资源描述
Abstract
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British romantic drama directed by Danny Boyle. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008.
On the interpretation of the film, many scholars make a fruitful exploration, but these linguistic features and are more from shooting techniques, focusing on the interpretation of the film's theme and successes. Fatalism is a valuable aspect of creation in the movie Slumdog Millionaire which describes about the fate of the characters is particularly highlighted. This is a problem worthy of our serious consideration: How to correctly understand the infiltration of religious thought, the cruel fate and dark reality in the film?
The purpose of the present study is to analyze necessity, contingency and creativity in plot arrangement from the perspective of fatalism setting and characters in the film, and to discuss the causes of fatalistic ideas and its performance analysis in creation of this film. Its expression is not a pure fatalism, but takes fatalism to criticize the society and pay attention to the suffering through the experience of the protagonist, around a reflection on human nature as well as the satire in American dream.
Key Words: Slumdog Millionaire; fatalism; love attitude; criticism
摘要
2008年上映的《贫民窟的百万富翁》这部电影是根据印度作家及外交官维卡斯•史瓦卢普的作品《Q&A》所改编，由英国导演丹尼•博伊尔所执导拍摄。于2009年《贫民窟的百万富翁》得到奥斯卡金像奖十项提名，并荣获了8个奖项，成为2008年电影界的大赢家。
关于该电影的阐释，不少学者做出了卓有成效的探索，但这些研究多从语言特点和拍摄技巧方面着眼于解读电影的主题和成功之处等，宿命论是影片《贫民窟的百万富翁》创作思想的一个重要方面，作品中关于人物命运的描写对此表现得尤为突出。该如何正确理解影片中渗透的宗教思想，残酷的宿命与黑暗的现实，这是值得我们深思的问题。
本论文主要论述这一宿命论思想的形成原因，并对其在这部影片创作中的人物设定和情节安排中的必然性、偶然性以及创造性进行了分析，其表达的并不是一种纯粹的宿命论思想，而是借宿命论来达到社会批判的目的，通过主人公的苦难经历对社会呐喊，引起世人对人性的思考以及美国梦的讽刺。
关键词：贫民窟的百万富翁；宿命论；爱情观；批判
Contents
Abstract i
摘要 ii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Rationale 1
1.2 Aim and objectives 1
1.3 Organization of the paper 2
2. Literature Review 3
2.1 Studies on fatalism 3
2.1.1 Definition of fatalism 3
2.1.2 Foreign and domestic study on fatalism 3
2.2 Brief introduction about Slumdog Millionaire 4
2.3 Foreign and domestic study on Slumdog Millionaire 4
3. The causes of fatalistic colors in Slumdog Millionaire 6
3.1 Family environment 6
3.2 Collective education 6
3.3 Social culture 7
4. Fatalism in marriage decisions 8
4.1 the encouragement in love attitude towards actor 8
4.2 the conditioning in love attitude towards actress 8
5. The manifestation of fatalism in plot arrangement 10
5.1 The living conditions in the slum 10
5.2 An unattainable dream 10
5.3 The unequal status 11
5.3.1 The conceited, self-satisfied white people 11
5.3.2 The destitute Jamal 11
5.4 The loyalty and betrayal of Salim 11
6. Conclusion 13
6.1 Major findings 13
6.2 Limitations and suggestions 14
References 15
Acknowledgements 17
1. Introduction
1.1 Rationale
According to Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary 6th Edition (2004:626), fatalism is the belief that events are decided by fate and that you cannot control them; the fact of accepting that you cannot prevent something from happening.
In 19th century Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is to break the traditional philosophy and theology on God and the human concept of idealism so that it is rising out of the gloom and melancholy of the new concepts of natural philosophy. In front of the vast universe, under the influence of genetic factors and life environment, people cannot master their own destiny, and even feel powerless.
Xu Jiangang (2009) states that fatalism, as a concept of destiny, does have its negative influence. Mankind itself is a living in a world of immeasurable natural forces to control small fraction of the endless, repetitive evolution process. At the same time, natural cruelty is also a new understanding of the natural philosophy. Human in front of nature must compete to survive, and the destruction of a small number of people is inevitably sacrificed in the course of human progress. Fatalism is changing over from irrationality to rationality. Whether Gods control destiny or environment impacts fate, people in the face of powerful forces are always helpless.
