While doing the reading for Ozeki I thought about another reacurring theme running throughout the novel. I realized the importance of place and how in the novel the characters are connected by not only  their geographical location but also their personal feeling towards where they live.

Both Ruth (the character) and Nao, have this connection with the way they feel towards where they live and where they have lived. Nao who lived in Sunnyvale, California for most of her life associates this place with home. The move to Japan was a shock not only geographicaly but emotionally and culturally as she was taken from the American lifestyle she knew and loved and implanted into an entirely different culture, and lifestyle(which can be associated with her families loss of income). Ruth too feels this way as she had come from the hustle and bustle of New York City and now is located, like Nao in a different world that she is not accustomed too, and most likely would not have chose for herself without being pushed into her island residence by her husband Oliver. Both characters had to sacrifice and change the scenery and lifestyles they were comfortable in, for a place and culture which they felt they did not belong.

I also thought it was interesting how both characters reside on Islands. Ruth on a remote island in British Columbia, Canada, and Nao on the island nation of Japan. I feel that both characters also suffered this feeling of being trapped in this place. With water all around them, with no place to escape. Nao could not escape and return to Sunnyvale, and Ruth couldn’t just pick up and leave her beloved husband Oliver, so they were both stuck to their island, with not many options.

I found this connection between the characters fascinating and thought it was a creative way that Ruth Ozeki(the author) linked these characters even with there separation in place and time.

While reading Ozeki earlier today I was trying to make connection between the characters and how they identify themselves, and to observe similarities, in particular, between Nao, and Ruth(the character).

We see in both characters that they identify themselves as Americans. Nao who was born in Japan but moved to Sunnyvale, California at the young age of three, know’s nothing but the American lifestyle and Identifies herself more with the American culture and way of life. I’m sure that it was hard for her to make the adjustement back to her native country of Japan, with the hardships she faced from her peers at school with the amount of ijime she was subjected too. However I feel with her loss of contact with her friend Kayla who abandoned their friendship later on the story, must of also made Nao in someway feel that she doesn’t fit with either culture. This identity issue can be compounded even further as she grows older too, because I personally feel that when you are a teenager and are maturing, you begin to try and find your identity and are in a constant search of discovering who you are.

Ruth too has a similar identity issue. She is also part Japanese with her mother being from Japan and raised in Hilo, Hawaii. However as Oliver indicates towards the end of the book that Ruths mother was never very Japanese, and neither is she. So I feel that even with this connection Ruth has with Japan and the Japanese language she also identifies herself as an American with a sense of another part of her being connected to Japan.

I also noticed as the book went on Ruth was dealing with an aging or a maturing problem which is also  seen in Nao’s character and is associated with identity. Ruth as a novelist has been able in her past to create a world in her head and display its image on paper, hence putting her imagination in physical form. However she has found that as she has grown and moved to her small remote island in British Columbia, she is suffering from writers block. Whats even crazier is the story that she is trying to write and is having troubles finding the inspiration to turn those images into written word is a memoir, and thus is attatched to life and not a world that she has created in her head. However we see in Nao’s character her ability to express in her diary her feelings, emotions, and story of her life with fluidity.

These connections were interesting to absurve because of how both Nao and Ruth are connected in where and how they identify themselves, but also how their identity has become threatened throughout the story.

The movie Mississippi Masala was an interesting movie, but for this post I must implement the discussion of a theme related to Ozeki. The theme for this movie shall be identity.

The main character of this movie, Mina, is a female Indian born in Uganda. The movie starts around 1972 with Alin forcibly evicting all Asians from Uganda. Mina’s father, Jay, argues against Okelo, a pure Ugandan, that he can’t leave home because he is Ugandan just like everyone else. Unfortunately, due to Jay’s actions against Alin, Okelo thinks it’s best for him to leave, especially telling Jay directly that he can’t stay because he is not a black Ugandan. The conflict here is the issue of shadeism in that Jay and his family do not qualify as Africans since they’re not of the same skin pigmentation as Okelo or the other Ugandans. Fazed by this remark, Jay and his family leave Uganda for London.

