People often shudder at the thought of the Holocaust. During this gruesome time nearly six million Jews, and an additional five million non- Jewish victims, including gypsies, homosexuals, and handicapped, were inhumanely murdered by the Nazis. There was no escape from the brutality of the German dictator, Adolf Hitler. The Holocaust was Hitler’s effort to exterminate any person he believed to be inferior. Anyone deemed fit for the title was lugged away to concentration camps, then sentenced to obligatory labor or demise. Now, imagine this as a comedy. The notion that such an event could be portrayed as a comedy seems unfathomable. However, director Robert Benigni is able to take this occurrence and apply a comedic sense in order to set the …show more content…
Joshua and Guido are abducted put on a train to the concentration camp. Immediately, he begins the attempt to protect his son by telling him the train is part of a surprise for Joshua’s birthday. Guido continues this adlibbing as they arrive at the camp by constructing a game. He tells Joshua that everyone in the concentration camp is partaking in the game, and the first to reach a thousand points is the winner. The winner of the game will receive the grand prize of a real tank, Joshua’s favorite toy. Guido knew this was the only way to preserve his son’s life. Guido’s role is not only to protect himself, but his son as well. An applied comedic section begins when several guards enter the room, and yell something in German. Unable to understand, Guido asks Bartolomeo, a fellow prisoner, what the guard said. Bartolomeo says the guard asked if any one spoke German. Guido’s hand shot up right away, even though he of course did not speak German. This contributes to the humor of the film. Pretending to understand, he “translates” what the guard had said into the rules of the game. Joshua giggles at the rules his father proposes, when in actuality this was destined to be a serious moment by the Germans and prisoners of the camp to explain the rules of the camp. In fact, however, this is another attempt to save his son from the monstrosities of the encampment. Later, Guido finds Joshua in the room after he had ran away from the group that was heading to showers. He tells Joshua to return to the group and go take a shower. Little did they both know, the showers were actually gas chambers. Guido’s fatherly advice is indeed a death sentence. The dramatic effect of the irony closely portrays an essence of comedy. Joshua’s childlike stubbornness essentially saves him. The enormity of the situation strikes the comedic effect. This scene reflects the
As a son watches his mother take her last breath on her deathbed, an overwhelming grief sets in. Although knowing that his mom smokes and drinks, he never told her to quit or ease up because he thought his mother can never die. In this case, the offset of this denial is his mom’s early death but, the denial by the Jews during 1942, caused a far more superior calamity, six million deaths! Alas, just like the boy who lost his mother, the Jews have signs and warnings to escape the invasion and Elie Wiesel does a superb job of incorporating that in his book, Night. These overlooked chances, or motifs, are Moshe not getting the respect for his word, uncomprehending the news that is given to the Jews, and the misjudgment of how evil a man Hitler is.
The Holocaust was the mass murder of Jews during the period of 1941 to 1945 under the German Nazi regime. More than six million European Jews were murdered out of a nine million Jewish population. Out of those who had survived was Elie Wiesel, who is the author of a literary memoir called Night. Night was written in the mid 1950’s after Wiesel had promised himself ten years before the making of this book to stay silent about his suffering and undergoing of the Holocaust. The story begins in Transylvania and then follows his journey through a number of concentration camps in Europe. The protagonist, Eliezer or Elie, battles with Nazi persecution and his faith in God and humanity. Wiesel’s devotion in writing Night was to not stay quiet and bear witness; on the contrary, it was too aware and to enlighten others of this tragedy in hopes of preventing an event like this from ever happening again.
In this world, people go through the process of dealing with both empathy and malice. As a matter of fact, almost everyone has been through times where maybe they feel understood by some and misunderstood by others. Specifically, in the book “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, a character named Madame Schachter goes through the experience of fellow Jews displaying empathy and malice during in result to her behavior. Along with this, the reactions reveal just how inconsiderate we can act when in uncomfortable situations. One example of the malice and lack of sympathy they provided her was during the cattle car ride to Auschwitz. During this ride, she went a bit insane due to the devastating separation of her family. Elie explains, “She received several blows to the head, blows that could have been
However, the servant to a Dutchman was not like this at all. He was loved by all and, "He had the face of a sad angel." (Wiesel 42). However, when the power station that the child worked at blew up, he was tortured for information. But the child refused to speak and was sentenced to death by hanging.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
Elie Wiesel has gone through more in life than any of us could ever imagine. One of my favorite quotes from him says, “To forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” In his novel “Night” we are given an in-depth look at the pure evil that was experienced during the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. We see as Wiesel goes from a faithful, kind Jewish boy to a survivor. As he experiences these events they change him drastically. We first see a boy with a feeling of hope and ignorance as his hometown is occupied and he’s moved into the ghettos. Then as he’s transferred to a concentration camp he questions his faith and slowly loses a sense of who he once was. But all of this puts him in an important position, he knows that he must share with the world what
Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.
It’s normal to be scared but staying positive is a major key. Rhetorical devices are used throughout “Night” to describe the emotions, feelings, situations, and faith that were being felt. The author Elie Wiesel did a fantastic job of showing that. Though times were rough Elie was always staying positive because he knew that there is always a chance for something good to happen despite how bad the situation can get and rhetorical devices were a great way of showing that.
As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.
In the Holocaust, there were things that happened that were poignant. Elie Wiesel has made a book that showed things that happened during the holocaust. In the book, Night, there are quotes that are poignant and significant.
In Night, Elie Wiesel uses tone to express the emotions he felt and explain the situations he endured during the Holocaust. The most prevalent tones in the book are anguish and hopelessness, but many more are also present. At the beginning of the book, Wiesel’s tone is more optimistic towards his situation and hopeful for a better outcome, but as the book progresses, Wiesel changes the tone to one of dreariness and hopelessness due to the new environments and events he endures.
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the audience is led through a very emotional story of a Holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with the author, who is his son, and his wife. Throughout this novel, the audience constantly is reminded of how horrific the Holocaust was to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the novel finds very effective ways to insert forms of humor in the inner story and outer story of Maus. Although the Holocaust has a heart wrenching effect on the novel as a whole, the effective use of humor allows for the story to become slightly less severe and a more tolerable read.
Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Bastards entails a Jewish revenge fantasy that is told through a counterfactual history of events in World War II. However, this story follows a completely different plot than what we are currently familiar with. Within these circumstances, audiences now question the very ideas and arguments that are often associated with World War II. We believe that Inglourious Basterds is a Jewish revenge fantasy that forces us to rethink our previous understandings by disrupting the viewers sense of content and nature in the history of World War II. Within this thesis, this paper will cover the Jewish lens vs. American lens, counter-plots within the film, ignored social undercurrents, and the idea that nobody wins in war.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Director Mark Herman presents a narrative film that attests to the brutal, thought-provoking Nazi regime, in war-torn Europe. It is obvious that with Herman’s relatively clean representation of this era, he felt it was most important to resonate with the audience in a profound and philosophical manner rather than in a ruthlessness infuriating way. Despite scenes that are more graphic than others, the films objective was not to recap on the awful brutality that took place in camps such as the one in the movie. The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy was conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewis...