Slumdog Millionaire

Christmas Book Report 2015-16

Doesn’t anyone wish to be a millionaire? As a matter of fact, everyone wants to be wealthy, buying things they want and enjoying lives without worrying any financial difficulties. The story is about a fascinating adventure of Jamel, turning from a former street child into a millionaire. The story begins with his street-kid life. Being poor and uneducated, he and his brother were taken to an orphanage. Although they seem rescued, they discovered that it is all a scam; orphans are forced to be blind beggars once they have learnt to sing. In order to escape from the crisis, they managed to jump on a train and left. After living on the train for six years, they started to find for a job for their living. Jamel worked as an unofficial tour guide while his brother had been a thief. However, things did not go smooth; encountering with local gangsters, finding jamel’s lover Latika, encountering Bollywood famous stars. By working as a tea boy, he finally decided to join the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” He has unexpectedly got all questions correct and won a staggering one billion rupees. When the show breaks for the night, He was arrested by the police on suspicion of cheating in the game show. In the order of the questions on the show, Jamel started to tell his amazing adventures in his whole life.

I find this book very fantastic. The title of the book is well-chosen, which fits the central theme of the story well, symbolizing discrimination, racism, and poverty between “slum-dog” and “millionaires”. The cultural elements included are so interesting as well, describing the conflicts of lives between the rich and poor in India, the power of idealistic romantic love, social justice and fairness. The book takes us through a journey of discovery in flashbacks, experiencing the wonders and horrors of the world with the book characters. I was impressed by Jamel’s perseverance towards lives. He was taken as a joke by the crowd and host when he entered the game. They thought he wasn't smart enough just because of his occupation and nationality. And Jamal had proved them all wrong when he answered. In general, I think this lively masterpiece is very suitable and worthy for teenagers to read and I hope more and more people can pay more concern to social issues about poverty around the world as we should always eager to help people in their darkness moments, like what the writer does.