Fatalism is in general the view which holds that all events in the history of the world, and, in particular, the actions and incidents which make up the story of each individual life, are determined by fate. The theory takes many forms, or, rather, its essential feature of an antecedent force rigidly predetermining all occurrences enters in one shape or another into many theories of the universe. Sometimes in the ancient world fate was conceived as an iron necessity in the nature of things, overruling and controlling the will and power of the gods themselves. Sometimes it was explained as the inexorable decree of the gods directing the course of the universe; sometimes it was personified as a particular divinity, the goddess or goddesses of destiny. Their function was to secure that each man's lot, "share", or part should infallibly come to him (Maher, M. 1909).
1.2 Aim and objectives
In this dissertation, Slumdog Millionaire is not just a film about 20 million rupee quiz competition, not just about a tough life of 18-year-old orphan but is a film with fatalistic color which describes the social experience of hero in India through ten brief but slashing questions. Moreover, it puts traumata and robustness, corruption and struggle, hesitation and dauntless, contradiction and demure into a 120-mintue film so that it can focus world attention squarely on the thinking of human nature and fantasy of the American Dream by representing the values in different social classes.
Fatalism is a valuable aspect of creation in the movie Slumdog Millionaire which describes about the fate of the characters is particularly highlighted. This is a problem worthy of our serious consideration: How to correctly understand the infiltration of religious thought, the cruel fate and dark reality in the film? The purpose of the present study is to analyze necessity, contingency and creativity in plot arrangement from the perspective of fatalism setting and characters in the film, and to discuss the causes of a fatalistic ideas and its performance analysis in creation. Its expression takes fatalism to criticize the society and pay attention to the suffering through the experience of the protagonist.
1.3 Organization of the paper
This paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter one serves as an overall introduction to the rationale and aim of the study. Chapter two is an overview of the theories and studies related to fatalism and Slumdog Millionaire. Chapter three describes the causes of fatalistic colors in Slumdog Millionaire, including collective education, family environment and social culture. In Chapter four the fatalism in marriage decisions will be presented and discussed objectively and in detail. And, Chapter five is to highlight the manifestation of fatalism in plot arrangement. Finally, Chapter six is devoted to the conclusion which we will put forward the major findings and limitations of the study.
2. Literature Review
In this chapter, we will briefly introduce the theories and studies concerning fatalism and Slumdog Millionaire.
2.1 Studies on fatalism
2.1.1 Definition of fatalism
Fatalism has already been one of Weltanschauung for a long time which believes that the history of the development is decided by the inevitable supernatural powers. What is the significance of fatalism? Fatalism is a belief that events are determined by fate. Fatalism is a belief that we have to accept the outcome of events, and that we cannot do anything that will change the outcome because events are determined by something over which we have no control. Furthermore, Modern Western Culture Art Dictionary (1996:198) concludes the following:
The theory that certain future events must occur regardless of you present actions or choices. Strictly speaking, fatalism removes ethical concerns from human actions, for fate indifferently assigns each person to the predetermined course of events, the Greeks held to the idea of the allotment, by the Moirai, to each individual at birth of certain quantity of misfortune that he or she must endure. The Romans saw their gods spinning human destiny. In Islamic belief everything is ruled by an inexorable fate, called Kismet. It is important to distinguish between fate and chance. If fate is conceived to be operative, any event, however independent of the actions of merits of an individual, is the result of an impersonal force predetermining it. If chance is believed to be operative, the event is the working of coincidence rather than of fate. Although fatalism often coincides with a belief in predestination, as in Calvinism or Islamic belief, it does not necessarily entail the existence of a purposive agent through whose decree the necessary events occur; it merely assert that these necessary events are inevitable.
