El Norte Vs Slumdog Millionaire

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

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

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