Millions of people all over America play the lottery everyday, not in hope to win a few extra bucks, but to win the ultimate jackpot. It is a get rich quick scheme that many are dying to obtain so that they may live out their American dream life. There are many versions of the American dream, yet every incarnation seems to end with one common goal: a better life. Americans love the rags to riches stories, such as is displayed in the foreign film Slumdog Millionaire, because everyone has hopes it will happen to them. As one of the main characters Latika puts it, people like shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire because “It’s to escape, walk into another life (Slumdog Millionaire)”. The American dream is an idea that applies to all, not just Americans. This idea of the easy way to a better life seems to be replacing the original/traditional American dream that consisted of working hard in order to obtain a better life style; this has transformed over time into finding an easy way to get rich which in turn means obtaining a better life.
In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, Jamal Malik is a poor child from the slums of India. Due to his class in the modern day Mumbai, many privileges are automatically taken away from him, forcing the identity of a worthless peasant onto him. In the movie, there is a scene where Jamal was beaten by a cop for the car of the American tourist being vandalized while he was showing them around. While on the floor hurt Jamal exclaims, “you wanted to see the real India? Well here it is (Slumdog Millionaire)!” Jamal doesn’t let others define him as lacking in privilege in any area such as how the white race does with culture and identity. No matter how privileged a person or race is viewed, they will always feel as if they are undercut, or lacking in privilege in one way or another. In America, it is popularly believed that the white race has all the privilege. However the white race feels underprivileged in certain aspects of life just as any other race does. In the essay, The End of White America? author Hua Hsu claims that the white race attempts to adapt other cultures. Take the “wigger” for example (93). It is “white kids who steep themselves black culture” (93). This occurs due to the white race feeling a lack of culture. Hsu shows this feeling of lack in terms of culture and the loss of identity that the white race feels, stating:
You’re forced as a white person into a sense of ironic detachment. Irony is what fuels a lot of white subcultures. You also see things like Burning Man, when a lot of white people are going into the desert and trying to invent something that is entirely new and not a form of racial mimicry. That’s its own kind of flight from whiteness. We’re going through a period where whites are really trying to figure out: Who are we? (96)
The white race views all other races as being full of traditions, culture and identity. Because the white race is viewed as the blank sheet, or standard in America they feel as if they have no identity, no culture, and feel underprivileged because they lack in what is prided on in all other races: culture which in turn leads to identity. Identity is what defines a person; it can either limit a person, or it can make them limitless. Even though Jamal came from the slums and lacked privilege in almost every aspect of his life due to this fact, he doesn’t let this define him. He still works to achieve his American dream, his better life: winning the love of his life while obtaining a better future simultaneously.
In the movie Slumdog Millionaire the three main characters Jamal, his brother Salim, and Latika their friend, dream of moving away from the slums in search of their American dream. There are men that take children out of the slums and use them as street performers so that they can make money. Jamal has a good voice and in hopes to get out of the slums exclaims during a conversation to his friend Latika,
Youngest Jamal: I just need Maman to like my singing, and were in the money, big money Latika.
Youngest Latika: And then what? Can we stop begging?
Youngest Jamal: Begging? Are you kidding? We'll live in a big house on Harbour Road. You, me and Salim, the three musketeers.
The “three musketeers” as they call themselves had dreams to move away from the slums and make enough money to live a better life (Slumdog Millionaire). Not only are people migrating from other countries to America seeking this dream of a better life; Americans are migrating from rural dead end towns to big promising cities. For many achieving a better life means leaving his or her old life behind which often entails physically leaving the familiar and relocating. In the essay The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas they state, “The rural exodus is not a new phenomenon; young people have always left small towns for big cities and bright opportunities (53).” The privilege of the bigger and brighter future entailed in the American dream is sought out by all, small town country folk as well as children from the slums of Mumbai. With so many young people leaving the rural areas of America, not wanting dead end jobs or lives, they leave seeking out this dream of a better life. They could not achieve their dream of obtaining a better life while staying in the slums just as the youth of the rural America can’t achieve their dreams of a bigger and better life while staying in a small town with dead end jobs. There is little to no room for the success that the youth of rural America or the slums of India crave for their future.
In the movie Slumdog Millionaire the main character Jamal plays the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? People want to get ahead and in a sense ‘win’ a better life with minimal effort. He proves this when he is playing the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The people who run the game show become suspicious and take Jamal in the back for questioning. The police inspector exclaims, “Doctors... Lawyers... never get past 60 thousand rupees. He's won 10 million. What the h*ll can a slumdog possibly know” (Slumdog Millionaire)? To Which Jamal replies, “The answers, I knew the answers” (Slumdog Millionaire). Neurological enhancers and the lottery are very similar, - they are the easy way out; whether it is money being handed over or an aid to help perform more efficiently than normal capacity, it is cheating the system. Many, especially Americans, are looking for a quick fix. People want the American dream but they no longer want to put the effort in that used to lead to the American dream. Drugs such as Adderall and Provigil are taken by students as well as professionals in order to perform more efficiently for longer all over America in order to obtain their American dream easier, so that they don’t have to sacrifice much time and effort out of their current life style. In the essay Brain Gain by Margaret Talbot she states that:
In 2004, [Anjan Chatterjee – a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania] coined the term ‘cosmetic neurology’ to describe the practice of using drugs developed fro recognized medical conditions to strengthen ordinary cognition. (267)
This idea of “cosmetic Neurology” is becoming so commonly accepted by not only students, but by people competing for job positions, most often the top positions, of corporations that it provokes the question of what the next generation will come up with to even more advance this idea of “getting ahead” (267). Neurological enhancers and simply winning a better life is in a way cheating the system. People used to work hard to achieve their American dream, their better life. Today people seem to want to cut out the hard work part and have it simply handed to them.
The American dream for many people today means taking the easy way out to get rich quick. One of the most popular ways to gain this is through game shows- such as in Slumdog Millionaire, neurological enhancers, or more commonly the lottery. These are all ways that success is made possible with minimal effort. Hard work is not valued, as evidenced in pop culture by how people want to go from rags to riches through getting rich quick. People used to struggle to work hard and create a better life for themselves, for their families, and future families to come. Now a day there is a more selfish view being taken. People want riches to make their immediate life more convenient, especially in America. The American dream has transformed over time to into finding an easy way to get rich, which in turn means obtaining a better life.
Works Cited
Boyle, Danny, dir. Slumdog Millionaire. 2008. 20th Century Fox. DVD.
Carr, Partrick J., and Maria Kefalas. “The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus.” Hollowing out the Middle. 2009. Boston: Beacon, 2009. N. pag. Rpt. in Insert Title Here. Boston: McGraw, 2010. 52-75. Print.
Hsu, Hua. “The End of White America?” The End of White America? 2009. The Atlantic: Atlantic Media, 2009. N. pag. Rpt. in Insert Title Here. Boston: McGraw, 2010. 87-99. Print.
Talbot, Margaret. “Brain Gain.” The New Yorker. 2009. New York: Wylie Agency, 2009.
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