My object of study is the movie Slumdog Millionaire. I will be analyzing issues regarding gender, race and sexuality in combination with coming of age in India. I will be also comparing these same aspects to the coming of age experience in the U.S.
In third-world countries, gender is still very serious issue. In fact, in many of these countries, women are still considered to be inferior to men. Latika’s adolescence clearly illustrated this. As a young child growing, she was always lead by men. And once she reached adolescence, she was taken care of to be sold for her virginity. We can compare Latika’s story to Marjane in Persepolis, Marjane who is also from a developing country—India—was wearing a veil at very young age, and they, the girls, were also separated from the boys in school. These girls are very early on set-up to live behind men and think that they are not capable of what are capable of.
Let’s compare a girl like Latika to typical American girls who when growing up are given the same opportunity and put at the same level as boys. There is without a doubt a great intellectual gap between these girls from countries with different economical means. It brings me to the conclusion that the more economical sufficiency you have the more liberated you are. Today in country like the US, people are starting accepting gay people whereas in developing countries like Iran or India, there is still a huge gap between men and women. It is also telling me that childhood have life-bearing repercussions on individuals. In countries like Iran and India, there are very few literate women.
Jamal and Salim’s mother died during Bombay Riots. It is something, I am sure, they never forgot. Even though I think the issue of race is not very present in the movie as a whole, according to Wikipedia an estimated 575 Muslims (67%) and 275 Hindus (32%) died so somehow Jamal and his brother probably belonged to minority or inferior ethnicity. Growing up, they were probably conscious that of the notion of race, and probably associated it with hatred because of what they witnessed.
The issue of race is very present in the United States and I mean by that, the pollution is made of Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics etc. Jamal and his brother probably associated race with what they have seen associated with hatred. Here in the U.S., children notice differences between them but learn that it is normal and that we should all accept each others. They also see how peacefully adults of different races interact with one another. Therefore, that is how they are going act with each other as children but also as adults because that’s what they know.
In the movie we can see that Latika very early on is trained to be sold later on for her virginity. As a child, because that is what she has been shown, she will be growing and think that’s all she is about.
In the U.S., you would have been prosecuted for making Latika, an underage girl, going through such practices. However, here in the U.S. teenagers have sex very early too.
To end, I going to refer C.J. Pascoe: “Adolescence task according to developmental theorists like Erickson is “identity consolidation.” This requires that teens figure out “who they are.” This to show that coming of age is a critical phase in young folks’ lives, and that we should pay more attention so that these kids are neither deviated from being who they are nor affected by the actions of the adults around them.
Sources:Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2003.
Pascoe, C. J. Dude You'Re A Fag. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
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