Keira Federow English I Mr. Mayer 14 February 2023 Night and Life is Beautiful: Unconditional Love for Fathers In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel and film Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, both father and son relationships change in order to cope with the horror they witness at the Holocaust camps. The Holocaust was the mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Both works take readers and viewers through these concentration camps: Night takes readers through Elie Wiesel and his father’s journey to freedom, and Life is Beautiful takes the audience through the tale of Joshua and his father Guido as they play a game to distract them from camp life. Both sons are taken through the Awakening of Moral …show more content…
From the beginning of the fable it is introduced to viewers that Joshua likes to follow wherever his father goes. In preparation for company Joshua's mother, Dora, asks Joshua to take a bath and questions Guido on if he picked the flowers that they need. Guido goes to grab them, saying “I did pick them, I put them out here” to which Joshua cuts in saying, “I’m coming too” (Benigni 66). Joshua has obligations other than going with his father to grab the flowers yet, out of adoration for his father he wants to accompany him in this task. Joshua’s willingness to be with his father shows his love for him. His playfulness in not wanting to take a shower and wanting to follow Guido demonstrates how Joshua will go wherever his father goes, an idea that is cemented later on in the story. Soon thereafter arriving in the concentration camp, Joshua is told that he must stay hidden in order to win the “game” and attain the prize of his favorite toy: a tank. Guido emphasizes the severity of Joshua staying hidden, yet when Guido is undergoing the excruciatingly hard labor of lugging anvils, Joshua comes out of hiding from behind a machine. Before unveiling himself Joshua exclaims, “Pop!Pop!” (88). Joshua knew he was not supposed to be there because he was hiding, but his need to be with his father overpowers what he was told previously. Joshua goes there for his father and not by accident because he says “Pop!Pop!”. Going to see his father actually saves Joshua’s life because if he had stayed with the other children he would have had to take a ‘shower’ which is actually the gas chamber. Joshua’s need to be with his father saves his life. Before the end of the story, the audience knows that the whole fable is from Joshua's perspective. As Joshua and Dora reunite after the traumatizing events they have experienced, adult Joshua