Life is Beautiful

Prompt: Based on the holocaust literature and poetry we have read, what connections can be made between "Life is Beautiful" and our reading? What events, scenes, or situations are similar or different about the mood or tone of the pieces? Analyze how differences in points of view of characters create suspense or humor.

How is life shown as beautiful throughout the film. Pull at least two examples from different parts of film and explain your rationale.

*Four Paragraphs Minimum.

          In the movie "Life is Beautiful" and in the book Night the characters are sent to concentration camps and throughout everything both Elie and Giousué were able to get through it. Both of these people were cared for dearly by their parents. In the movie "Life is Beautiful" and in the book Night both Elie's father and Guido cared for their sun and were with them almost the whole entire time and sadly in both cases both of the fathers die and give up their life for their son's life. In both the movie and book the characters try to show hope and in the book Night Elie starts to lose faith however goes back to it. In the movie Guido tries to make not only his son but wife hopeful. The father tries to tell them that things will get better. When he plays the music and also tells his son that everything happening was a game he shows how he cares for them very much.

          A few things were different between the movie and the book. One of the things that was different was how right off the bat you knew that Night was much more serious and in the movie it was very funny. In the book Night one of the saddest things was how at the end Elie had no one but himself, he had lost his whole family and it was a very morbid book. In the movie "life is beautiful" its starts off showing how this man really loves this woman and it mentions in some areas on how Hitler is coming to power and they vandalized the horse calling it a jew horse however the beginning wasn't focused on that it was focusing on his love for this woman. The man himself is a very funny character and he does some outrageous things that make him seem funny however it isn't until the end where it gets serious because even then the man is still kind of funny. Another big difference was how in the book Night it really focused in on religion and how to keep it when in "life is Beautiful" it never truly focus's in on religion.

          The tone in Night was very melancholy and morbid because it focused a lot on losing faith and death etc however it seemed like a more honest version because he wasn't sugar coding anything he was giving us some honest information. The tone in "Life is Beautiful" is defiantly a lot more happy and hopeful and this was because he had a young son who was probably five so he told him how everything was a game and not to worry because I  doubt you would go up to your kid and say how were all going to die no matter what so your done because that is pretty harsh for a five year old to take in. However in Night his father never really said anything about were all going to die and he didn't sugarcoat anything he just let Elie find out himself.

          I think that one point of view that was really funny to watch was in the movie "life is beautiful" when the little kid was hitting himself in the head with a spoon because it shows how he was innocent and was bored and how he was just trying to entertain himself. This created humor because it shows how he didn't know right from wrong and how he was really bored. another point of view that was really funny was when  that main Character Guido was trying to impress the girl by walking around her with a pillow on a stick and he used this as an umbrella. This was funny because it shows how this guy is really awkward and funny and the girl was kind of like what is he doing. A point of view that I found very serious was when in Night Ellie Wisel would step out and say how he didn't know that this would be the last time that he ever saw Tizpora and his mother which was very sad because he is telling a story and goes into present time and talks about how he feels or what he didn't know.

          Life in the movie is shown as beautiful in multiple ways. One way that life is shown as beautiful is when we switch views and see the mother going through a pile of clothes that belonged to the people who were just gassed and when she is about to break down because she wonders if one of the clothes belonged to her son she hears over the loudspeaker her husband and son speaking and saying "buongiorno principessa". This gives the wife a ton of faith because now she knows that her husband is with their kid and that they are still both alive. Another way that life is shown as beautiful is when the husband (Guido) and the son are in a house serving food and luckily the son is sitting down eating with everyone else however they don't know that he is Jewish. What happens is when Guido is walking by a record player he notices a record and it is from the opera that he went to see and ironically his now wife was there and he played the song that they first heard when they looked into each-others eyes out of the window. Soon she heard it that night and she was reminded of the wonderful times she had with her husband and is reminded to not lose faith.