What is the concept of home for Mina in Mississippi Masala? How would you compare it to that of Marjane's in Persepolis? Use Naficy's and/or Rushdie's essay to support your argument. Respond in 2 short paragraphs.
Mina’s concept of home is comparable to Marjane’s because both involve a sense of inner-peace. Whilst Marjane’s is based more understanding her own cultural identity, Mina’s is more related to finding love and self-esteem. Mina shows contempt for her family’s tradition (and by extension, her family’s culture) because they look down on her lifestyle choices and are more concerned with social standing, which leads her to try and find happiness on her own terms. Marjane’s search for happiness brings her in conflict with her Iran’s authoritarian rule and she ultimately leaves the country so that she may be free to act the way she wants to.
Mina’s actions throughout the film, bring the idea that “home” can be found outside of one’s own culture. Rushdie alludes to this idea on page nine-teen of Imaginary Homeland: “[The] most dangerous pitfall would be the adoption of the ghetto mentality. To forget that there is a world beyond the community to which we belong, to confine ourselves within narrowly defined cultural frontiers.“ Mississippi Masala shows examples of the “ghetto mentality” when Mina’s family criticizes the fact that Mina has decided to go against tradition, similarly it happens to Demetrius’s when he is mildly chastised by his friend. Throughout the film we see that both communities (Indian and Black) are separate for the most part, which furthers the notion of “ghetto mentality” and “cultural frontiers.”
A comparative analysis on Mina's, Marjane and Rushdie's concept of home seems to be complete hearsay. The film persepolis shows Marjane having a difficult time functioning outside of her culture but we can never truly understand what her concept of home is. She is lost and confused and seeks refuge with any man. Her concept of Home is not Iran but rather her family and even when she has that she ruins it.
The same can be said for Mina and Rushdie. Mina left Uganda as a little girl and knows little of her homeland as she grew up as a US citizen. Her father, on the other hand, has a longing for home but, in the end, he gives up his foolish dream. Rushdie simply wants to reclaim what he has lost, similar to how Marjane and Jay do in Persepolis and Mississippi Masala. People say home is where the heart is but, personally, I feel more at home when I am traveling away from it. Perhaps home is just an illusion.
In Mississippi Masala, Mina’s idea of home is where happiness can be found. She was too young when she left Africa to really miss it in the way her father did, so she had no desire to go back, her “home” is in America. In the end when she decides to leave town, it gives more evidence that home is where happiness can be found because she is leaving her parents and culture behind to start a new life. She never denies her cultural background, yet she never fully embraces it, as seen when she ignores the man she is trying to be set up with and her not wearing the right shoes for the wedding. This is comparable to Marjane because she also finds home to be where she is happy to some extent. She always considers her home to be in Iran (except for one part when she tells that boy she is French) and even though she is not happy with the country, she is happy living with her family. When she reluctantly leaves for France at the end, she knows her home will always be with her family in Iran, but knows that she life will be better away from Iran.
In Rushdie’s essay on page seventeen, he makes a comment on how the English language is now apart of his life and he cannot avoid it. His children will speak it and so on. He says that things are always lost in translation, but also, things are gained. This compares to Mina in that although she lost some of her culture growing up in Mississippi, she also gained some knowledge of herself and life. She learned things her parents may never learn, but because she was more exposed to the American culture than her parents, she learned to love her new life in America.
Mina's concept of home is America, the new home they started to live in, other than her Indian family and tradition. She wish to step out of the boundaries their Indian family drew to keep her inside of Indian culture. However, She hope to adjust in her new home, and even fall in love with Demetrius, a Black guy. On the other hand, Marjane struggles with her new home. She wish to adjust in it, but she keep telling herself that this is not her place to be. During the Dancing scene in Persepolis, she narrates, "I found myself I'd found my place. But I wasn't like them." In Mississippi Masala, there is also a dancing scene at a club. The scene is critical also in the film because this is the scene where Mina dances with Demetrius and feels something for him for the first time, and later their love becomes a huge conflict with her Indian family and the whole Indian community.
On page 15 of Rushdie's aricicle, she states, "...we are not willing to be excluded from any part of our heritage; which heritage includes both [an Indian] kid's right to be treated as a full member of British society." (In her view, the British society is the new place to adjust in. For Mina, it would be the America, and it would be Vienna for Marjane.) This statement also compares Mina and Marjane's positions in adjusting into a new culture. Mina wants to be treated as just a typical girl in America, whom she can fall in love with anybody, and can be with him regardless of his ethinicity. She even belives this is her right, although her Indian community bans her to love a black man. And she protects her right from her family by running away with Demetrius. Marjane, however, is somewhat different than Mina. She also wants to be included in her new place, but she fails to do so, unlike Mina.
