The pianist is a remarkable movie about World War II, it documents the journey a musician went through to survive the holocaust. Wladyslaw Szpilman was fortune enough to survive the destruction in the Warsaw ghetto because of his talent. The extermination of the Jews was brutal and harsh, actually harsh is an understatement. It is nothing less than a miracle that Wladyslaw Szpilman survived because he had to overcome hungry, thirst, sickness and the fear of being shot at any minute. He survived the war because people respected his talent as a musician and when they heard him play, it did not matter was race or religion he was from; all they cared about was the beautiful music he played.
The two quotes by Plato and Marguerite Yourcenar are very similar, they are about music and how it can not only be a means of pleasure but also a life saver. In the movie, there were many opportunities for someone to kill Wladyslaw Szpilman but someone always helped him instead because they respected his talent. He was taken in Dorota and she gave him something to eat and clothes, her husband gave him an apartment to live in. It was dangerous for a Jew to live in a densely populated German area. He lived in this apartment for a few years until the Russians invaded and almost got killed because of the Russian attack. All these people offer to help him because he was a famous musician and they disregarded his religion.
A German soldier found him one day towards the end of the war in an abandoned home. The German soldier was going to kill him and he had to because it was his job as a German soldier. He did not kill him because he heard him play piano and his music seemed to affect the soldier, he let Wladyslaw Szpilman live and also gave him his coat to keep him warm (which ironically almost got him killed). This shows how the quotes relate to the movie and how music can be more than just music it can become something more, a part of your soul and people will recognize you for...