Different Representations Of The Holocaust
- Barroco The Life The Love The Truth - of view of different indigenous groups? History then might sound more like the accounts of...
Submitted by Ancmcq on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: History Other
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Different Representations Of The Holocaust
To retell the story of life during the Holocaust is a difficult and painful task in itself. To put into fitting words how 11 million Jews, Poles, and others died during a four-year massacre and to do so from a new approach is even more challenging. In Maus, Art Spiegelman, accomplishes this by having the main character, Artie Spiegelman, make sense of the Holocaust stories of his father, Vladek. Spiegelman is different from other authors of Holocaust literature because he portrays these events as a child would, through pictures in a comic book. He uses vivid black and white drawings and depicts the characters as animals; Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. Roberto Benigni, an Italian film director, is another pioneer in the telling of the Holocaust with a new approach. Benigni opens his film, Life is Beautiful, with Joshua, a child survivor recalling his fable-like story of his family's life before and during the Holocaust. Both Spiegelman and Benigni describe similar aspects of the Holocaust: the relationship between the prisoners and the Nazis, and also the survivors' psychological and physical tolls after the Holocaust. However, Spiegelman presents a more accurate and serious view than Benigni to appropriately portray the Holocaust.
Life is Beautiful describes the Holocaust as a fable in many ways. The main character, Guido, is able to mock the German camp personnel and their rules several times with fablesque humor. Guido, who cannot speak German, volunteers to translate the concentration camp rules to convince Joshua that he and the other prisoners are playing a game, "The game starts now. You have to score a thousand points to win, if you do that, you win a tank." Guido even treats his death in a comic manner. When he walks by the metal shack that Joshua is hiding in, he does an exaggerated solider march to mock his escorts and humor Joshua. The comic effect in Life is Beautiful gives an unrealistic view of life during the Holocaust....
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