I chose to take a look at the movie Slumdog Millionaire to compare what teens deal with growing up in the slums of India compared to teens growing up in the United States.
To begin my first point, a quote I took form Bordo’s article Never Just Pictures states that “Children in this culture grow up knowing that you can never be thin enough and that being fat is one of the worst things one can be” (445). I felt that this quote relates to one huge difference between growing up in the slums of Mumbai compared to growing up in the United States. The quote shows how here in the United States, teens starve themselves on purpose to lose weight and worry about eating too much so they can try to look better. But after watching the movie Slumdog Millionaire you see that there are no eating disorders, there is just malnutrition. People there worry about being too skinny and are fighting to get food to ease the pain of hunger.
Next, I thought that it would be interesting to compare the differences between what teens do on a daily basis when growing up in the United States or in the slums of India. First, when you are a teen in the United States, that is usually when most people get their first job, you are going to school, and having fun with your friends. As shown in the movie, there are actually a lot of similarities, only they aren’t to the same extent. For a teen in the slums, most don’t have a job. In order to get money, they go around begging and if they don’t get money they will steal what they need to buy. As far as schooling goes, Teens attend school, but there are many more illiterate adolescents in India than there are in the United States because they don’t have all the same laws for children attending school until a certain age. And last, teen in India make time to run around with their peers and play games just the same as those in the U.S.
Last, in Tolman’s article, Getting Beyond “It Just Happened,” Tolman makes different points about how girls should be sexually mature before giving up their virginity and being sexually active. Growing up in the United States, being a teen girl, you have the right to have sex with who you want, choose when you are ready to start having sex, and you also have the right to say “No” to having sex, and if someone takes advantage of those rights, they are punished. But in other parts of the world, there are people who kidnap girls and force them to have sex and are considered “property” and are sold as sex slaves and don’t get to chose when to have sex; so if these girls don’t feel that they are sexually mature, then it to bad so sad for them. An example in this movie of a girl being taken advantage of is Latika. Latika was taken at a young age by bad guys and she grew up being forced to dance for money. Also in the movie, she was forced to have sex with Salim in order to save the life of her loved one, Jamal. So as you can see, in other parts of the world, women are denied certain rights and men have a stronger influence over women.
Works Cited
Bordo, Susan. Twilight Zones: the Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.
Berkeley: University of California, 1997. Print.
Slumdog Millionaire. Dir. Danny Boyle. Prod. Christian Colson. By Simon Beaufoy.
Perf. Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, and Irrfan Khan. Fox
Searchlight Pictures, 2008.
Tolman, Deborah L. Getting Beyond "It Just Happened" 20 Aug. 1999.
I really liked your choice! It's hard for us Americans to remember how good we have it. We take advantage of everything, especially the basics, food, shelter, and education! We forget how lucky we are to be in a place where we get a free education, while children in other countries, give all they can to simply learn how to read. Yes, our country's economy is not great at this time, but we are not all living in shacks, barely finding enough food to keep us alive, as people in other countries are doing. This was a good reminder of how nice we have it here. We are protected by our law, we do not live in fear each day of dying of hunger, being sold as sex slaves or being sexually assaulted, or even never earning an education. This was a great media to chose!
ReplyDeleteI watched the movie and read the book, Slumdog.
ReplyDeleteThe book portrayed a young girl that Ram met while she was a prostitute. Of course, he fell in love with her and found that her "keeper" which we would call a "pimp" was really her brother. This prostitute, Nila, was chosen by her familty for protitution. Her curse, she told Ram was being the beatiful one.
How unfortunate for her and many other children that are sold or used as pawns to make money for their family to live or to make money for others to use in many illegal operations.
Our greatest gift in our country is the gift of freedom and a country and also as women.
I think you made an interesting choice for comparison to American teens.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky we are that we have basic rights and I hope that teens in this country can learn to appreciate those rights.
It is heart-breaking to me when you read about sexual slavery that girls, and boys, are forced to endure to pay for food or some other debt.
While some things in our country to are privleges, not rights (like a college education, getting a driver's license)these privileges are very attainable with help from all around for all youngsters to reach for any goal they achieve. It is a matter of putting in the effort. But when all of your effort goes towards basic survival, it is a great reminder to be thankful for our freedom.
This is a great piece of media to show how growing up in different parts of the world can be a challenge. We as Americans are so fortunate with all the advantages we have. I sometimes believe we take what we have here in the United States for America. The kids in the slums of India are so thankful when they don't have to steal food that day for their meal. When in America, we basically have everything handed to us. I can't even imagine growing up in a country where education was not important, women are sold for sex, or not having enough money to put food on the table. Movies like these, just help us Americans appreciate what we have and so thankful that we do not have to live our life day-by-day worrying if we're going to be able to find food or water that day. This piece of media was a reminder to myself why I am so fortunate to be living in America.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comparison to the way the people in the United States take for granite their luxuries and waste them, while on the other hand there are people of the same age on the other side of the world that are suffering to stay alive. This is a very large problem and i believe it should be looked at more closely. Almost daily in the United States, you see a teenager throw away food just because they don't like it or it's not what they wanted exactly, while other children are stealing and scrapping together food just to survive and cover the pains of starvation just for another night.
ReplyDelete