Mina and Marjane differ in where they see a home, but ultimately have the same idea for what one is. Mina is looking for a land that she can love and can love her back. As a child, she finds this in Uganda. As an adult, she finds this in Mississippi from the man she loves. Marjane on the other hand believes she will find happiness in her homeland after she has left. Rushdie mentions this phenomenon of creating fictitious pasts and stories for childhood homelands on page 10 and I think it sums up Marjane's perspective on things quite well.
Rushdie also goes on to mention on page 12 about how we all leave our "native land" in regards to leaving our past for the present. It is from this enlightened view that I think Mina is able to so easily go forth in search of happiness regardless of where her home is. Marjane seems to agree with Rushdie's notion on page 15 about the "author feeling guilty" when writing about the homeland they abandoned in that she felt terrible guilt about leaving her family in that war torn land to find a dull life of peace.
Mina's home is where she feels safe and content. Her home changed from Uganda to Mississippi and after being in America Mina believes she is able to love and have free will to chose, although her family and culture thinks otherwise. Marjane simply does not find "home." As she is away from Iran she cannot feel at home in any place, but as she returns home she doesn't feel like it is truly where she belongs, so she leaves again in hopes to find this place, but never truly finds it. Mina and Marjane's definition of home can be similar in that they both are looking for a place to be free and happy, but they differ in that Marjane never can truly find her "home away from home."
Rushdie's article comments alot about being away from his homeland of India, much like Marjane in which he has fled to a different country. On page 15 he talks about being away but still accepting his herritage even though things have changed and they are "partly of the west" he still remembers and believes in his past life. I found it interesting on page 16 where he is talking about how the narrator and the writer (himself) of "Midnight's Children" are not of the same point-of-view. I see this as very similar to Marjane Satrapi, in which she wrote this story about herself, but does not mean herself in real life actually has the same point-of-view as her character in the story/movie.
Mina’s concept of home in Mississippi Masala is incomplete. She does not feel the connection to Uganda the way her father does. Rushdie says that once one is exiled, they are “haunted by some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim.” This statement reflects Mina’s father’s feelings towards Uganda, because he spends most of his life trying to regain his lost land. But Mina is also not accustomed to her life in America. At the end of the film, Mina leaves with Demetrius, essentially to find a place they both can consider home.
Marjane also struggles with her concept of home in Persepolis. She leaves her native country of Iran at a young age. Marjane did not find a homeland while in Vienna either, and then returns to Iran. Rushdie says that alienation from home causes a person to “create fictions, not actual cities or villages, but invisible ones, imaginary homelands.” This explains what happened to Marjane after she asks to return home to Iran, it was not the homeland she expected to find. After continuing to struggle in Iran, she ultimately leaves the country permanently. Similarly to Mina, she does not seem to have a true concept of home, and the film ends with her still searching for one.
Home for Mina and Marjane are two different places. Even though they migrated to different country but for Mina america is her new house. She felt same happy there and though for Marjane persepolis is not her home.she moved form places to places and then ended up going back.
Rushdie in his view on page 12 that how we leave our homeland and make new places/countries new home and forgot our past like in Mina case. On the other hand on Page 15 Rushdie talk about guilt of leaving homeland. this agrees with Marijane that she felt guilty by leaving her family back in war and looked for a peace in another country.
Mina and Marjane have different concepts of home. Mina finds it difficult to describe exactly where she is from. She is constantly alternating between telling people that she is from Africa, or that she is Indian. Although she was born in Uganda, she struggles to accept that it is her home because her roots are Indian, and she does not look African. Marjane, on the other hand, knows that her home is in Iran but she has trouble fitting in there because of her western influence. She also has trouble in Vienna, where she is viewed as an outsider because of her Iranian background. despite these differences, both girls are similar in the sense that they are struggling to find a place that they can truly call home.
On page 15, Rushdie writes about how when a person leaves their homeland, they begin to straddle two different cultures. This relates to both Marjane and Mina because both are straddling their old and new countries, trying to find a place that they can finally call their home.
In Mississippi Masala, Mina's father actually makes the comment "home is where the heart is" in a letter to his wife. He goes on to say that she is his home, because his heart is always with her. This sentiment carries on in Mina's relationship and applies to her whole family because they've never fully associated themselves with one place. Marjane on the other hand associates her feelings of "home" with the idealized version of her homeland, which she has never actually experienced.
Marjane's experience in Persepolis is much closer to that of Rushdie's than that of Mina. Though Mina does have fragments of past homelands running around in her head, she has never truly been claimed and then reclaimed by one place, as Marjane and Rushdie describe.
