Orientalism is still a common practice used today. Edward W. Said the publisher of Orientalism describes it as a "Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient."(3) One form of orientalism can be movies. Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that shows orientalism by creating a discourse on India's quality and standard of living being low. It displays their quality and standard of living being low by showing the main character's life in the slums of Mumbai. With the drama film obtaining many awards and becoming famous, this can create discourse because the people can come to the assumption that most Indians living in India have to struggle in life living in the slums. In my past, I have had an experience where an uninformed high school student who would look down on Indians due to the release of the movie. To prove that the student was wrong, I setup a meeting with an Indian transfer student named Akshaya. Akshaya lived in India for 18 years and he states, "cities such as New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune have a very normal or medium standard and quality of living just like cities in the U.S." With this insight, the high school student realized he was deceived by the movie's misrepresentation. A movie such as Slumdog Millionaire can influence a person's view to see all cities in India as the same quality and standard of living. It is important for the youth of our nation to be informed of orientalism, so that reality is not hidden by representations by movies such as Slumdog Millionaire.
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