Cross Cultural Analysis of Slumdog Millionaire

2103 words 9 pages
Alexa Romancewicz Everyone experiences dilemmas in their lives. These situations help shape the people that we are today. These events can occur because of the culture that we are exposed to. This idea is prevalent in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire tells the tale of 18 year old Jamal, a kid from the slums, “slum dog” of Bombay/Mumbai as he is about to answer the final question on India’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. The movie opens on Jamal being interrogated by police who think the only way a kid from the slums could make it that far on the show is by cheating. Throughout the movie we see Jamal get asked each question and as a result of his experiences, how he arrived upon each answer. Through these …show more content…

He does have a few slip ups, most notably when he envisions tackling his brother resulting in both of them falling off the building and dying. Jamal’s whole thought process in determining the answers to the game show questions reflects his openness to experience. He took in all his surroundings no matter where he went and store them away in his brain. He never questioned what was going on or why something was happening to him; he just let it happen. Jamal’s acquisition of a job shows how conscious he is in that even with little schooling, he knew that he needed to get a job in order to support himself. His resilience is the product of the aforementioned traits. The strongest case of which is going on a game show despite being from the slums, just so he can find the girl of his dreams. He still went back on even though he was mercilessly tortured by a police officer when he was accused of cheating just so he could fulfill this desire. The arrest of Jamal as per request of the show’s host, who tried to lead Jamal to what he thought the correct answer was, is a perfect example of the show trying to “save face”(pg. 251). Face is the amount of social value others give you if you live up to the standards associated with your position. The game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” is a notoriously huge show in India. Families all come together just to sit around and watch it. The show also has a stigma that

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