Prompts:
1. Based on the Holocaust literature and poetry we have read, what connections can be made between Life is Beautiful and Night?
2. How is life represented as beautiful in Life is Beautiful?
In the span of a few weeks, our ELA class was informed of the horrors of the Holocaust while reading Night, and viewing the film Life is Beautiful. Throughout both works, there are many similarities and differences that define them. First, in Life is Beautiful, there is a lot of humor throughout the film, especially at the beginning. They were able to maintain this humor throughout the story, which helped lighten the mood in many cases. On the other hand, Night contains very little to no humor. On page 109 of Night, Elie stated, "The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me." I felt this helped show how terrible the concentration camps were because it implies that they were truly awful to the point of that it could never leave you. The amount of humor in the stories effect the mood too. In night, the fact that there was little humor really helped express how serious the story is and made it seem much more sad. Although, in Life is Beautiful, the plentiful humor gives the story a much more lighthearted and happy mood.
One similarity between the pieces was the important father-son bonds throughout the plot. If you think about it, if the father and son's didn't have each other, they would both have been dead. At one part, Guido was ready to drop an anvil that he was carrying, but a person reminded him that he would be killed if he did. Guido realized that if he died, his son would die too. This was the same situation for Elie. If he died, his father would have died too. An example of this was mentioned on page 82 of Night when the author mentioned, "My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me... He was running at my side, out of breath, at the end of his strength, at wit's end. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support." This shows that if Elie died, his father probably would too because of their strong bond. As you can see, their father-son bonds where the entire reasons they were able to live through the Holocaust.
Another similarity was that there was a selection in both pieces. Although, the selections were very different from each other. First, they were similar in the fact that all the men stood in a line where they were inspected. In Night, Elie was awfully unlucky in the matter to be inspected by the notorious Dr. Mengele. Elie was very lucky to not be chosen to go to the death chambers even there! In Night, Elie says, "There were three SS members standing around Dr. Menegle, who had received us a Birkenau. The head of the block, with an attempt at a smile asked us: "Ready?' This proves that Elie was in a difficult situation during his selection. Now, in Life is Beautiful, Guido was very lucky to be inspected by a person who he was a waiter for many years before he arrived at the concentration camp. The two had a very special connection because they would give riddles for the other to solve. Luckily for Guido, the inspected noticed who he was, and gave him a job as a waiter in the camp. If the two did not have the connection, Guido would have been dead.
In Life is Beautiful, they were many examples of how life truly is beautiful. As you could imagine, the title alone lets you know that the film will have aspects of it to start with. One of the most important of these is the fact that Guido was able to remain positive in the worst of times really represented how beautiful life is. At the darkest hours, Guido brightened his surroundings and the people around him, giving them hope that they might really survive the ordeal. When Guido was working at the restaurant, he found a record of an opera song that was in an opera he saw his wife Dora at. Guido put the record in, directed it towards the girl's barracks, and played it. Dora heard this and it have her hope that Guido and her family were still alive, and that they might be reunited once again one day.
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