Comparing Wiesel's Provisionss In Night And Life Is Beautiful

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"You're going to go through tough times - that's life. But I say, 'Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.' See the positive in negative events” (Osteen, n.d.). This quote by Joel Osteen is relevant to every person’s life because bad circumstances are imminent. With this to say, people need to see the good in every circumstance rather than focus on the negatives in life. The manner in which a person handles difficult circumstances is contrasted in Elie Wiesel's novel Night and the movie "Life is Beautiful.” Both of these stories follow a father and son as they experience the Nazi’s concentration camps during the Holocaust. While the ambiance is similar in both stories, the manner in which the protagonists define their Holocaust experience …show more content…

However, these provisions vary in each story because of the uniqueness in the main characters perspective in the concentration camps. In Night, Elie experiences five major provisions from God during his stay at Auschwitz. Specifically, God provides concrete support to Elie by using a French girl to deliver encouragement, being able to live with his father, having a less excruciating job in a warehouse, keeping his gold tooth, and receiving assistance from his benevolent block leader (Wiesel, 2006). These provisions are significant to the story because they show God’s sovereign hand in the midst of turmoil. Nonetheless, Elie lost his faith as he embarked through the despair of experiencing the Holocaust. Contrastingly, in “Life is Beautiful,” God supplies one quintessential provision for Joshua, which was allowing him to maintain his innocence. Unlike Elie, Joshua did not witness the repulsions of life in the concentration camps due to the fact that his father hid him in the barracks and ultimately from the truth (“Life is Beautiful,” 2000). Thus, Joshua was able to preserve his youth and innocence even in the midst of life in the concentration camps. Most importantly, Joshua conserved his faith because he was not involved in the dissoluteness of the Holocaust. To sum up, God’s provisions were evident in the lives of Elie and Joshua, yet both boys experienced a different perspective of …show more content…

To begin with, Elie’s mood in Night is somber and gloomy. As he recalls his memories from the concentration camp, he describes human bodies being burned and babies being killed (Wiesel, 2006). Elie’s graphic depiction of his experiences augments the story’s wretchedness. For instance, Night explains the process of what happened to the Jews prior to being moved to concentration camps. The Jews were unable to leave their houses at a certain time of day, they could not go to church, they were stripped of their valuables, and they were eventually placed in ghettos where food and water was scarce (Wiesel, 2006). On the contary, the mood in “Life is Beautiful” is filled with humor and love in the presence of evil. This mood is seen from the story’s beginning as Guido met and fell in love with Dora. For instance, Guido posed as Dora’s boyfriend by picking her up from the opera in the same car model as her boyfriend’s, even though Guido did not know how to drive (“Life is Beautiful,” 2000). The joyful and romantic opening scenes between Guido and Dora lay the framework for the story’s comical mood. Similar scenes of humor are represented all throughout “Life is Beautiful,” even when the Jews are deported. In particular, upon arrival at the barracks, Guido pretended to understand German in order to tell the prisoners that they were in a game where the winner gets a tank. In lieu of this, Guido

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