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El Norte Vs Slumdog Millionaire

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The movies El Norte and Slumdog Millionaire are about struggle, strife and achieving one’s dreams. El Norte is about a pair of Guatemalan siblings who travel to America in search of a better life after losing their family. While Slumdog Millionaire is about a young man who goes on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and, when accused of cheating, must share his life stories to prove how he knew the answers. The movies give the viewer the rare opportunity to learn more about the lives of the indigenous Guatemalans and the Indians of the Slums. The viewers also get a personal and heart wrenching look at some of the struggles that those in poverty face. Both stories enrich the viewers’ knowledge of culture and make them more empathetic towards …show more content…

At first Maman offers the boys Coca-Cola and gives all of the children food to make them feel comfortable and trust in him. In return, the children beg on the streets for money to give to Maman. This again reiterates the cycle of peasantry where the kids do all of the work but see none of the reward. This is further intensified by the fact that Maman blinds the kids so they get more money for begging. This is the biggest similarity between El Norte and Slumdog Millionaire because the protagonists work and struggle so much but see little of it because of their position on the social hierarchy. The exception being Jamal at the end when he wins “Who Wants to be a …show more content…

Their actions show how Hindus view the Muslims as deserving of death and look down on their culture. Combined with previous Muslim and Hindu tension, the Hindus’ belief that their religion is dominant leads them to justify the murder of the Muslims. Instead of the Hindus trying to understand their culture, and in general the protagonists, they view them as beneath them through the eyes of their own culture. Ethnocentrism is again shown when the host of the Millionaire game show has Jamal tortured because he could not believe that a “slumdog” could have so much knowledge. This is a powerful tool in the movie because since the viewer is bias towards the protagonists, they view the Hindus and the game show host as vicious and narrow-minded. This allows the viewer to come away with a more culturally relativist view on Jamal’s Muslim culture, and allows them to be more understanding of that culture in the future. The same thing happens in El Norte where, after seeing the protagonists struggle so much, the viewer feels much more sympathetic to these

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In the movie, Jamal's teacher Mr. Crawford doesn’t like Jamal either. First of all, Jamal is a new student at his school and Mr. Crawford thinks that his writings are too good. Mr. Crawford’s dream of being a published author got destroyed when he was younger so now, he doesn’t

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As a result Jamal is heavily influenced by hip hop music and lifestyle. Jamal has always had a curiosity for his parents whom he had never met. In fact his Aunt and Uncle are tired of him pestering them with questions about his parents. For all of Jamals life the only information Delly

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Another item that is extremely important in both stories is the use and importance of fate. Both characters rely on their fates for assistance and for achieving

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The Story of the Vargas Family “Rosa Vargas’ kids are too many and too much. It’s not her fault, you know, except she is their mother and only one against so many” (Cisneros 29). In the novel The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, touches on the many negative consequences of a single, impoverished mother raising an overwhelming amount of children. Poverty, discrimination, parental and neighborly responsibility, and respect are all issues and social forces that act upon the family; their presence or lack thereof cause several grisly occurrences to take place. Poverty was almost like a curse given to Rosa Vargas by her husband, who “left without even leaving a dollar for bologna or a note explaining how come” (29).

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Many people do not realize what poverty does to people. J.K. Rowling described it in 2008 as this: “Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships” (Rowling). The underlying meaning revealed by setting in “Volar” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer centers around the poverty that a family of immigrants deals with while trying to survive. “Volar” symbolizes the struggles of poverty through it’s vague description of setting.

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From the evidence found from the novel, I believe that Jamal is more of a desert warrior because of his fierce, bold, determined, and protective personality. The first

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[El Norte & The Reality of the American Dream] {America, the Land of the Free, the Land of Opportunity.} Built on immigration and comprising of people from countries all around the world, America ironically extends a cold and uninviting attitude towards modern-day immigrants. Many people come to America in hopes of establishing better lives for themselves and their families, often to face horrific struggles and ultimately find disappointment in their endeavors. El Norte, a film that highlights immigration from Central America, specifically critiques the immigration issue in America through the story of a brother and sister’s ordeals experienced in their journey both to the United States and once in the country. El Norte demonstrates the unachievable

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Many kids on Mango Street are not expected to go to college, not only because of the low expectations, but also because their families do not have enough money. In a community where the main issue present is poverty, the kids are not expected to be successful in certain aspects and are not expected to achieve great things in life. The Vargas kids, who live on Esperanza’s street, “bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases you can’t replace. They are without respect for all living things, including themselves” (Cisneros 29). As one can see, when a family is deeply involved with poverty, the parents often tend to forget about the children and their success.

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Where in one scene you can see the children play cricket on airport runways, rummage through garbage heap. They witness their mother and other Moslem neighbors killed by a mob of enraged Hindus, are enslaved by the most ruthless of local opportunists. Danny Boyle is showing the moral consequences of poverty to people in India especially to the slum. The movie begin where the police takes Jamal

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He answers every question correctly, leading Indias population to speculate how a boy with a slum background, no parents and a botched education is so intelligent and knowledgeable. Jamal’s secret weapon to knowing the answers being only his experiences. The blockbuster film has attracted an audience of all ages, drawn in by the inspiring story about experiences over/and education. Slumdog Millionaire encompasses the experience of discovering something for the first time, shown through Jamal’s lack of experience and fear whilst on the television show. First time discovery is also seen through the audience of the program in the film, portraying them as astounded by Jamal’s knowledge.

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