Some discourse communities I belong to are student-athletes, Bengali Muslims, and 1990s/2000s kids. Pertaining to my cultural artifact, the Lion King, I would definitely say that a majority of 1990s/2000s kids growing up in the United States have seen The Lion King.  Although I grew up in a Muslim Southeast Asian household, Certain parts of western culture such as movies and cartoons have always been emphasized in my life from a very early age. For all the people who don’t fall under the discourse community of 1990s/2000s kids, certain movies and cartoons during this time period have sculpted an image of the world in our heads that gave us access to society before we were old enough to experience it for ourselves.
One reason why The Lion King resonates so heavily with me is that it was one of the first English movies I had ever seen. I moved to the United States from Bangladesh when I was 5 years old, and we had a little bit under 2 thousand dollars among my parents, my 6 six-year-old sisters, and myself. Due to our circumstances, we stayed in my cousin’s house: a one bedroom, one bathroom, 750 square feet apartment that was now shared by 8 people. One thing that I was able to derive from this claustrophobic environment is the quality time my cousins and I were able to spend with each other. Almost every night, while the sun was not quite completely down, we would watch the lion king. The thing that makes the lion king so significant to me is I physically could not continue watching after Simba’s father, Mufasa, was murdered. At the time, my father was working 2 full-time jobs and would come home around 12 am all 7 nights of the week. Every single night, I would wait until I heard my mother snoring and I would stuff my face in my pillow and cry. I would think about every possible thing that could go wrong and leave my father unable to make it home that night. There wasn’t a single night where I could sleep until I heard my father step through the door and open the corridor light next to the living room/kitchen floor we were sleeping on. He Always knew I was awake and would always bring me a chocolate or a bag of chips to share with him. Although the Lion King is beyond a beautiful movie, it really opened my eyes from an early age to the harsh reality of our loved ones not always being there. It has truly taught me to appreciate everyone around me and never take their presence for granted.