Belonging to Culture

People feel a strong sense of belonging to their culture. This is seen in the film ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ by Gurinder Chadha. The main scenes that portray this statement are the engagement scene, pre-wedding scene and the wedding scene. This statement is also shown in the related text ‘Integrated’ by Sylvia Kantaris. In the film, various techniques are used such as long shots, full shots and panning. In the related text the techniques used are a metaphor, listing, contrast and emotive words. In the film ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ the engagement scene starts off with a long shot of the outside of Jessminder’s house.

The house is decorated with lights and lighting is a technique used to make the house stand out. After that there is a high angle/close up shot of the food. The foods are colourful and bright. Bright colours are festive and symbolises happy occasions. Costume is another technique. Everyone is wearing the same sort of clothing and they are colourful. This shows that they belong to the Indian culture. The full/long shot of the room and the people sitting next to each other shows sense of belonging to their culture. This scene also explores gender roles.

The males were sitting down, eating and talking to others whilst Jess was walking around offering food to the guests. A woman tells Jess “it will be your turn soon. ” This means that she is expected to marry an Indian man just like every other Indian woman. These values and traditions are aspects of their Sikh Indian culture and Jess is expected to follow them. People feel a strong sense of belonging to their culture. We also see this in the pre-wedding preparation scene. In this scene we see everyone sitting together again. Gender roles are explored in this scene as well.

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All the women are sitting next to each other around a table making samosas. A full shot is a technique used in this scene. This shows belonging to their culture because they are all celebrating harmoniously. There are alternations used between the Indian and British culture to show contrast between the two cultures. There is an overhead shot of the Bhamra’s backyard and their neighbours backyard. The Bhamra’s backyard is colourful, active and bright while their neighbours backyard is quiet, dull and empty. There are alternations used between Jess preparing for the wedding and her team training for the finals.

This shows that she is caught between two cultures. Music is a technique used. The music is sad and so is Jess. Her facial expressions show us that she is not interested in what’s going on around her. She takes down her David Beckham poster and this shows that she is giving up on soccer. People feel a strong belonging to their culture however some people can feel caught between two cultures. Another text that that shows people feel a strong sense of belonging to their culture is the poem ‘Integrated’ by Sylvia Kantaris. This poem is about a Greek woman who moves into Australia but does not want to integrate.

The metaphor “she brought her country with her in packing cases” tells us that she has brought ornaments of her country with her because she feels strongly about her culture. She does not want to integrate because she is scared of losing her own culture. At her home in Australia, she listens to Greek music, speaks Greek with her granddaughter and this shows she feels strongly about her culture. Another technique used in this poem is listing. First there is a listing of all the Greek items and then there is a listing of Australian items.

This shows contrast between two cultures. Her granddaughter listens to western music, speaks English and eats Australian food. “Her grandchild…has eaten corned-beef, cornflakes…another tongue, her future. ” This quote tells us her granddaughter has found it quite easy to integrate whereas “the land gave way, she arranged it to her liking,” shows the grandmother got her way. The use of emotive words such as “fierce” and “confrontation” shows that there was a battle between the grandmother and her new environment and she won because she did not integrate. Australia is more malleable than she,” tell us Australia was manipulated because the grandmother did not give up. She kept to her culture. Not only do people feel a strong sense of belonging to their culture but they can experience cultural clash. In conclusion people feel a strong sense of belonging to their culture. This is seen in the film ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ and the poem ‘Integrated. ’ Both of these texts show us people feel strongly about their culture. However they also show us that cultural clashes can arise as well when people feel trapped between two cultures.

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