Throughout all stages of human life, it becomes increasingly apparent that there are certain hardships that we must face in order to reach our next. Perseverance is the ability to work through hardship in order to get to your goals, this concept is central to the film Slumdog Millionaire. This idea of pushing through tough times is seen throughout the duration of the film but is outlined specific scenes, primarily the beginning and end. In the novel, Religion: The Basics, by Malory Nye, we can begin to develop an understanding of how religion is a part of everything we do, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, and in turn allows us to find the drive to push through. Nye’s text contributes to this belief using theories in his Ritual …show more content…
Nye, in his transformation passage, uses Arnold Gennep, a highly acclaimed British Anthropologist to better explain what is meant by transformation. Arnold states that there are three stages of every rite of passage, the first, separation, “involves some separation between the participant and the world they normally live in”. In this stage, the life that was once known to the character is no longer the life they are living. Jamal, Salim, and Latika all go through this stage at the same time as they all lose their parents in a riot. Not having any other family members to look after them caused them to step into a caregiving position and ultimately leave their past lives behind them. As they get older, Salim kills Maman, the man that they previously were under the rule of. At this point of the film, Salim is immersed in the second stage of this transformation which is liminality. “The participants are expected to cross a threshold which marks the boundary between the world that they are leaving behind and the social world which the ritual is preparing them for”. Killing his past master Maman, allows Salim to cross over into a new social world. Now having a new sense of self, Salim rapes Latika. This causes Jamal to enter the liminality stage as he is forced, by his brother Salim to continue his journey on his own. Salim now a full-fledged killer, joins a gang and enters the final stage of Gennep’s process. Incorporation, according to Gennep is “ an indication of the new role that the participants are to take on”. Years after leaving Latika and Salim behind, Jamal enters the T.V game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire where Jamal develops his new social status as the richest man in Mumbai. The name slumdog is one that shows the transformation in Jamal's, as it is used to discredit the person he became, this is the result of the incorporation stage for Jamal. Although Latika plays a key role in the
Sara Smolinsky, the protagonist of the novel Bread Givers, is on a quest to adapt to her new surroundings and rid herself from the restrictions of her heritage. She is a Jewish immigrant from Poland who lives with her parents and three older sisters in New York. Her father is a devout Jew who does nothing more than antagonize her and her three older sisters with his overbearing devotion and need to run their lives. Yet, despite Sara's seemingly successful attempts at escaping her father and building a life of her own, she still manages to make a 360 turn by the time her the story comes to a close. Readers are left with the message that with hard work, dedication, and independence one can rise and succeed, but if in doing so you are running
After reading Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I observed that both these texts share a few similarities in the way the authors portray the difficulties their characters have to face, in order to get to where they are now. After researching a few rags to riches stories and using Slumdog Millionaire and The Pursuit of Happyness as my primary sources, I found out that successful individuals from harsh backgrounds shared similar complications, yet they had the will and perseverance to get to where they are now. They faced difficulties such as dealing with poverty and hardships of everyday life, struggling to overcome the effects of addiction and abuse. They found ways to overcome these difficulties through things like having some form of education, and utilizing their knowledge, to manipulate opportunities to their advantage in order to bring about success.
In ?A & P? John Updike gives a story of a man faced with two choices for his life in a seemingly unimportant circumstance. He can stand up for himself and for his rules, as his manager encourages him to do so. But as the story goes, he remains oblivious to the forces at work, and decides to bend his will to three girls in bathing suits, or more generally, to those who have the power and nobility of wealth behind them. Sam makes the wrong choice, and subsequently, makes the rest of his life more difficult, as he admits that he must life his life under another class of people, the wealthy, as though he is less than them. By admitting that he is less than them, Sam has started to live his life not for the happiness he can obtain, but for the wealth he can obtain.
Throughout the course of humanity, people have sought ways to promote a society where moral unification and motivation are present. It is essential for a community to coincide with such values; therefore, tradition and folklore are transcended though generations as customs which people follow mostly without question. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, such traditions are exploited through a futile box along with a brutal ritual which symbolizes the way a society might mindlessly abide by them and feel powerless to divert from such illogical acts. The storyline contains a constant tone which depicts normalcy to present normalcy itself as seen by the villagers, yet whispers eerie to the reader by setting up hints and indications of what is really occurring.
