The Beauty of Life
(This is my reaction on the movie "La Vita e Bella" (Life is Beautiful) which was shown for our Social Studies subject.)
The peculiarity of life is the real beauty of it. The further we reminisce in life, the more we don’t understand it. The deeper we plunge into the vast, unknown abyss of life, the more mysterious it gets; the more questions we have to answer. Why do we, humans, have different races? Why are we not the same? Why do we strive to be happy? Why do we love? Life is very mysterious, isn’t it?
This mysterious quality of life is portrayed in the film, “Life is Beautiful”. The movie shows how a person strives to live, yet, he chose to die. It portrays happiness behind grief. It also shows love among the hands of death. These paradoxical ideas are clearly pictured in this film.
The movie was about a Jewish man who lived in Italy just before the holocaust happened. The man’s name was Guido. Because of his unique way of romancing, he found a wife who bore a son named Giosue. At Giosue’s birthday, Guido and his son were taken by Nazi soldiers to the concentration camps. Theodora, Guido’s wife, followed them and was also taken to the camp. In the camp, they were separated. It was also there where they experienced pain, agony and all the sufferings they have never dreamed of even in their wildest nightmares. They were forced to stay there where many things, unfortunately most of them are the worst, happened. When the war was almost over, all Jews were meant to be executed. So, Guido hid his son and went looking for his wife. While he is running and shouting looking for her, he was killed by a Nazi soldier. The story is maybe whimsical in the first part, but it is sad and lonely in the second. Or, is it?
If you would say that the second part was sad, full of grief that not a single smile was etched at everyone’s faces, well, I beg to disagree. As a matter of fact, there is a single smile left carved in his face – Guido’s smile. And, that radiant smile made some, if not all, relieved and comfortable especially his son. If you would say that Guido is a fool or a clown, I also disagree. The second half of the story was not sad, not lonely and not grievous, it is what life is. Yes! They suffered, yes, they were in pain, but one mighty force shielded them from grief, it is because of Guido, Theodora and Giosue's love. While they were struggling in every burden, they knew how much they loved each other. The mere knowledge that somebody loves you is the best shield you can get that not even death could ruin and overcome it and not even death could affect your feelings as a human.
It is always a characteristic of a human to choose to look at the negative side rather than the positive side. It is a magnet that automatically attracts our minds and hearts. We are pessimists. And, I daresay that we should not be pessimistic, we should incline to optimism, like Guido. In that way, when we look at where we are going, we can see that it is for the best, rather than for the worst. In that way, we can reach a better end.
The story ended brutally, inhumanely, no. It ended beautifully. Why? Answer these questions that follow. Did Guido choose the wrong decision? Would you choose the other choice? Was his sacrifice for nothing? Would you sacrifice yourself for something? Was the family he left unlucky because he is gone? Did death conquer love? Please try for some remorse and answer it again. You might answer the other way around.
The ending was neither brutal nor sad; it fits to the theme of the story – the beauty of life. Guido was right to choose what he chose. If he didn’t go, would her wife know what would happen? Could she stop something that she didn’t know it is coming? His sacrifice was “something”; it is needed. Life is a chess game; you need to sacrifice something, even your own life. Theodora and Giosue, therefore, are indeed very lucky. They have a husband or father who died for them because he loved them. Death did not conquer love. Love conquered death! These simple facts touched me, one way or another.
Do you understand now? If you understood, I’m afraid maybe you did not because no one really can. Life is very mysterious. Every second of it is a mystery. You may be able to unserstand pieces and parts of your life but you cannot understand its entirety. We do not even know when, where, why and who started life! And, I think this is the true beauty of life. Life maybe something, but it is also everything. Every second of it is a mystery and all we can do is not study life, not ignore life but embrace life as it is. Who knows? Maybe, we can understand it sometime.
