Similarities Between Night And Life Is Beautiful By Elie Wiesel

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed” (Wiesel 34). In both Night and Life is Beautiful, the Jews encounter their first night at the concentration camps and although their experiences during the Holocaust may be different, they still share this same gut wrenching feeling of what the beginning of pure Hell is like. Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel and translated by Marion Wiesel. It was published in 1955 after vast copies and constant rejection. Wiesel felt a responsibility to share not only his story, but the story of many others who are not as lucky as him and have the opportunity to tell everyone what they went through. The film, Life is Beautiful,

Since the boys are different ages and have different experiences at the camps, the focus of innocence will vary between the children. Elie is a fifteen year old boy who sees things that force him to grow up and is the one who loses his innocence upon arrival at the camp. Elie arrives and sees, “Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes...children thrown into the flames,” which forces him to grow up because that can be him at any moment (Wiesel 32). Elie does not have time to reminisce on his childhood because getting down on oneself hurts the chances of survival. These factors prove that Elie’s sense of innocence is non-existent and throughout the story, the reader can see Elie becoming his father’s caretaker, which is something a child should not have to do, meaning he has to step up to the plate to keep his father and himself going. Guiose, on the other hand, is somewhere around the age of five and is rather oblivious to what is going on. Guiose holds innocence throughout the film and that is thanks to his father, Guido. Guiose’s time at the camp is made into a game because at his age, if someone tells him what is really going on, it will only scare him and he will not be able to grasp the seriousness of the situation. His father tells him not to talk to anyone, to hide from the mean people (the Germans), and to do what he says in order to ensure he gets enough points, which will result in him winning the tank at the end (Benigni). The theme gives off a rather different mood between both texts. In Night, there is a heaviness seen through Elie and his journey, as well as a darkness because he does not know where his family is, what being an eighteen year old feels like, and if he slips up and tells his actual age, it can come with detrimental consequences. Elie also has to continually check up on his father to make sure he makes it through