Life is Beautiful Response

How do the characters in 'Life is Beautiful' represent an engaging and unique presentation of the Holocaust experience?

• Joshua represents how innocent the Jews actually were
• The director uses the view of the Jews during the Holocaust
• The reason why the Holocaust actually starts at halfway is because the director decided that the viewers should make a connection with the characters within the story to make it more of a bad experience
• Guido represents a non wealthy, funny and extremely positive man. He isn't what a hero would look like but he does indeed do heroic deeds. His love for his son and wife pushes him right to the end and in the end he decided to sacrifice his life for his only son Joshua
• Guido manages to make the whole concentration a game
• There is a love story before the holocaust to really engage the audience
• Joshua heightens the drama, it adds complexity to the story
• Their is dramatic irony because we know more than the character. For eg. the showers
• Dora is willing to risk her life to be with her family. she always wears red to represent her fiery love and compassion for Guido and Joshua.
• Guido is not very serious and respect people
• Innocent, presentation

Life is beautiful represents an engaging and unique presentation of the Holocaust experience. The director throughout the story uses the view of the Jews to represent the Holocaust.

At the start of the story you meet a man named Guido. He isn't the toughest of men or the wealthiest but he is a funny, courageous and positive man who throughout the story is the hero and representative of the Jews. He is not very serious and he respects people just as they are. For the first half of the movie the story is all about Guido and his love for a lady named Dora. This is a very useful technique as it gets the audience to really connect with the characters. Soon later though you start seeing how the holocaust is involved with this movie. For example you see a horse painted in green with the words 'I hate Jews'. Then as you progress more into the story Guido has a kid with Dora and soon later they are shipped off to the concentration camp made by the Nazis.


Whilst in the concentration camp Guido's son Joshua (Aged 5)  is known to be the complication in the story. Joshua represented during the movie how innocent the Jews actually were. When they went to the concentration camp it was Joshua's birthday. So instead of telling Joshua he was going to be killed Guido decided to make up a little game in order to protect his son. This game played a huge part in Joshua's, Dora's and Guido's lives and even though Joshua was the complication he actually made things a lot better. Overall Joshua really heightens the drama and gives it complexity. 


There is a major bit of dramatic irony throughout the story. For example when you know more about the showers than Joshua does. This is very effective as it keeps you at the edge of your seat. Another person who played a huge role throughout the story was Dora (Guido's wife). At the start of the story Dora plays a huge part in being in love with Guido. But the weird thing was that even though everyone despised Jews Dora didn't care and ended up marrying Guido even though she was Catholic. Throughout the story Dora was willing to risk her life to be with her family and she always wore red to represent her fiery love and compassion for Guido and Joshua.


Overall the characters were what made the movie and without them we would not have experienced the same feelings as they did. Also without them we wouldn't have seen how innocent the Jews were and we also would not have had any comedy involved within the story.

Video

1) In this scene Guido pretends to translate German
2)
The hero is Guido as he is pretending to speak German in order to protect his son
The villains were the guards because they were shouting orders and making the Jews do what they want
The victims were the Jews as they were being told what to do by the enemies
3) In the scene the director is trying to show that Guido is on the weak side while the Germans are on the strong side. You can also see that the Germans are on high ground while the Jews are on the low ground. There are close ups to indicate that Guido is speaking directly to his son. Guido allows us to go into a little world and when he is speaking to Joshua we believe in some kind o hope. The Germans are fatter to symbolize that the Jews haven't been fed.

1) What is a tragedy?  An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe'

2) How is Life is Beautiful a tragedy? Because the event caused great suffering and pain to peoples lives

3) Could it also be a comedy? Yes it could but not much

4) What is a villain? What is a hero? What is a victim? Give examples of each both from real life and from fiction.

A hero is a person, typically a man, who is admired for courage or noble qualities, A Victim is a person guilty or capable of a crime or wickedness, A Villain is a person guilty or capable of a crime or wickedness

Hero- Harry Potter

Villain- Voldemort

Victim- Draco Malfoy

5) Who are the villains, victims and heroes? 

Hero- Guido

Villain- Nazi's

Victim- Joshua

6) What value do each of these characters play in the movie? What role do they play in the plot? What role do they play in connecting the movie to history? What role do they play in evoking a reaction from the audience? (List the important characters in the movie and label them as either villains or heroes. Then, in dot points, list the important role they play in regards to plot, history, and to the audience.)

Guido- Guido is the father of Joshua and because he is Jewish he was sent to the concentration camp. Guido's role throughout the whole story is to protect his family while they are captured by the Nazis. He uses courage and bravery throughout the story and in the end he sacrifices his life to save his only son Joshua.