Jump 20 years later, and now we have an older Mina who seems less traditional and disciplined than her parents, but still identifies herself as Indian. Unfortunately for her parents, she is more “American” than them and doesn’t see as many problems in America as they do. Demetrius on the other hand is an African-American who is just working to support his family, but mostly his old father. When Demetrius and Mina meet via a car accident, they start seeing each other more and everyone is fine with it, until it’s discovered that Demetrius and Mina lied about what they were doing and actually spent a night together.
Everyone then starts judging by the tone of their skin, and the “bond” between Demetrius’ business and the Indians living at the motel is shattered.

Another thing is the mention of “massala”, which is a mix of hot spices. This term applies to the movie in more than one way. First off it can apply to the relationship between Mina and Demetrius. Instead of two of the same “ingredients”, this is a mix of two different ones that creates something new, hence the interracial relationship. An alternate view is that of Mina’s parents, although they’re Indian, they consider themselves Ugandan as well and protest against leaving the rest of Uganda. Finally there’s Mina, who has added an American element to her own since she is young and not quite as attached to her family’s views as her parents and fellow residents are.

I don’t know about everyone else, but when I see a movie that I just fall in love with it becomes more difficult for me to examine it objectively and ascertain flaws. For me, Mississippi Masala was one of those movies. So, in an attempt to be more critical, I have looked up a variety of movie reviews and picked out their negative points about the movie in order to hopefully create a somewhat analytical discussion  that we didn’t have time for in class.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19920214/REVIEWS/202140303/1023

Roger Ebert, although he generally did like the film, thought that there were too many story lines: the romance, the background in Uganda, and the daily lives of Indians in the South. He felt that the other plots relegated the love story to the foreground, and that the scenes in Uganda weren’t all that necessary to relay the major themes.

http://movieline.standard8media.com/reviews/mississippimasala.shtml

Agreeing with the opinion of too many plots, Stephen Farber of Movieline Magazine believed that the character of Mina’s father overshadowed the couple’s story and ended up stealing the show.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700001204/Mississippi-Masala.html

Chris Hicks from the Deseret News in Salt Lake City also agreed that the beginning scenes in Uganda could have been cut out, and thought that the plot hit some snags after the lovers are discovered and the entire community boycotts Demetrius’ business. He called the plot devices “silly contrivances.” Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly‘s movie critic, agrees with Hick’s opinion about the plot, calling it “hokey and melodramatic.”

After reading these reviews and re-examining my own opinion, I struggle with whether or not some of the scenes in Uganda should have been cut out. I guess I reluctantly agree that they do shift the focus quite a bit, but they are so gorgeous and really do help explain the motivations of Mina’s father. However, in the grand scheme of things I guess some of them could have been done away with. I also agree that the plot of the separated couple and the subsequent boycotting of Demetrius after being found out seemed a little extreme and quick, and yes, a little melodramatic and unoriginal.

Something I did find interesting though, was that none of these major movie critics mentioned the problem of South Asian male emasculation that Profosser Jani said was such a criticism of the movie. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that most of the movie critics are non-Asian and as such either that stereotype is accepted by them, or if it is really just because it isn’t that apparent of a theme. I confess, I didn’t notice it. But it is something to think about.

The film Missippi Masala was for me personally an enjoyable film that gave a different perspective of racially conflict in interacial relationships.  It was the education I received from watching the love story between Ugandan born South Asian Indian, with an African American male, taking place in Mississippi that really made it interesting and enjoyable to watch (for me personally).

It is not often that a film, in particular one with the deep south as being one of the main settings for the film, to have two non-white characters of different races depicted in a love story.  Especially in not a “forbidden love story.” In most cases Hollywood depicts the interracial relationship struggle between a black character and a white character. It was kind of eye opening in a way to depict the complications these two lovers faced due to both of their families not supporting the relationship. I felt that it offered a completely new perspective that isn’t usually seen in movies.

I also was intrigued by the film because it gave me insight to a piece of history I was previously unaware of. Before this film I had never heard of Idi Amin’s Ugandan regime kicking out the Indian population, and saying Uganda is for black Africans only. To be honest I didn’t have a clue that their was a substantial number of people of Indian decent living in Uganda. However while watching the film I compared this racist ideology to that of our own countries history, where immigrant populations were treated poorly due to their race. Our country too has a history of believing our borders are for white people only. I guess when you think about it their will be racism wherever you go in the world, and by taking the issue of race outside of  America, it opened up my eyes about some of the other racial issues in history that has no association with the United States.

Overall the film was great and worth watching.