Life is Beautiful

   human spirit: love

Life is beautiful is a film directed by Roberto Benigni, which is a story about Jewish Italian in the WWII era. The film contains both happy and sad moods, which are developed by the charismatic protagonist, Guido. Guido appears to be humorous and cheerful guy, who remains his great human spirit even in the crucial situations. In the film, since Guido is Roman Jew, he and his family are sent to Nazi concentration camp. In the camp, Guido often takes risks for his son, Josue. Sensing that his son might be scared in such place, Guido lies to his son that they are playing a game: whoever gets 1,000 points gains a tank. He even pretends that he can translate German; he randomly speaks in front of the people just to make his son to trust him. Throughout this event, one can see his great human spirit: courage. He takes risk only for his son without any hesitation. He shall know that he would be killed, however, he only concerns about his son but nothing else. Also, he remains spirit of his bright humanity even though he’s in extremely bad situation. I believe the reason or origin of his bright human spirit is existence of family, because family is the most important that gives him reason to survive. Later in the film, Guido takes risk again, this time for his wife, Dora. Willing to give her a relief, Guido courageously move out of the camp and daringly uses the speaker to mention that he and Josue are doing well. He knows that he must be killed if he gets caught. However, since concern for his beloved is way stronger than that of himself, Guido exhibits his human spirit in order to give his wife a hope in such cruel place. Guido, until the last moment of his life, remains his bright spirit of humanity; he makes his son stay in a narrow space by saying that they are playing hide and seek. Also, he dresses up with women’s cloth and goes to women’s camp in order to find Dora. Unfortunately, he dies. However, his death was more valuable than anything else in the world, which saved other family members of his with his human spirit: great courage, bright personality, and love for family.

bibliography

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/italian-movies/roberto-benigni.asp
 -provided explanation of Roberto Begnini
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/
 -provided background information of the film
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Nazi%20Germany.htm
 -provided information of Nazi Germany and Nazi concentration camp

No God

 

In chapter 5 of Night, Ellie faces one of the biggest holiday of Jews, Rosh Hashanah, in which Jews celebrate the new year and pray for the god. Elie, however, doesn’t pray but just expresses his anger toward the god. He becomes remorseful and questions himself a reason why he previously believed in god, who “had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death” (67). Having brutal experiences in the concentration camp, Elie no longer believes in god and determines that man is more powerful than god. After the service, Elie finds his father leaning against the wall; he goes to his father and kisses on his father’s hand. Elie feels tear on his hand, but he doesn’t know whose it is. At this moment, Elie and his father “understood each other so clearly”(69) more than they ever did because they both knew the reason of tear: despair. Previously, Elie and his father, as loyal Jewish people, were devoted to their religion and kept faithfulness for the god. However, being in the concentration camp and seeing their destiny of being massacred, they no longer believe in god and become mournful. This encounter between Elie and his father is highly significant because it displays sympathy of father and son who lose the biggest hope for their lives. I think that the tear is possibly from both him and his father, because not only he did but also his father lost faith for god, which used to be the reason of their existence. I believe the tear best symbolizes lose of hope because Elie and his father doubt their faith for the god and eventually lose it; they have neither the reason nor the hope to survive. Also, I think Rosh Hashanah symbolizes despair. This is because Elie and his father probably believed that they would see something different in Rosh Hashanah as it is extremely significant and special day for Jews. However, nothing came except the conviction that there is no god. Since both Elie and his father understand how painful it is to lose faith for god as Jew, they “understood each other so clearly” at this time than they ever did.

                                  selection that occured in Rosh Hashanah

bibliography

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm
 -provided information of Rosh Hashanah

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189
 -provided detailed information of concerntraion camps in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buna
Book
 -plot and quotes

Elie's response when his father is beaten for the first time

  
Elie's father
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeyzOvWQzFI 
Elie's memories of father

In chapter 2 and 3, Elie and his father are sent to concentration camp in Auschwitz. After the speech of SS officer, Elie’s father asks Gypsy for the location of toilet. Even though he asks in highly polite manner, the Gypsy severely beats Elie’s father up right in front of Elie. Elie sees the Gypsy slapping “my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours” (39), however, he “stood petrified”(39) and doesn’t show any reaction. All he could do is just to follow what the officer suggests him to do: keep silent. This response enormously affects the way Elie sees himself; he doubts his personality. This is because the day before, he mentioned that he would “dug my nails into this criminals’ flesh”(39) if they ever attack, however, the reality is that he remains silent and just watches his father being severely beaten. Because of his response, he is irritated and criticizes himself for doing nothing for his father who believes he loves the most. He then fears himself that he changes unpredictably fast; his thoughts and courage are completely gone in a day. The reality is that he cannot do anything toward the evils but just to “never forgive them for this”(39). In this chapter, Elie sees selfishness inside of him for the first time that he does not fight for his father, but chooses to keep silent so that he would not be involved in the beating. One can infer that change in Elie’s mind is due to the bad environment of the concentration camp because he has seen many Jewish people being severely beaten, or even killed, by SS officers when they disobey. Also, since he sensed that Jewish people, including him, do not have enough power to protest against the SS officers, fear of death must be naturally formed inside of him. Even though he felt guilty and wanted to do something, fear for beating and eagerness of survival were much stronger than his concerns about father.

bibliography

http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/gypsy

http://hyperhistory.org/images/assets/stories/dead.jpg image

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/wie0-007

       book as the standard source.

Night and Schindler's List comparison

Night, a memoir written by Ellie Wiesel, exhibits the holocaust appeared in 1940s. The story develops mainly by Wiesel’s own experiences that he had in 1940s, in which the holocaust was at the highest point. Schindler’s List is a film directed by Steven Spilberg, in which he develops particular protagonist, Oskar Schindler, a German Businessman who desires to save Jewish people. Both Night and Schindler’s List exhibit the crucial consequences of the holocaust. In the section 1 of  Night, the Hungarian forces decide to expel foreign Jews from Sighet, where people had to abandon all of their valuables and houses as the soldiers forced them to do. In the ghetto, prisoners were completely forbidden to have their own valuables; they have to wear same cloth and receive numbers that are used instead of their own names. One can see this in the film Schindler’s list as well, in which German soldiers collected all of the valuables and forced Jewish people to move out of their houses. Many people died during the expulsion for disobeying the soldiers just as it is shown in Night. Both in Night and Schindler’s List, Jewish people have sent to ghettos in Sighet and Cracow, respectively, where Jewish people had limited rights. On the other hand, there are some differences between Night and Schindler's List that could be observed. In Schindler’s List, Schindler built Jewish factory and provided workers little bit of time to get out of ghetto, while people in Night were completely forbidden to move out, but only work. Additionally, while Night completely eliminated optimistic stories and displayed only the crucial points of holocaust, Schindler's List exhibits Oskar Schindler's magnanimous actions for Jews; he saves lives of about 6000 people by using his own money. Although Schindler's List contains more hopeful plot than Night does, but still, film Schindler’s List and memoir Night were highly similar in that both exhibit suffering of Jews caused by holocaust, which must be remember as the worst event has ever made.  

Jews are moving to ghetto(as shown in both Night and Schindler's List)

bibliography

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/27/spielberg_symposium_films_and_moments.html

 -provided the info of the movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/

 -provided the info of the movie

http://www.krakow.pl/en/

 -provided the info of cracow