Representation of Youth

Youth is represented in Slumdog Millionaire in the scene when Salim who is roughly 12/13 shoots and kills Maman. This represents youth in a negative way as it shows how they are common with violence from a young age which portrays the lack of innocence which they truly have. This also suggests how the youth are not scared of acting in a brutal way because their lack of ambition. However, the reason Salim shoots is to rescue Latika from Maman and to protect her from becoming a slave. Therefore this represents youth as being loyal to the ones they cared about and the intentions of Salim shooting Maman was to get Latika back. This also represents the youth to being familar and common with killing people due to how they group up alone so they have to fight for survival. They are portrayed to being comfortable with crime, they have to learn this stuff in order to grow up in the area they live.

Another way youth is represented in Slumdog Millionaire when we see a young boy singing in a tunnel. The young boy is blind and is singing because he is begging for money. Maman blinds young children as he believes they will get more money if they go out begging portrayed earlier on in the film. This scene represents the innocent of the youth and the lack of freedom that they have. They cannot disobey Maman as he will hurt them so they are forced to beg. Jamal gives the blind boy $100, Jamal's actions represents youth as being caring of each other and shows a sense of loyalty. This scene clearly represents the youth as being very poor and lonely, they have no one else to turn to so their lives are given up to Maman and they follow his rules. This shows the youth as being very weak and a lack of ambition to change their lives.