Mina’s concept of home is comparable to Marjane’s because both involve a sense of inner-peace. Whilst Marjane’s is based more understanding her own cultural identity, Mina’s is more related to finding love and self-esteem. Mina shows contempt for her family’s tradition (and by extension, her family’s culture) because they look down on her lifestyle choices and are more concerned with social standing, which leads her to try and find happiness on her own terms. Marjane’s search for happiness brings her in conflict with her Iran’s authoritarian rule and she ultimately leaves the country so that she may be free to act the way she wants to.
ReplyDeleteMina’s actions throughout the film, bring the idea that “home” can be found outside of one’s own culture. Rushdie alludes to this idea on page nine-teen of Imaginary Homeland: “[The] most dangerous pitfall would be the adoption of the ghetto mentality. To forget that there is a world beyond the community to which we belong, to confine ourselves within narrowly defined cultural frontiers.“ Mississippi Masala shows examples of the “ghetto mentality” when Mina’s family criticizes the fact that Mina has decided to go against tradition, similarly it happens to Demetrius’s when he is mildly chastised by his friend. Throughout the film we see that both communities (Indian and Black) are separate for the most part, which furthers the notion of “ghetto mentality” and “cultural frontiers.”
A comparative analysis on Mina's, Marjane and Rushdie's concept of home seems to be complete hearsay. The film persepolis shows Marjane having a difficult time functioning outside of her culture but we can never truly understand what her concept of home is. She is lost and confused and seeks refuge with any man. Her concept of Home is not Iran but rather her family and even when she has that she ruins it.
ReplyDeleteThe same can be said for Mina and Rushdie. Mina left Uganda as a little girl and knows little of her homeland as she grew up as a US citizen. Her father, on the other hand, has a longing for home but, in the end, he gives up his foolish dream. Rushdie simply wants to reclaim what he has lost, similar to how Marjane and Jay do in Persepolis and Mississippi Masala. People say home is where the heart is but, personally, I feel more at home when I am traveling away from it. Perhaps home is just an illusion.
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ReplyDeleteIn Mississippi Masala, Mina’s idea of home is where happiness can be found. She was too young when she left Africa to really miss it in the way her father did, so she had no desire to go back, her “home” is in America. In the end when she decides to leave town, it gives more evidence that home is where happiness can be found because she is leaving her parents and culture behind to start a new life. She never denies her cultural background, yet she never fully embraces it, as seen when she ignores the man she is trying to be set up with and her not wearing the right shoes for the wedding. This is comparable to Marjane because she also finds home to be where she is happy to some extent. She always considers her home to be in Iran (except for one part when she tells that boy she is French) and even though she is not happy with the country, she is happy living with her family. When she reluctantly leaves for France at the end, she knows her home will always be with her family in Iran, but knows that she life will be better away from Iran.
ReplyDeleteIn Rushdie’s essay on page seventeen, he makes a comment on how the English language is now apart of his life and he cannot avoid it. His children will speak it and so on. He says that things are always lost in translation, but also, things are gained. This compares to Mina in that although she lost some of her culture growing up in Mississippi, she also gained some knowledge of herself and life. She learned things her parents may never learn, but because she was more exposed to the American culture than her parents, she learned to love her new life in America.
Mina's concept of home is America, the new home they started to live in, other than her Indian family and tradition. She wish to step out of the boundaries their Indian family drew to keep her inside of Indian culture. However, She hope to adjust in her new home, and even fall in love with Demetrius, a Black guy. On the other hand, Marjane struggles with her new home. She wish to adjust in it, but she keep telling herself that this is not her place to be. During the Dancing scene in Persepolis,
ReplyDeleteshe narrates, "I found myself I'd found my place. But I wasn't like them." In Mississippi Masala, there is also a dancing scene at a club. The scene is critical also in the film because this is the scene where Mina dances with Demetrius and feels something for him for the first time, and later their love becomes a huge conflict with her Indian family and the whole Indian community.
On page 15 of Rushdie's aricicle, she states, "...we are not willing to be excluded from any part of our heritage; which heritage
includes both [an Indian] kid's right to be treated as a full member of British society." (In her view, the British society is the new place to adjust in. For Mina, it would be the America, and it would be Vienna for Marjane.) This statement also compares Mina and Marjane's positions in adjusting into a new culture. Mina wants to be treated as just a typical girl in America, whom she can fall in love with anybody, and can be with him regardless of his ethinicity. She even belives this is her right, although her Indian community bans her to love a black man. And she protects her right from her family by running away with Demetrius. Marjane, however, is somewhat different than Mina. She also wants to be included in her new place, but she fails to do so, unlike Mina.
