Life & Work "Dothead"Of Amit Mujmudar

Dothead by Amit Majmudar

In "Dothead" Amit Mujmudar uses metaphorical languages to show us that even though him and his family migrated to the United States from India, they still kept their inherited culture and religion close to them. "Dothead" symbolizes something eloquent and special to his religion and culture. Amit filled our minds with an image of a day in his high school when he was being mocked and insulted by his friends who happen to be white, all because his mother wore a "dot" on her forehead. Amit felt his culture meant nothing to his friends, he felt insulted and hurt.

Despite it all he was very proud of his relgion and culture. Migrating to the United States of America Amit and his family still manage to keep their culture and religion near their hearts. It was a way for them to remember their homeland. "It's not some freak third eye that opens on your forehead like some Chernobyl baby." Amit is using the "third eye" as a metaphor to tell us that the "dot" represents spiritual sight. The "dot" on his mother forehead represents divine, honor, love and prosperity . It is worn to symolized these aspects.

The "third eye" is unseen on one's forehead and it can see things that the physical eyes cannot. It's an indian custom for a married woman to wear a bindi. Many people refers to the bindi as a red dot. In Hindusim, the color red represents honor and love. This was what Amit knew grewing up as a child. Amit uses imagery to help visualize his feelings.

In "Dothead" Amit tells us what is feels like to being fun of because of his relgion and culture. Amit uses imagery and tone to show us what he is conveying to his audience. When Amit talks about Chernobly baby he is telling us that even though his mother wears a red "dot" she is not a freak. Wearing the bindi on her forehead was a daily routine for her. This was not option, this was all that she knew.

Being in the United States her values or culture were not forgotten. This was important to her and her family. I assumed the city that they lived in the United States, there were not many Indian families, so socierty looked at her diffrently. Amit to writes "There's this unseen eye, on the inside. And she's marking it." He is telling us that his mother deliberately puts the "dot" on her forehead. Here Amit tells us again how important religion and culture is his family. Being in a new county they still manage to uphold their religion. They were not ashamed of who they were or their beliefs .

Amit was not afraid of being himself. He made his so called friends understand the importance of his religion and culture. This is very important to Amit and his family because there was nothing to be ashamed of. Being in a new country does not mean one will forget their values, culture or religion. Amit descibes a day in his school after World History Week, which happened to be about India .

The tone Amit used in this poem was very bothered. He was being questioned by his white friends about the "dot". "So wait said Nick, does your mom wear a dot." He was very bothered with the remarks that his friends made about the "dot" that his mother wore on her forehead. "I know they said "third eye" in class, but it's not an eye eye, not like that." His friends was making fun of him.

Amit shows us how quickly your friends can treat you diffrently once they find out you a diffrent belief. To Amit this was all normal, wearing the red "dot" was nothing new to him. Amit's tone in the poem went from being calm to anger. The anger he felt beacuse his friends was making fun of his mother's "dot". His religion was being critized by his own friends. "The laughter made my mouth go dry", suggest that he was sppechless and anger was buliding up inside of him. He had nothing else to tell them .

He writes about how he made a "dot" of out ketchup and placed it on his forehead for his friends to see. "My third eye burned those schoolboys in their seat, their flesh in little puddles underneath, pale pools where Nataraja cooled his feet." Amit's tone represents how insulted he felt. When he used "burned" suggests he showed those schoolboys that their insult would not make him forget about his culture or religion.

He stood up to his friends and defended his religion and his mother. This shows bravery and confidence, he defended and fought for what he belived in. He was never ashamed of his culture or relgion. In the poem "Dothead" Amit uses imagery and tone throughout the poem. Amit displays how he felt through these elements of literature. His mother wore a red "dot" on her forehead to represent her Indian culture and religion.

The red "dot" is a metaphorical symbolization of an eye. While his friends were making fun of his culture, Amit stood up for what he believed in. Amit's wrote this poem to show his us that being from a diffrent background people will make fun of you. This however does not mean you will forget your about your relgion and culture. Amit and his family were able able to maintain their values, beliefs, culture and religion even though they were in a diffrent country.