Theme: How is success defined?

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2007)

Examining the main theme of this film through the window of another culture showed me that the Iranian ideology is not fundamentally different from our own. In fact, the theme I extracted demonstrated that we share more in common with each other (in terms of the goals we are attempting to achieve as human participants of life) then not: Although adversity and other desperate circumstances seek to thwart man's journey to succeed, man is not only endowed with specific problem-solving capabilities but also the potential to triumph over any obstacle thrown his way.
Using the contextual tools in connection with this theme, I seek to examine the following question: How does the hero act in this story? The main character, Ali, is faced with many difficult situations which strongly motivate him to act and provide solutions for. After accidentally losing the shoes of his sister Zahra and realizing the poverty conditions of his family, Ali is challenged with solving how he and his sister are going to get to school with only one pair of shoes. His solution: They can both share a pair of sneakers. Once her day is done, she can rush home and give the sneakers to him. Unfortunately, she arrives too late and causes Ali to be late for his schoolthus creating another problem. Ali develops another solution: His love and care for his sister's welfare causes him to enter a foot race where the runner in third place receives a new pair of sneakers. Although both second and first place prizes are more lucrative, Ali only cares about the happiness of his sister. This was an interesting characteristic of the hero of this culture as contrasted to the hero of an American culture. American heroes are usually determined by how prestigious/strong their image iseven if it be at the expense of another. This particular culture depicted its hero as a weak (small and simple) boy whose primary concern was family. Traditionally speaking from an American perspective, the main character of this film, Ali, would not be considered necessarily a hero. Why? Because he doesn't win what he intended to win in the race. This led me to ask the next question: How is success or failure defined in the story? Success, as defined in the eyes of this culture's hero, is not success unless it benefits the whole rather than the individual. In other words, success is not something to be hoarded to oneself but rather shared equally with others. Ali wants to share his success with his sister by finishing in third place, thereby winning his sister's joy, but instead wins first place. The result of him not enjoying his ranking is terribly ironic when compared to how success is defined in an American cultureif you're not first you're nothing. Rather than benefiting the whole (Ali, his sister and family), Ali reluctantly benefits only himself. As stated in my theme, Ali had the potential to triumph over this particular obstacle but instead received an outcome that ran contrary to what he had desired/intended.
Overall, Ali is a unique and culturally diverse hero that demonstrates the tool of activism to help support the lives of his family members. Although he is young and helpless, this does not thwart him from helping and providing solutions to those around him who are also helpless. This idea is demonstrated in two specific scenes: when he helps his helpless father in promoting gardening services in the city, and, when he retrieves the sneakers from a rainstorm outside for his helpless sister who is frightened to retrieve them herself.