Night vs. Life Isbeautiful

400 Words2 Pages
The main characters, Elie, from the novel, “Night,” by Elie Wiesel, and Guido, from Roberto Benigni’s film, “Life is Beautiful,” display a considerable amount of will to live while using their strengths, Elie’s faith in himself and Guido’s love for his son, to endure the Holocaust. Both characters portray a will, for both himself and a family member, to survive the concentration camps. Elie manages to stay close to his father during most of his time in the camps, and Guido manages to remain close to his son, Joshua. Both characters take the leadership role and are very devoted to keeping his family member alive and well by sharing food rations and looking out for each other. When Elie says, "I was thinking of my father. He must have suffered more than I did," it shows how he thinks about his father’s well-being even before his own. Although Elie helps his father, his strength is in himself. A Kapo told Elie, "Here there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone.” Before the camps, Elie was religious and had a relationship with God. But, as he saw the devastation in the concentration camps, he wondered why God wasn’t stopping it, and he lost faith. When he broke that relationship with faith, he relied on himself instead of God. Elie said he felt stronger than the almighty and that became his strength to live through the concentration camps. Unlike Elie, Guido’s main purpose was to keep his family member alive and innocent. His love for his son, Joshua, gave Guido the opportunity to use his humorous personality as a way to keep Joshua safe and innocent during the concentration camps. Guido convinces his son that the entire camp is being run as a game of which the winner receives a real tank. Guido pretends to translate one of the guards, “The one who has the fewest points will have to wear a sign that says "Jackass" on his
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