Florida, argues that John Boyne's use of fable allows him to explore the darker elements of the Holocaust with more of a cautionary tale resulting.

In a Broader Context
Proponents of Holocaust literature, like Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, former director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, contend that Holocaust literature is essential for remembering, aides with Holocaust history courses and serves to educate the public on the causes of antisemitism. Beyond this, some critics have stated that Holocaust literature has a broader scope, outside of a narrative specific to Jews and the Holocaust. David Russell, writer for The Lion and the Unicorn, has stated that human decency is an ideal that must be upheld, with Holocaust literature like Boy in the Striped Pyjamas being used as a "cautionary tale" and must be written in a didactic manner.

In contrast, critics such as Jacob Neuser of Brown University have argued that Holocaust literature has negatively altered the American-Jewish identity by including the experiences of European Jews, while Arnold Jacob Wolf, a Reform Rabbi, has stated that Holocaust literature is an attack on the whole of the human race.

Analysis
While Boyne wrote his story as a fable, he focused on a factual subject which Sophie Melissa Smith, a PhD candidate at the University of Southhampton, argues is damaging as it may produce misconceptions about the Holocaust. Examples include the ability for Shmuel to escape work and Bruno's ability to approach a electrocuted fence.

Smith claims that Boyne lowers the culpability of Nazis like Bruno's father by not just humanizing them but also creating a sense of obligation in characters like Bruno's father, as Bruno's father was a Commandant at a large Concentration camp. Additionally, the depiction of the story told through Bruno creates a greater ignorance of the Nazi regime by using words such as "the Fury" in place of the Fuhrer and "Out-with" in place of Auschwitz. Generally, critics see the trivialization of the Nazi regime in this portrayal as damaging to Holocaust education.

Educational Implications
By using a fable format, critics have argued that Boyne strays too far from historical accuracy in his novel. A 2009 study by the London Jewish Cultural center conducted a survey in which 75% of respondents thought Boyne's novel was based on a true story. Many students also thought "the tragic death of Bruno brought about the end of concentration camps."

In Other Media
In 2008, two years after being published, the novel was made into a movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, directed by Mark Herman.

In 2017, the novel was adapted into a ballet by the Northern Ballet. The score is produced by Gary Yershon. Reviews of the ballet are generally negative with Zo and Euml Anderson of The Independent stating the casting of children's parts as adults works against "the naivety of a child's viewpoint," which the novel captures. Doncaster Cast of The Yorkshire Post has described the score as "a relentless assault on the ears," but apart from the music, Cast has stated that it has redeemable quality in the cast, despite being depressing.

Revisions (medium sized edits)
-re-did the lead section by removing much background information and adding criticism in the lead.

-updated the fact about books sold and cited in the lead

-each one of the reception quotations were reworded to eliminate block quotation, I would consider each of these their own edit (5).

Minor edits
-renaming of Critics' reviews as reception

-quotation formatting was streamlined

-eliminated citation that wasn't functioning, it was the book sold one, but I ended up replacing it

-removed plot analysis talking about naïvety of Bruno 22:04, 10 December 2019

-placed citation on John Boyne at the end of sentence in the first sentence of the lead

-added a citation needed in the lead when referring to the spanish best-seller in 2007 and 2008. I could not find a source for this anywhere but thought I'd err on someone else being able to find it

-Added links to New York Times Best Seller List (lead) and Nazism (plot)

-made sure there were citations at each claim, I did this in several edits, but consider it the same task

I hope that considering the detail I went in to on the revisions and my large edits, the lack of many minor edits may be over looked, I could not find much else to change and the article was quite small when I started on it. Additionally, as I stated, many of my edits I made in combination with others when I published.

Note for peer editors, all the sections below with the exception of my lead are my original additions, these sections did not exist in the article. I have not changed the lead, but state what I plan to do to it in bold. I haven't created link-citations, and plan to reorganize and do that. I do not plan to add more content unless you guys think there is a gap. I plan to edit the critic's section in the original article as well as streamline some formatting.

Lead
"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 Holocaust novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. Unlike the months of planning Boyne devoted to his other books, he said that he wrote the entire first draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in two and a half days, barely sleeping until he got to the end. He did, however, commit to nearly 20 years of research, reading and researching about the Holocaust as a teenager before the idea for the novel even came to him. As of March 2010, the novel had sold more than five million copies around the world. In both 2007 and 2008, it was the best selling book of the year in Spain, and it also reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list, as well as in the UK and Australia.[not verified in body] The book was adapted in 2008 as a film of the same name."––Current lead, need to edit

'''Fact about best selling book in Spain in 2007 and 2008 is false, I would also remove the background part about him not sleeping as I go on to talk about it in background. I don't want to include the below source, but provide it as reference to deny the fact of the bestselling book in Spain.'''http://estudioenescarlata.blogspot.com/2008/01/los-27-libros-ms-vendidos-del-2007.html

Background
Boyne has described the conception of his novel as an idea popping into his head of "two boys, the mirror of each other, sitting either side of a wire fence."4 While the conception of the book came about fast, his inspiration for writing has a more lengthy foundation. Boyne has stated that his style and writing process has been influenced by Malcolm Bradberry at the University of East Anglia, who suggested he write every day without rest days.4

Much like other novels he has written, Boyne has described how he wrote the first draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in roughly two and a half days, with the idea for the novel coming to him on tuesday, April 27th, and then him proceeding to write non-stop till Friday at noon. After this he ended up writing ten different drafts before sending his book to the editor. As for the subject material and research that Boyne undertook to write the book, Professor Gern Bayer from the University of Erlangen has stated that Boyne relied on "well-known facts" to create his narrative.1

