Sophie's Choice
Tragic forced selection
Sophie's Choice is an impossible decision between two unbearable options, where choosing one means sacrificing the other.
The phrase comes from a novel in which a mother must choose which of her two children will be sent to death.
Any situation forcing someone to pick between equally terrible alternatives may be called a Sophie's choice: Deciding which parent to live with felt like a Sophie's choice.
- Oscar winnerFilm award recipient
- HolocaustNazi genocide of Jews
- World War IISecond global military conflict
- concentration campFacility for mass political detention
- death campFacility for mass murder
Meryl Streep · dilemma · no-win situation · life or death · Auschwitz · tragedy · mother · children · maternal love · guilt · sacrifice · Nazi · survivor · novel · literary adaptation · film · Poland · trauma
- 1982 FilmsE.T., Blade Runner, Poltergeist, Tootsie, Gandhi
- 20th Century Books1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Catch-22, Grapes of Wrath
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
- Holocaust LiteratureAnne Frank, Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz, survivor testimony, concentration camps
- war mediawar films, war footage, war correspondents, war correspondent, war reporting
Sophie's Choiceno-brainer
Self-evident decision
slam dunk · foregone conclusion · no contest · walk in the park · path of least resistance
Sophie's Choicewin-win
Advantageous to both sides
win-win situation · best of both worlds · embarrassment of riches · spoiled for choice · champagne problems
Sophie, choice, choose, chose, chosen, choosing, chooser, choices