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

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

The characters in Life is Beautiful has a very big impact on the level of engagement and uniqueness some of the characters that have a major impact are Guido, Dora and Joshua. This is due to different characteristic in each character. Also getting the beginning of the story connects you to two of the different characters (Dora and Guido) in a deeper and different way than you connect with Joshua. This connection furthers your level of engagement and uniqueness in the movie.

The beginning third of the movie had a significant role in connecting you to the characters as the typical love story that comes before the holocaust this is between Dora and Guido. This makes the terrors and horrible hardships that come later really effect you so make the “edge of the seat” feel when you are watching it.

Joshua has a major impact of the amount of engagement and uniqueness in life is beautiful with his innocents and the fact that his father is trying to stop him from knowing the horrible hardships that he is going thru. These include that he should be dead that the father is working and the fact that the whole thing isn’t just a game with the prize of a tank.

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

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



 Engaging and unique
        Engaging

• the beginning of the movie has no holocaust theme in it it is just a love story this allows you to connect with the main characters  more than if it went straight into the holocaust.
• puts humour into the horrible story eg (game)
• the game is made to keep the innocence of Joshua even if it puts Guido in danger
• lots of dramatic Irony and we now more than the main characters
• Dora is very compassionate and even goes to a camp for her family
• Guido is very laid back and not very serious which make the audience connect with the main characters.

Heroes and Villains

This is an important scene in the film when Guido and Giosue are introduced to the concentration camp.

1. Describe what is happening in this scene. The Germans are telling the Jewish people who's in charge and the camp rules are and that Guido is saying things to keep his young child from being scared and running off and dying.
2. Who are the heroes and villains victims in this scene? Why are they heroes and villains?   the victims are the Jewish people who are in the concentration camp and the villains are the people that contain themi and lead them to the gas chambers e.g; Germans and Jewish people that have sided with the Germans. There are heroes and villains in the story to create a complication and a story.
3. For the hero/es and villain/s, describe techniques used in this shot which highlight their opposing role and how they connect with the audience  

• a unbalance of power, a line of  separation
• the voice is low and very loud and a forceful voice and the other is fearful
• middle of the room different clothes he stands for the innocence in the holocaust
• very important to Guido
• more close ups
• speaking just to his son
• he is believing more and more
• the guard is stiff and no emotion
• while Guido is more softer and easier
• the guard is fat showing that he is being well fed compared to the guard

How are victims, villains and heroes of tragedy and trauma valued and given a voice?

We need to apply this key question to Life is Beautiful:

1. What is a tragedy?                                                                                                                              A tragedy is when the story has a major change for the bad for the hero that is most commonly forced upon thru a villian. An event that causes a disaster and usually has a sad ending.
2. How is Life is Beautiful a tragedy?                                                                                                    It is a tragedy as many people die including the hero and horrible things are forced upon hero and people that are good and they fight against this.main character succumbs to a force that they have no control over.
3. Could it also be a comedy? Yes as people can make humour even in a bad situation and if there are lots of jokes it is possible. 
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 bad guy an antagonist in a media and an example is Voldemort and Hitler, a hero an protanginist has noble quality's and is brave is the main character an is responsible for ending the tyranny of the villian an example Martian Luther King and Harry Potter. A victim is someone that has a terrible force onto them all the Jews, Joshua
5. Who are the villains, victims and heroes?                                                                                      The germans the jewish and the father
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.                                                                                                            Each of the people have a very important role in the work as the Germans have to put pressure on the Jewish which forces the main character to be brave and noble.the germans show how the history connects to the people thru harassing the jews. example is the horse and the concentration camp.they are mean to the hero which we have grown an attachment thru living in there life and hearing his stories and jokes. Guido represents the oppressed Jews and shows the comedy and how he dies in the end to make the audience feel sorry for him. Joshua makes the complication and hieghtens the drama and prevents Guido escaping you feel sorry for him and the more crucially the more you feel against the Germans. They use more enemy's and it makes you focus more on heroes and victim instead of connecting with the Germans as putting a face on something makes it harder to hate someone, they provide the main complication, Nazi party and the audience hates them on the deepest level.