Mississippi Masala, directed by Mira Nair, is a movie about an Indian woman and an African-American man who fall in love, despite objections from both of their respective families. The couple, Demitrius and Mina, struggle to maintain their relationship despite their families disapproval. The movie utilizes the mise-en-scene element of color to communicate its themes of conflict between cultures. In the film, the color red is used to represent Indian culture. This is demonstrated in the red ceremonial clothing worn during the wedding, as well as the red flowers that surround Mina’s family’s home in Uganda. Mina consistently wears red throughout the movie, which indicates that she is close to her family. Black culture, meanwhile, is represented
It was hard to find symbolism in this film since their culture was very colonialized. It seemed as though the culture was so European/American that the culture was gone. Even though it was hard, I was still able to find some cultural symbolisms.
I have very good sight. One moment they were white, the next red, the next blue. Then I got it. They were a woman’s dresses”. At first, I did not pay attention to the colors of the dresses, but then I realized the pattern of colors in order. In this case, I believe white represents light, goodness, and pureness. The red represents anger, blood and possibly murder. The last but not least, the color blue that represents wisdom, loyalty, and truth. It seemed to me that the author used colors symbolizes the story from the beginning to the end. I believe it is a hint for us to what to expect and what not to since Jeffries was right all along the
Relationships in Mississippi Masala and Persuasion Although they occur in extremely different times, I think that there are parallels between the relationships of Mina and Demetrius in Mississippi Masala and Anne and Captain Wentworth in Persuasion. In both mediums, the women are torn between their families and their relationships with their lovers. In Mississippi the prejudices that Mina's family has are racial, while in Persuasion, Anne's family is prejudices by wealth and social class. There are also many differences between the two. In this paper I will discuss, Mississippi Masala, Persuasion, and the ideas of marriage in both of them.
...the matter. People she got married to after her first husband died were all horrible to her and I would imagine because they looked down on her. Her children that were supposed to live well with other families were treated in a similar way where they were all not treated well and were slaves to them. It was interesting to see how much of her Indian culture has changed since she was a little girl. When she was younger, there were still Indian ceremonies and traditions that were followed closely, and as she got older, it seems like these traditions started to fade away because of the change of environment. Because of all the foreign people around them, they eventually stopped doing many of their old traditions. Their traditions are so different of that of an American tradition where I feel like people back then were probably ignorant and just saw Indians as savages.
P-Cresidine, also known as Red No. 40 Food coloring, is everywhere and in almost everything, yet people do not realize the risks that come along with today's tastefully colored foods. Red No. 40 food dye is the most commonly used of all the other artificial dyes. The dye is used in countless everyday foods and drinks. Unfortunately, like all good things have a bad side, all food dyes have certain risks linked to their intake. When mixed, food dyes can become very risky to the health of the individual. Mixing food dyes is very common and used in many occasions to produce the correct colors. Despite the fact that Red No. 40 is banned in many places for reasons regarding health, the United States still produces and uses the substance religiously. Most people know what artificial food coloring is and enjoy its use for creating delightfully colored, appetizing foods, however, only few know what artificial food dyes actually have the capability of doing. Aside from creating candy colored foods, artificial food dyes, p-cresidine in specific, is capable of causing all kinds of problems from hyperactivity, to genotoxicity, to even various types of cancers; yet people don’t know and even worse the majority of the people out there don't care.
Throughout the story there is a constant comparison of White culture and Indian culture. It begins with the narrator noticing a difference in landscaping between the two cultures. ." . . there is always beauty in order. . . rows of growing things. . . beauty in captivity." (Whitecloud 116) Symbols in nature play an enormous part on this story. Here the narrator is describing the White culture; disciplined, orderly, enslaved. In the next paragraph he goes on to counter the White culture with his own Indian culture saying, "Later, when the first snows...
