Holocaust Unit: Key Question and 'Life is Beautiful'

1. What is a tragedy? A tragedy is when something tragic happens to people who have no knowledge or even if they do have knowledge                                                                        
2. How is Life is Beautiful a tragedy? it is a tragedy because Guido who just one day was taken from his home to go to this Nazi concentration camp and all the people who were just taken as well
3. Could it also be a comedy? Unlikely because it seems to serious to be a comedy even though it has some comic appeal
4. What is a villain? What is a hero? What is a victim? Give examples of each both from real life and from fiction. Villain: Fiction:Doctor Evil Real: Stalin  Hero: Fiction: Guido  Real: Winston Churchill.  Victim: Real: the Cambodians who were massacred: Fiction: all the Jews. A villain is some one who does something evil to some one with the intent of being evil. A hero is a person who does something good to people and/or helping people and will have a admiral trait. A victim is a person or people who are drawn into a situation due to no fault of their own with no way of avoiding them
5. Who are the villains, victims and heroes? Hero: Guido  Villain: all the Nazis  Victims: Joshua
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.) Joshua evokes a reaction from the viewers because he is just an innocent child and has no knowledge of what is happening around him. he links the movie to history because there were many many children who were in nearly exactly his situation apart from the dads who make it a game. The Nazis don't evoke a reaction because they did exactly what happened in history but they may make the audience hate the Nazis more. The Nazis play the Antagonist in the movie they play the value for evil, hate and malevolence. Guido evokes the reaction of compassion because he is a funny man who does nothing wrong and yet still gets sent to a death camp/ labour camp. He links the movie to history through the fact that many many Jews went through what Guido went through. he plays the Protagonist.