Gertruda And Mickey example essay topic

Mamusha The film is a story of hope, courage and faith. The story is set in 1939, in Warsaw, Poland during the Second World War; and is based on a true to life story of Gertruda Babilinska - a courageous woman's will to survive while keeping a promise. The story starts inside the Babilinska household. Gertruda was hired by the Babilinska, an influential Jewish family in Poland, to be the personal nanny of their son Mickey.

Not long though, Germany occupied Poland, and Mr. Babilinska was called to duty. Things did not get better... Lydia Babilinska, his son Mickey and Gertruda were forced to flee their house and seek for refuge in a German dominated land, to live a plebeian life. With their new life, the three had to endure one bad thing on top of another everyday... this was made worse by a discovery which will change Gertruda's life forever -- - Mrs. Lydia Babilinska was inflicted with a sickness that not for long, took her life, leaving Mickey to Gertruda's hands.

In Lydia's deathbed, she entrusted Mickey to Gertruda... from one woman to another, she asked Gertruda to raise and love Mickey as her own, and told her that she wishes Mickey to remain a Jew. She asked Gertruda to promise to take Mickey to Palestine after the war. Gertruda promised, and took Mickey to raise as her own. Gertruda took the role of being Mickey's mother and adapted the Babilinska surname, making her Mrs. Gertruda Babilinska, mother of Mickey Babilinska. They lived in a German Christian community and blended in. This was not really difficult for Gertruda since she wasn't a Jew and she could speak German fluently.

They attended mass, and made "friends" with their German neighbours. What was difficult to achieve was to maintain the absence of suspicion. This proved to be exceptionally hard for Gertruda to make Mickey understand since Mickey was just a little kid and did not know what was happening. An example of this was in the scene wherein Mickey called Gertruda by her first name... Gertruda had to remind Mickey again not to call her by her first name since children do not call their mothers by their first name.

Mickey replied with a very confused answer and said that he already has a mother... Gertruda then had to put things in a more creative way... she said that she was his Christian mother... she told him to call her Mamusha. Years have passed and the end for the war wasn't in sight. German intelligence received hints that Jews are in hiding in the apartment where Gertruda and Mickey lived. German eyes were on them. Gertruda had to act fast on how to evade suspicion.

She exhausted all resources, and finally decided to confess everything to the local priest. The priest understood her predicament and provided for an answer. Mickey was baptized into Christianity... since then, suspicions towards them faded as people saw Mickey serve regularly in mass celebrations. After five years of concealing a little boy's real identity, and secretly smuggling food and medical supplies to their Jewish friends in the concentration camp, in the end, Gertruda and Mickey survived the war.

It is heart-warming to learn that there are still people like Mrs. Gertruda Babilinska in this world. The movie sends a message of hope -- - that there is still hope for us human beings to be humanistic. It inspires people to do things, and not be afraid to step out of their comfort zone in order to lend a hand. Woman on the Bicycle The film is mainly about Marie Rose, a Christian messenger based in a community in France. The setting of the story is during the Nazi occupation of France. Marie Rose, the secretary of a diocese in France was assigned of the important task of distributing "illegal" letters around the village, as well as letting the letters reach other villages.

The letters mainly are on the concern regarding their Jewish brothers and sisters who get to escape concentration camps and are in hiding. The underground activity that Marie Rose was making possible was to look for shelters for Jewish people in hiding. She even engaged in the falsification of the documents of the Jewish people. Changing their Jewish names into Christian names... making them less inconspicuous. There were lots of instances in the film wherein Rose Marie was subjected into police harassment and even life threatening situations that didn't just threaten her life, but threatened the security of the people around her as well. Even when the situation in their village became heavy under fire, Marie Rose tried her best to continue to help and held on to her faith.

All paid off when she and her Jewish friends witnessed the day when the Allied forces defeated Germany, and ended the war. ASSESSMENT: In both films, the storyline, the plot and the portrayal of the heroine is not new. In fact, the portrayal of the heroine as somebody ordinary doing extraordinary things amidst life-threatening circumstances, has been applied to numerous films that try to touch people's hearts. This style is very common, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... it is actually a good thing. The common storyline establishes more familiarity to the audience. The composition of the storyline is done in such a way that the viewers will get to establish a sense of commonality with the characters.

The characters get to reach out to people's feelings. This feature actually made these two films a success. The films definitely do not match up to Spielberg's Schindler's List and Empire of the Sun, but they are worth the watch, and worth the buy to collect as well.