Russian Nationalism and Ethnic Relations
Nationalism is defined by dictionary.com as "devotion to the interests or culture of ones nation". Ethnic relations are simply relations between one ethnic group and the next, how they interact and deal with each other. These two themes now that I think about have been recurring the entire quarter, in almost everything we read or saw, in one form or another. No matter where you go there are going to be differences between ethnic groups, and every group is going to interact differently. In "Brother", it was Danila reacting to the Chechens on the bus, and not liking the Jews, and not having a problem with the Germans as long as they were not Jews. In "Prisoner of the Mountains", Vania does not have any problem with the little girl, in fact he quite likes her, and is a nice person to her and the others such as her family. Whereas his fellow captive doesn't have any guilt about killing them and letting the man with no tongue fly off the cliff. Another example, and probably one of the best ones is "Window to Paris", even though that was not mentioned on our essay topic sheet as a text to go with this particular topic I believe it factors into the equation as well, and that it is completely relevant. Window to Paris could poss
ibly be one of the most classic examples of Russian nationalism and ethnic relations for this class. You have the Russians, who found this window to France, so now they're dealing with the French, the culture, the Culture, the lifestyle, everything, because they now are IN France, and they see how different it is. When they enter France, they find it inconceivable, almost; that the French have all this food lined up in the streets at the markets, and that it does not all go to waste. The Russians do have pride in their country, I believe the word pride can be used as a synonym for nationalism, regardless of what might be said, or shown in this movie. Everyone returned home for pride and love of their home and ultimately they were inspired to do whatever they could to help change their home for the better (this was primarily in the minds of the kids they convinced to return to their families in Russia through he window when they had all claimed they wanted to stay and dance and get jobs and leave it all behind) they interacted with a totally different culture, learned a few things on the way and then went home, because they realized they were devoted to the interests and culture of their nation, their home. These themes also were shown in the book we read called "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". Who knows how many different ethnicities and different people Ivan had dealt with in h
Some common words found in the essay are:
Window Paris, Flags Russian, Ivan Denisovich, , I'm Russian, Mountains Vania, russian nationalism, ethnic relations, window paris, ethnic interact, essay topic, pride country, day life,
Approximate Word count = 943
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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