2.1.2 Foreign and domestic study on fatalism
Collecting data from academic advising sessions, Richard Holton (2009) contrasts fatalism and determinism and reveals that if any pays diligently obtains with the same result, determinism is one form of the fatalism. Hugh Rice (2010) compares the different reading in fatalism, such as the theology of Aristotle's logical fatalism and the God of fatalism, thinking about fatalism that can not be generalized. The domestic scholars also have the massive research about fatalism. Wu Longhuan (2005) explains the essence of the religious reason, the social reality, the pardoned crime and the human imperfect through Flannery O’Connor’s representative works Projected from a Good Man is Hard to Find in the rich fatalism plot and image. Throughout developing process in fatalism, Zhang Xue (2008) divides it into two stages, non-rational and the rational, to analyze the differences and common ground of fatalism through the mystical tendency fatalism in The King Di Pusi and the naturalism fatalism both in Tess of the d’Urberv and Sister Carrie. Meanwhile, Bao Chuanliang (2011) has demonstrated fatalism components in Haruki Murakami novel Kafka on the Shore from the plot and the result, as well as the linguistic and vocabulary style. Li Meiju (2011) elaborates the cause of Hardy's fatalism, and has carried on the analysis to it in the creation's performance of Tess of the d’Urberv.
2.2 Brief introduction about Slumdog Millionaire
Director Danny Boyle has created a film that should resonate with slumdogs and upperclass, easterners and westerners alike. It is one of the most exciting, entertaining, funny, moving and best films of 2008. The film is about the Indian version of the hit TV show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” In this film, Dev Patel plays Jamal Malik, a former Mumbai street-kid who has a job making tea at a call centre. He astonishes all of India by entering the show as a contestant and triumphantly getting question after question right. Is he a fraud, a savant genius? Or is something weird going on? His amazing winning streak means he has to come back the next evening for the final big-money question and overnight he is brutally interrogated by Mumbai cops convinced he is a cheat. They take him through each of the questions he got right, and Jamal's life story unfolds in flashback as our hero reveals that each question. Besides, various characters determine his fate: his gangster brother Salim (Madhur Mittal), the love of his life Latika (Freida Pinto) and Prem (Anil Kapoor), the creepy quizmaster himself, who has his own interest in Jamal's staggering success.
Despite the extravagant drama and some demonstrations of the savagery meted out to India's street children, this is a cheerfully undemanding and unreflective film with a vision of India that, if not touristy exactly, is certainly an outsider's view; it depends for its full enjoyment on not being taken too seriously.
2.3 Foreign and domestic study on Slumdog Millionaire
On the study of the film Slumdog Millionaire, some researchers, such as Huang Jiafeng (2009) and Gao Mingzhen, and Li Qingqing (2010), have engaged in generalizing that the film's success lies in the perfect cooperation of writer and director, the ingenious narrative style and the impressive characterization. Furthermore, the study of Wang Liping and Yang Baohua (2010) has found that life is as a "copy" while this film presents us the "mirror image" is like a fairy tale.
In addition, Xing Shuna (2009) has explored the illusive nature of American dream, which indicates this is not only the current financial crisis to batter the dream choice for people but also the American people to pursue the American Dream. Liu Li (2011) analyzes the film is to hit poverty, violence, religion and other sensitive issues in India. Beside, Bernard Beck (2009) and Slawomir Magala (2010) have conducted the analytical study to the movie cultural connotation, mapping out their thought-provoking question: Why reality will always make us feel so embarrassed? Injustice, inequality, cacophony of sounds has been in bitter pursuit. Fareed Zakaria (2009) has pointed out the Indian people discontent the portrait from India slum-life in the film by interviewing the movie director Boyle.
Judging from the above literature materials, many scholars have made the fruitful studies on the interpretation of the film, but most of these studies focus on the linguistic features, shooting techniques, the interpretation of the film's theme and successes, which are permeating the identity of the author and the impact of production processes. This paper attempts to analyze the social problems experienced in Slumdog Millionaire, explore how people value a correct view of human nature and moral equality, and pursue a truly beautiful world.
3. The Causes of Fatalistic Colors in Slumdog Millionaire
In this chapter, the causes of fatalistic colors in Slumdog Millionaire used in the study will be described in terms of family environment, collective education, and social culture.
3.1 Family environment
Human are the mutual influence that create the environment while the environment affects them. Children, in particular, are not mature to discern things whether it is good for themselves or not. Meanwhile, they are vulnerable to outside influences. Any uncivilized words and deeds or backwardness thought can let them be imperceptibly influenced by constantly seeing and hearing. Finally they might form the ingrained habits of a lifetime.
Family is a cell of society which is small but the structure is very actually complex. Family members, the relationship among family members, housing conditions, econo
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