Blog post 2- summary

This time I read three chapters: The overpaid Maid, why Grandmother stormed away, and how mother takes credit for something that she had not done.

The Overpaid Maid- In this chapter Bruno is bored and decides to talk to Maria, the house cleaner. The conversation begins with Bruno talking about how much he hates his new house. He then asks Maria if she agrees. At first, Maria seems reluctant and avoids answering the question completely. However, when Bruno calls his father stupid Maria tells Bruno a story that went something like this.
“You’re your father is a good man. He took me in when I needed him and gave me a job, food, and a home. He used to be friends with my mother who was a dressmaker. She was one of the best too; you don’t see dressmakers like that anymore.” “ He took good care of her even when she got sick and then when she died he paid all of her funeral expenses. It makes me wonder…..” ‘Wonder what?” asked Bruno curiously. “Wonder how he could.” Maria never really has to finish her sentence because Gretchen pounded up the stairs and demanded Maria makes her a bath. I believe that if she was not interrupted she may have talked about how Bruno’s father treated Jews and house cleaners.
In the chapter How Mother takes credit for something she had not done, Bruno decides to build a tire swing but he cannot find a tire. He decides to ask one of the soldiers who always hangs around the house. During their conversation, the solider sees Pavel, one of the cooks, and calls him a name Bruno is not familiar with. He then makes him find Bruno a tire and carry it through the yard. Bruno precedes to builds his tire swing and while he was swinging on it and he fell off and scraped his knees and elbows. His mom is not home so Pavel the cook takes Bruno inside and fixes his wound for him. Later, when Bruno’s mom comes home she sees Bruno’s wound and asks him about it. When she finds out that Pavel cleaned the wound she is so unhappy that she tells Pavel that if Bruno’s dad asked she cleaned Bruno up.
In the last chapter, Bruno is remembering a dinner that his family had with his grandmother a while ago. It was held in the family room and after the children “performed the plays”, they were sitting around the dinner table congratulating Bruno’s father on his new uniform. The only one who seemed unhappy was Bruno’s grandmother. When she sees him in the suit she gets very angry and yells, “You don’t know what the suit stands for” and storms away.
These three chapters continue with the ongoing theme of family, hatred and curiosity.