The themes of sacrifice, suffering and love in the movies: the little mermaid and life is beautiful

Task Attaining emotional freedom Introduction In the movie The Little Mermaid, the character is a teenager called Ariel, the beloved daughter of King Triton, the king of the sea. Contrary to her father’s wishes, she travels to the dry land and marries Prince Eric the human. In her ignorance, the mermaid enters a treaty with Ursula the evil sea witch in order for her to become human. The climax of the movie is the happy ending but not before a dramatic and highly climatic altercation between her father and the sea evil. In the movie Life is Beautiful, life is portrayed in concentration camps. The movie starts with a happy family living a sensational life. Then one day, soldiers forced them out of their homes into concentration camps where people were not to meet with their family members. The Main character Guido jeopardises his life trying to keep his family alive. The movie comes to a happy ending when an American soldier saves Joshua and he finally gets to be reunited with his mother. The themes of sacrifice, suffering and love are depicted in the two movies and these form the basis of this paper. Sacrifice The venture of being part of a group requires sacrifice. The physical and mental barrier can act as an inhibitor of quest for belonging. “ What will I give to live out of water? What will I give in exchange to spending a day on the sand?” (Andersen, et al 11). For the little mermaid to win the prince’s love, she opts to surrender her voice in exchange for an immortal soul. She gives up her tail in an attempt to be the woman the prince loves. She even surrenders her voice a symbol of her freedom; the right to speak in order to win the prince. The phrase, “ If I turn to human, I’ll never get to see my father and sisters again” shows her hard choices (Andersen, et al 24). Guido sacrificed himself for his son’s welfare. Being well aware of the happenings in the surrounding, Guido is determined to shield his son from the startling realities of his situation. He carefully concocts a story of fantasy informing Joshua that, all was part of a game with the objective of getting 1000 points and, the winner gets an armoured tanker, not the toy tankers Joshua knew. The rules were dynamic, lots of make believe and the magic called silence, by all this the father managed to transform the boy’s ordeal into a vacation through self-sacrifice. Things happen for a reason someone has to sacrifice something in exchange for a better life. They did not give up and even though he never made it, the son and the mother’s lives was better in the long run. Suffering Suffering is depicted early in the movie The Little Mermaid when the sea Queen, little mermaid’s grandmother, prepares her for her first rise above the sea by attaching oysters to her tail as jewellery. This hurts the little mermaid (Andersen, et al 32). The queen explains, “ Well, to be beautiful, one must suffer” A woman was to be noble; dependent on religion, her siblings and children and most of all beauty was mandatory. The little mermaid is seen as doing what the system requires of her, but she has a rebellious side showing her resistance to the suffering. The dramatic flow of the movie is created by contradiction of her marrying a man of her choice and not wearing show-off of nobility because they hurt. In the movie, Life Is Beautiful, the people in concentration camps are told to take a shower, and their clothes stripped off them. They indeed did take a shower, but the children, old and weak took showers that killed them. The showers were poisoned with poisonous gas that instantly killed those closer to the showerheads as the rooms were windowless. This scene is depicted clearly as the old and the children were told to go take a shower, and they were never to return. Love No matter what Ariel does to win the love of the prince, the prince finally married another girl. Ariel’s last test gives a lesson; In order to have herself back as a mermaid, she has to slay the prince, and has a problem in doing it. Though the reason does not come clear in the movie, it can be concluded that it is because of love that she cannot afford to lose the prince (Andersen, H. C. Et al 78). In the movie, Life Is Beautiful, Debora and Guido fell in love eventually getting married, and they had a son called Joshua. The father had a healthy relationship with his family. As father, Guido had to protect his family in the concentration camp. The fatherly love for his son in the ” concentration camp” kept Joshua alive. Debora’s show of persistent hope finally leads to reunion with Joshua. Guido had a consistent sense of humour throughout the movie and at all times thinking positively in his desperate attempt to ensure Joshua’s safety and in so doing kept his son thinking that they were in a game. Conclusion Although the two movies have different settings and backgrounds, they do have common themes of things that revolve around our daily lives. The two stories assist us and combine life experiences into new thoughts and feelings that lighten the dark part and roads of life. They also shed light on the choices that we make in our daily lives that have consequences in the future of those around us in a changing world. Work Cited Andersen, H. C., Anthea Bell, and Chihiro Iwasaki. The little mermaid. Natick, MA: Picture Book Studio USA :, 1984. Print.