Shute in his novel, On the Beach, provides many insights on humanities’ inability to comprehend its own demise regardless of the apparent inevitability and/or proximity of ones extermination. He effectively presents this psychological shortcoming of disbelief by delineating the common coping mechanism that is shared by all of the characters: The desire to work and maintain a progressive outlook towards ones future options. Work serves as a blinder or shield from the characters near termination by exercising the same routine that was typical behavior previous to the discernment of the soon-coming apocalypse. Thus, the characters in On the Beach find salvation and consolation through work by using it as an illusion of desired normalcy in midst of disordered chaos.
Resiliency is one concept that has never been the human races forte. Many things that happen in our current day and age require a great deal of perseverance and resiliency. People often will give in to the problems in their lives and learn to accept them, instead of persevering through them and working out the issues. The fact of the matter is, if you learn to persevere through problems, your life will be a lot more happy and pleasant to live. In Tennessee Williams’ play, “ A Streetcar Named Desire” suggests that you cannot give up on issues; you must be resilient to those issues and persevere to be happy.
This article was predominantly about Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” philosophy; the rich were obligated to give to the poor.
Few situations exist that can strip a person of their ability to influence their world as much as social desolation. In the words of Rudyard Kipling, “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too h...
“A Millionaire in Blue Jeans?” One of the most valuable principles is found in the very first chapter. Our authors do a wonderful job at dispelling any delusions we have regarding what a Millionaire looks like. I had long assumed, like many others, that the Millionaires of America were the hyperconsumers and elaborate spenders. In fact, we learn that just the opposite is true. I came to understand that, “Wealth is not the same as income”. (The Millionaire Next Door, p. 1, Stanley & Danko) In many cases, income is not at the forefront of relevancy when determining whether someone will become wealthy. There are several factors involved, but ultimately, if a person spends their entire income, the number value of said income simply doesn’t matter. The old age adage regarding spending less than you make is of much more importance. In the Church, this is referred to as ‘living below our means’. We have often been counseled to exercise restraint regarding our spending habits, and have also been commanded to obtain a level of financially secure by building up our savings, staying out of debt, and living within our means. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, (2006), 11423) It seems rather silly that a large percentage of our population would be under the assumption that living a large lifestyle, along with the accumulation of fancy things, would somehow equate to wealth. After reading the book, I have come to understand that many of us have an extremely distorted relationship with money, in the assumption that money is to get and spend, while those who are authentic accumulators of wealth understand that money should be invested and stored up as a measure of safety and peace.
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.
In the book, A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, Salva shows perseverance is key when facing life’s challenges.
Carson, Rachel. “The Obligation to Endure” 50 Essays. 3rd Edition. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 83-90. Print.
The 2008 documentary The End of Poverty? is a film that focuses around global poverty and how it became the tragedy that it is today. Poverty was created by acts of military conquest, slavery and colonization that led to the confiscation of individual’s property and forced labor. However, today the problem remains because wealthy countries who take advantage of developing third world countries. The film interviews several activists who discuss how the issues became and several ways in which they could be eliminated, as well as interviews from individuals who are experiencing it firsthand.
Slumdog Millionaire is a movie based on the book Q & A that dives into the eyes of Jamal, an Indian “slumdog” who is a contestant on Who wants to be a millionaire?. The powerful visuals and plot of this film presents the reality of life however; there is a certain property of the book that cannot be delivered through a movie. It is not by watching visually the retelling of the life of Ram (Jamal in the movie) that I have fallen in love with this book but by reading, experiencing the life stories and adventure Thomas encounters throughout his journey that I have thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Stories are have been part of every culture, some of those stories teach a way a life, others show how us a way of culture, others show how Kingdoms have been built and just like that destroyed into pieces, but the Legend of Robin Hood is different, not only because it has been around for centuries but because the legend has changed so much over the years, and with that each Robin Hood movie is way different than the last one, mainly because the historic events that were happening during the filming of the movie were strong enough to change the plot of the movie and change certain archetypes. This is because a film will have greater success if the audience can relate or connect to the plot and the characters in the movie or story.