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Yanhui Zhu

Sociology
Project 1

Identify a video/DVD (from YouTube or elsewhere, like the Films on


Demand database in the PCC Library)

Provide a short summary of the video/DVD (What is the video about? Clarity
is important!)

Separately, explain how Comte, Marx and Durkheim would view interpret
your video/DVD. Thoroughly explain using sociological concepts/terms. (You
may write as much as possible.)

Which paradigm is most represented in your video/DVD? Explain.

Please post your final document with all the above information included.

The movie Slumdog Millionaire is a story about a young man Jamal Malik
from Mumbai, went to a TV show call "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", when he is
one last question away from 20 million grand prize, he was arrest by the police.
Because the host Anil Kapoor of this TV show does not want Jamal wins the grand
prize, so he impeach to the police that Jamal was cheating on the TV show. Because
no one believes that a man who from the slumdog and with a little education can
answer those question easily. However, the reason Jamal attend this show is he wants
to find his lover Latika. Latika is Jamals friend since his childhood, but they were
separate and training to become a beggar by a gangster group. Years later, Jamal was
attempting to find Latika and rescue her from the crime organization. However, Jamal
was fail, because when Latika was attempted to meet Jamal the Javeds assistant
recaptures her. Therefore, Jamal went to the TV show, and he is trying to contact with
Latika through this opportunity.
Auguste Comte is the founder of positivism. Comte would first view the
Slumdog Millionaire from the fact of this story. Does Jamal cheating on the TV show

or not? Second, if Jamal did not cheating on the TV show, and he needs to analyze
Jamals case base on his own experience, and objective fact. In this situation, audience
should not judge Jamal by Anlis words; adverse, audience should judge him by
Jamals life, his experience and his childhood. Audience should not judge Jamal by
where he comes from, and his education level. As a matter of fact, Jamals incidence
in his childhood contains the answer of these questions.
Emile Durkheim has the similar perspective as Comte. Durkheim argued that
social fact have sui generis, an independent existence more objective than the actions
of the individuals that compose society. According to Durkheim, social facts are
manners of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individual. Durkheim would
view the Slumdog Millionaire by its social fact. Durkheim believes that individual
constitute the whole society, but if society break away from individual it will break
down the whole society. The external form of social fact influences to the society, and
shape the sense of how the society works. Without investigating Jamal did or did not
cheating on the TV show, almost everyone believes that he is cheating, and they try to
stop him from win the grand prize. The reasons why they will believe the host is
Jamal was born and rise in the slumdog, people will all believed it is impossible that a
young man from slumdog can know all of these answer. Furthermore, Durkheim will
identify the social solidarity, society culture, and collective consciousness.
Karl Marx would view this by the conflict theory. Marx divided the general
population into two rigid social groups: the proletariat and the bourgeois. The
bourgeois are a small and wealthy segment of society who controls the means of
production, and the proletariat is the worker who relies on employment by bourgeois.
In addition, bourgeois also has the means to control the way that society regulated;
therefore, bourgeois have the opportunity to maintain and expand their power in

society. From the movie, the host was trying to stop Jamal to win the prize this is the
conflict between different social classes. A young man from slumdog wins 20 million
by answering these questions sounds ridiculous to those people from the upper
classes. However, Marx believes that conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat it is
because the resources were unjustly distributed among them. Within this system there
will be an unequal social order, one will be more powerful than the other.
In my opinion, the conflict paradigm is most represented in the movie
Slumdog Millionaire. The group of wealthy people is trying to control the society and
regulated it. Therefore, it will create conflict between the poor and the rich. Also, in
the movie the gangster group dispersed Jamal and Letika when they were a little kid.
The group of powerful people can manipulate the group of weakness people by using
their power. The unequally resource and means distribution is the most significant
conflict between two groups. When Jamal participate in the TV show, a lot of people
was look down on him because of where he come from. Conflict also exists among
different area of people, different race, and different gender. In conclusion, the
conflict paradigm can most represented in this movie, and present a cruelty and
realistic society to the audience.

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