Comparing the book Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl to the movie,Life is Beautiful? by Roberto Benigni, is to me like comparing ice to water. Both are made up of the same properties, put are very different. One is a solid, hard, and cold to the touch. Much like the book gives us the, solid cold hard facts of life in a concentration camp. In contrast the other is a liquid that is soft, and can be presented in various temperatures. The movie, much like water is softer and was able to flow away from some of the true facts of concentration camp life and served to us in a more comfortable form.
Man's Search for Meaning shows how a person's life can change as fast as the blink of an eye. You are stripped of everything but your body and soul. In the words of Victor Frankl,we really had nothing now except our bare bodies-even minus hair: all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence.? For many even their naked existence was stripped of them in the gas chamber.
Both pieces, though one true, one fiction, have many similarities. Victor tells how he had changed his way of thinking of what life was. He accepted pain, death, and suffering as part of his new life. At times even telling others to make a joke of it all to help ease the pain and hunger. Not just for food but also for the hunger each had for it all to end. This is much the same way Guido dealt with his son in the movie. .
.
He convinced his son it was all a game. He walked around acting like a clown, and making light of the whole thing. Working in any way he could to keep the boy's hopes up, and to keep him alive.
Other similarities in the two were the love each felt for their wives. How this love helped each to cope with the pain of their new life. Viktor would talk to his wife as if she were there, never knowing if she was still alive, or where she may be. Guido would find ways to communicate with his wife who was held in the same camp.
