Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

America is known as the country of immigrant. For three centuries, several of Americans formed from the immigrants who left their own country in order to avoid a political oppression, limitation of religion, and economic affair. Most of immigrants consider that America is the country of golden opportunity to be succeeded. Immigrants such an unfailing packages for America. During their migration to the new continent, immigrants have to go through acculturation. The United States changing cultural diffusion does not stop them from the process of adapting to the mainstream culture of the United States. There are four steps of acculturation: “euphoria, culture shock, anomie and assimilation or adaptation”. These are the steps where immigrants are faced with two central issues. They have to opt for which cultural values of their origin they want to keep and leave behind and which cultural values of the new culture they want to adopt or not adopt. “Migration, of course, involves a different kind of change in cultural spaces than travelling. With traveling, the change is temporary and, usually, desirable. It is something people seek out. By contrast, people who migrate do not always seek out this change. Many immigrants leave their homelands simply to survive. But they often find it difficult to adjust to the change, especially if the language and customs of the new cultural space are unfamiliar.” 1 The statement above shows that it is one of the factors that encourage people to change their cultural identity. In fact, the immigrants will get the difficulty to adapt their new environment. The migration comes in a country like United States must be followed by any cultural adjustment, there will be a long process including mixing and matching the immigrant’s original culture with the new culture of a country where they live. Immigrants, including Indian immigrants have to go through acculturation. They leave their homeland in order to survive in the other country that makes them pleasant to work. They want to get a better life in their new place even they often find difficulties. They have to face the new life, culture, economy, politic, and social or called it assimilation. In the culture of assimilation, as immigrants, they have to learn about United States life style. Even though they had to assimilate with US culture, however most of Indian immigrants still keep their own identity. 2 The definition of the culture is something that will influence a level knowledge and cover the concept which is based on man’s mind until the character of the culture is being abstract in daily life. 3 The phenomenon of immigrant in United 1 Judith N Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama, Experiencing Intercultural Communication: An Introduction New York, MC Graw Hill, 2001, p.142 2 Irma Yuliawati, “Cultural Identity of Bangladeshi Immigrants in England” in novel Brick Land by Monica Ali, Thesis, Ciputat, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, 2009, p. 5. 3 Cultural identity, Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed on March 27, 2010. http:en.wikipedia.orgwikicultural_Identity, p.1. States often becomes an inspiration for the filmmakers to create a film. For the example is My Name is Khan which is directed by Karan Johar that told about life of Indian Immigrant in United States. Karan Johar took the situation from the aftermath of 911 WTC’s tragedy among the immigrants. All people shocked of this tragic incident when they look WTC as the America’s pride building dissolved by the terrorists which confess in the name of religion. This tragedy makes the word begin to claim the war towards terrorist. After a while, most Americans do some inspection to clean their country from immigrants who come from the country that considered as the terrorists’ hometown. This condition is impact to the Muslim heritage immigrants who stayed in America and can be shown in My Name is Khan movie which the two main characters of immigrants also get the same cruel treatment around Americans since it. My Name is Khan is a film by Karan Johar as an Indian film director, producer and TV celebrity and he is one of the most successful young filmmakers in Bollywood. 4 This film tells the story of Rizvan Khan played by Shahrukh Khan as a moslem from 4 Johar made his directorial debut with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998. The film won eight Filmfare Awards in 1998 including Best Movie, Best Director and all four Best Actor awards for both leading and supporting roles. Johars second directorial effort was the family drama, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, released in 2001. It was also highly successful and won five Filmfare Awards. His 2003 film, Kal Ho Naa Ho, was directed by Nikhil Advani. His 2005 film, Kaal was directed by Soham Shah, Johars assistant director from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. In May 2005, after taking a four- year break from directing, Johar began working on his third film as a director and fourth film as writer; Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Never Say Goodbye. The movie was the highest grossing overseas film of all time. In November 2009, Johar ended shooting for his film My Name Is Khan starring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol Devgan. The film released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and strong box office figures 12 February 2010, with a series of premieres in Abu Dhabi and Berlin. India, moves to San Francisco and lives with his brother and sister in law. Since his migration, he has to adapt with his new culture. Khan is a man afflicted asparger’s syndrome. 5 However, he has problems understanding complex issues and cannot express emotions like love or sorrow as normal people can. Khan falls in love with Mandira played by Kajool Devgan. Despite protests from his family they get married and start a small business together. They are happy until 11 th September 2001 when attitudes towards Muslims undergo change. When tragedy strikes, Mandira is devastated since her son death, and they split each other. The film actually tells a lot about the great struggle and journey of Khan as a Muslim that wants to meet with the president of United States to extend that he’s not a terrorist and also about Mandira’s struggle to get a justice from the government on Sameer’s death which caused about racial crime as one of the 911 WTC’s impact of Muslim heritage in America. Based on the explanation above, in this research, the writer wants to analyze the characteristics and issues of identity which is represented by Khan and Mandira as Indian immigrant characters. For an immigrant like them, they have to adapt the culture in United States. However the aftermath since the tragedy of 911 hit in that country, the racial crime happened on Moslem immigrants. Then, American identity is not something taking for granted; they must struggle to get it. 5 Asparger’s syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder, and people with it therefore show significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Watching My Name is Khan can find so many cultural issues, like cultural assimilation, foreignness, and multicultural melting pot. 6 Many aspects such as culture, tradition, and belief, which we can dig from the film that can make us understand more about what the film wants to deliver. Based on the background, the writer is interested to analyze about the issue of cultural identity that focused on the condition of the aftermath 911. Besides the film is rich of the cultural issues, the writer also wants to learn more about how the immigrants accept and negotiate with their new cultural identity. So, the writer would like to analyze the film in two steps. First, the writer will analyze the two main characters in the film. They are Rizvan Khan and Mandira. Then, the writer will try to analyze the concept of character and cultural identity that is presented by both of two characters in the film.

B. Focus of the Study