Aibileen has seen many the harsh side of life such as the death of she son. An example of this was when she was raising Mae Mobley which wasn’t the first child to be mistreated but was the first child she really felt a connection to protect her and this was seen when she was fired and was heart broken that she had to leave her because she knew that know that she is going to grow up to the norms to that of her people and will be forced to follow those norms. Also because she was already exposed to such environments for example for not already been potty trained or because she is a fat baby. Aibileen tried her best to protect from the harsh reality by being the mother Mae Mobley never really had. Aibileen want to raise Mae to love who she is and to teach her about racial equality. The director use colour to show the difference in class and race such as when showing a white community it's more colour and when you see the colour is more dull and never changing, which give different vibes such as when there is a colour it shows happiness and wealth and if it was dull it shows sadness and poverty.
Color can be a semiotic resource. It has many uses in the cultural association of signs. Some features that contribute as a signifier are saturation, purity, modulation, value and hue. Red can signify danger, green can stand for hope. In most countries black is a sign of mourning. However, in some parts of Europe, brides wear black for their wedding. In China and some other Eastern Asian countries, white is considered the color for mourning. While in America and most of Europe, white is a sign of purity and warn by brides. These contrasts of cultural semiotics make color partly unpredictable. In order for the color to function as a sign, there must be a consensus of meaning. In most cases there is not a consensus that is shared by all societies. There are some regularities and this is what makes color function as a semiotic resource. The challenge is understanding the motivations and interests of different groups. Some colors translate well and some do not. Finding these regularities within groups and applying them as semiotic resources is a challenge (Kress, 2002). Some associations to color are universal and these connections could spread as communication becomes more global (Eiseman, 2000).
It doesn’t take hours of research to find the typical symbolism behind the most basic colors, white, and red among them. Brides wear white to symbolize purity or virtue. People give white roses as a token of the purity of the heart or the purity of their feelings. Red is associated with passion or love. Men buy the woman he loves, or wants to woe for the evening, red roses to...
The dominate and central symbol within the story of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is the color red. It is used widely throughout the entire story and develops the main ideas located around the topic of pregnancy, the handmaid’s, and life and death. One example of this color red is found in the beginning of the story, where it states that “Everything except the wings around my face is read the color blood, which defines us.” (Atwood 8). In this novel, the handmaids always where uniforms that are only the color of a deep red. The interesting part of this color choice, is that the color reed normally stands out but these women are meant to stand out but fade into the background. The red in the case of the handmaid’s uniform is thought to symbolize many
...d decrease as well, shown through the colouring of their clothing. “...[the] usual Martha’s dress, which is all green, like a surgeon’s gown... [Marthas put] put on the veil to go outside, but nobody much cares who sees the face of a Martha.” (Attwood 10) Marthas wear light green and when in public their faces are covered with white as well. This green represents the poverty of Marthas and their low social status compared to others. With it being stated that no one cares to see their face, the green truly does prove their low social status. Green could also symbolize jealous that they feel towards Handmaids as well because just like Wives they cannot bear children. Green is universally known as an environmental and clean colour. This too could be represented through the Marthas wearing green because it represents their duties and their function in society as maids.
In Native American culture, the red is the color of faith, and represents communication. The short story The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich is more than an emotional story about the lives of two Chippewa brothers who grew up together on an Indian reservation in North Dakota. Erdrich uses metaphor, symbol, vivid imagery and a simple writing style to allow the reader to understand the text while also providing the opportunity to read a lot into the story.
In summary colors can symbolize a lot of things. In many different cultures we use colors to describe a feeling or a way of life. For Sumita the colors of her outfits played a major role in the way she felt about herself. Her blue sari represented the color of possibilities and made her feel better about the trip and not knowing her husband. For instance, on the plane ride to the United States she started to feel physically sick about embarking on her new life. In order to make herself feel better she started thinking about all her beautiful saris that were in her suitcase such as her purple silk saris and cotton woven ones that reminded her of the Bengal countryside. She describes green saris that are like young bananna plants and grey ones that remind her of a lake from back home.
The movie also portrays Manjhi engaging in pillow fight with Fagunia. There is hardly anyone in the Manjhi community who can identify with this kind of mushy expression of love.