Mina and Marjane differ in where they see a home, but ultimately have the same idea for what one is. Mina is looking for a land that she can love and can love her back. As a child, she finds this in Uganda. As an adult, she finds this in Mississippi from the man she loves. Marjane on the other hand believes she will find happiness in her homeland after she has left. Rushdie mentions this phenomenon of creating fictitious pasts and stories for childhood homelands on page 10 and I think it sums up Marjane's perspective on things quite well.
ReplyDeleteRushdie also goes on to mention on page 12 about how we all leave our "native land" in regards to leaving our past for the present. It is from this enlightened view that I think Mina is able to so easily go forth in search of happiness regardless of where her home is. Marjane seems to agree with Rushdie's notion on page 15 about the "author feeling guilty" when writing about the homeland they abandoned in that she felt terrible guilt about leaving her family in that war torn land to find a dull life of peace.
Mina's home is where she feels safe and content. Her home changed from Uganda to Mississippi and after being in America Mina believes she is able to love and have free will to chose, although her family and culture thinks otherwise. Marjane simply does not find "home." As she is away from Iran she cannot feel at home in any place, but as she returns home she doesn't feel like it is truly where she belongs, so she leaves again in hopes to find this place, but never truly finds it. Mina and Marjane's definition of home can be similar in that they both are looking for a place to be free and happy, but they differ in that Marjane never can truly find her "home away from home."
ReplyDeleteRushdie's article comments alot about being away from his homeland of India, much like Marjane in which he has fled to a different country. On page 15 he talks about being away but still accepting his herritage even though things have changed and they are "partly of the west" he still remembers and believes in his past life. I found it interesting on page 16 where he is talking about how the narrator and the writer (himself) of "Midnight's Children" are not of the same point-of-view. I see this as very similar to Marjane Satrapi, in which she wrote this story about herself, but does not mean herself in real life actually has the same point-of-view as her character in the story/movie.
Mina’s concept of home in Mississippi Masala is incomplete. She does not feel the connection to Uganda the way her father does. Rushdie says that once one is exiled, they are “haunted by some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim.” This statement reflects Mina’s father’s feelings towards Uganda, because he spends most of his life trying to regain his lost land. But Mina is also not accustomed to her life in America. At the end of the film, Mina leaves with Demetrius, essentially to find a place they both can consider home.
ReplyDeleteMarjane also struggles with her concept of home in Persepolis. She leaves her native country of Iran at a young age. Marjane did not find a homeland while in Vienna either, and then returns to Iran. Rushdie says that alienation from home causes a person to “create fictions, not actual cities or villages, but invisible ones, imaginary homelands.” This explains what happened to Marjane after she asks to return home to Iran, it was not the homeland she expected to find. After continuing to struggle in Iran, she ultimately leaves the country permanently. Similarly to Mina, she does not seem to have a true concept of home, and the film ends with her still searching for one.
Home for Mina and Marjane are two different places. Even though they migrated to different country but for Mina america is her new house. She felt same happy there and though for Marjane persepolis is not her home.she moved form places to places and then ended up going back.
ReplyDeleteRushdie in his view on page 12 that how we leave our homeland and make new places/countries new home and forgot our past like in Mina case. On the other hand on Page 15 Rushdie talk about guilt of leaving homeland. this agrees with Marijane that she felt guilty by leaving her family back in war and looked for a peace in another country.
Mina and Marjane have different concepts of home. Mina finds it difficult to describe exactly where she is from. She is constantly alternating between telling people that she is from Africa, or that she is Indian. Although she was born in Uganda, she struggles to accept that it is her home because her roots are Indian, and she does not look African. Marjane, on the other hand, knows that her home is in Iran but she has trouble fitting in there because of her western influence. She also has trouble in Vienna, where she is viewed as an outsider because of her Iranian background. despite these differences, both girls are similar in the sense that they are struggling to find a place that they can truly call home.
ReplyDeleteOn page 15, Rushdie writes about how when a person leaves their homeland, they begin to straddle two different cultures. This relates to both Marjane and Mina because both are straddling their old and new countries, trying to find a place that they can finally call their home.
In Mississippi Masala, Mina's father actually makes the comment "home is where the heart is" in a letter to his wife. He goes on to say that she is his home, because his heart is always with her. This sentiment carries on in Mina's relationship and applies to her whole family because they've never fully associated themselves with one place. Marjane on the other hand associates her feelings of "home" with the idealized version of her homeland, which she has never actually experienced.
ReplyDeleteMarjane's experience in Persepolis is much closer to that of Rushdie's than that of Mina. Though Mina does have fragments of past homelands running around in her head, she has never truly been claimed and then reclaimed by one place, as Marjane and Rushdie describe.