Genre and Style
The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas fits into the genre of Holocaust fiction.1 Boyne uses general knowledge about the Holocaust to create a self-described "fable," that relies more on a story of moral truth than historical accuracy.1 This type of literature, as shown in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has a tendency to be told to children, from a child's perspective.2 By doing so the story is told by way of one child sharing the "bitter herbs" of history with another, this is done to instill moral obligation in children.2

While some, such as Trevor Agnew, a New Zealand literature critic, say a fable format, like the one Boyne uses, may downplay the seriousness of the Holocaust by dramatizing it and creating false impressions.13 In contrast to this, Kenneth Kidd, professor of English at the University of Florida, argues that John Boyne's use of fable allows him to explore the darker elements of the Holocaust with more of a cautionary tale result.9

In a Broader Context
Proponents of Holocaust literature, like Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, former director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust contend that Holocaust literature is essential for the remembrance of the victims of Holocaust and with Holocaust history courses, serve to educate the public on the causes of antisemitism.5 Critics such as Jacob Neuser of Brown University have argued that Holocaust literature has negatively altered the Ameican-Jewish identity to one that includes outside experiences of European Jews, while Arnold Jacob Wolf, a Reform Rabbi, has stated that Holocaust literature is an attack on the whole of the human race.5

Other critics have stated that Holocaust literature has a broader scope, outside of a narrative specific to Jews and the Holocaust. David Russell, writer for The Lion and the Unicorn has stated that human decency is an ideal that must be upheld, with Holocaust literature like Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is used as a "cautionary tale" and must be written in a didactic manner.8

Analysis
While Boyne has written his story as a fable, he has focused on a factual subject which Sophie Melissa Smith, a PhD candidate at the University of Southhampton, argues is damaging as it may produce misconceptions about the Holocaust.9 In aspects such as the ability for Schmuel to escape work and Bruno's ability to approach a electrocuted fence.11

Smith claims that Boyne lowers the culpability of Nazis like Bruno's father by not just humanizing them but also creating a sense of obligation in characters like Bruno's father, as Bruno's father was a Commandant at a large Concentration camp.1 Additionally, the depiction of the story told through Bruno creates a greater ignorance of the Nazi regime that Bruno is living in by using words such as "the Fury" in place of the Fuhrer and "Out-with" in place of Auschwitz .1 Generally, critics see the trivialization of the Nazi regime in this portrayal as damaging to holocaust education.12

Educational Implications
By using a fable format, critics have argued that Boyne strays too far from historical accuracy in his novel.13 A 2009 study by the London Jewish Cultural center conducted a survey in which 75% of respondents thought Boyne's novel was based on a true story.12 Many students also thought "the tragic death of Bruno brought about the end of concentration camps."10

In Other Media
In 2008, two years after being published, the novel was made into a movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, directed by Mark Herman.14

In 2017, the novel was adapted into a ballet by the Northern Ballet. The score is produced by Gary Yershon.7 Reviews of the play are generally negative with Zo and Euml Anderson of The Independent stating the casting of children's parts as adults works against "the naivety of a child's viewpoint," which the novel captures.10 Doncaster Cast of The Yorkshire Post has described the score as "a relentless assault on the ears," but apart from the music it has redeemable quality in the cast, despite being depressing.7

Bibliography of sources for editing The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas article

 * 1) Barber, J. (2010). A debate over the limits of representation. The Globe and Mail Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/357215689?accountid=11091
 * 2) Bayer, G. (2011). World war ii fiction and the ethics of trauma. DQR Studies in Literature, 48, 15-174,299. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/896482224?accountid=11091
 * 3) Bonacorsi, K. (2018). Aesthetic shapes of holocaust literature and pedagogical applications (M.A.). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2067187307). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2067187307?accountid=11091
 * 4) Boyne, J. (2017, ). John boyne: 'I began on wednesday morning and wrote for 60 hours'. The Guardian Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1882869091?accountid=11091
 * 5) By Paula E. Hyman. (1980, ). New debate on the holocaust: Has the popularization of this tragedy diluted its meaning and diminished other aspects of judaism? holocaust holocaust. New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/121263075?accountid=11091
 * 6) Jason Steger, L. E. (2007, ). With rush of creativity, boyne earns stripes with challenging novel; BOOKS: [First edition]. The Age Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/363973630?accountid=11091
 * 7) Review: The boy in the striped pyjamas. (2017, ). The Yorkshire Post Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1904975730?accountid=11091
 * 8) Russell, D. L. (1997). Reading the shards and fragments: Holocaust literature for young readers. The Lion and the Unicorn, 21(2), 267-280. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/750525867?accountid=11091
 * 9) Seidel, M. L., & Greve, H. R. (2017). Emergence (First edition ed.). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing. Retrieved from http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=029636429&sequence=000001&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA
 * 10) Zo&amp, euml, & Anderson. (2017). The boy in the striped pyjamas, richmond theatre, review: A clumsily literal staging of the novel. London, United Kingdom London, London: Independent Digital News & Media. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1908586424?accountid=11091
 * 11) Topography of Terror: A Documentation, trans. by Pamela Selwyn, (Eberl Print: Immenstadt, 2008)
 * 12) Gray, Michael, ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas A Blessing Or Curse For Holocaust Education?’, Holocaust Studies, 20 (2014), 109-136
 * 13) 1 Agnew, Trevor, ‘John Boyne Interview’, Agnew Reading < http://agnewreading.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/john-boyne-interview.html > (2008) [accessed 4 December 2019].
 * 14) "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 4 December 2019.