We discussed the reason that the author so subtlely implies that Kotler and Bruno's mother were having an affair. The answer is that since the novel is from Bruno's naive point of view, it makes sense that that relationship is not clearly stated. Bruno himself does not know what is going on between the two.
We discussed the word justaposition; it means a stark contrast between two things or ideas. Bruno's friendship with Schmuel is justaposed with his cowardly betrayal of Schmuel in chapter 15 -- when Bruno states that he has "never spoken to [Schmuel]" and that he's "never seen him before in [his] life."
