The Journey of a Lifetime Le Gran Voyage, literally meaning “the big trip” was much more than just that. It was a teaching and learning opportunity for the characters in the movie as well as the audience. Yahya Laayouni from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania composed an article, From Marseille to Mecca: Reconciling the Secular and the Religious in Le Gran Voyage (The Big Trip) (2004), about the movie and pieces apart many scenes and lessons in the film. Before and after reading the article, the audience is left with a few questions such as “Why did he write this?” and “What is he going to examine?” Laayouni states, “I argue that personal experiences are not isolated reflections of the self and that each individual experience carried within itself traces of other ‘selves’ whose recognition is quintessential to selfhood.” Laayouni is describing moments in the film when different experiences between Réda and his father before, during, and after their journey to Mecca. They had the same journey, but it was experienced differently. This is one of the many clear arguments that Laayouni made in the article. Another very clear remark that Laayouni made was much later in the article, but just as important. “My contention is this paper is that Beur identity formation is a site of struggle where the Beurs are constantly negotiating their position as individuals with respect to two paradoxical cultural experiences.” Identity is not just natural, there are parts that are natural, but it is not fully formed until different experiences are had to form a unique personal identity. Laayouni reveals many insightful topics in the article such as generation gaps, differences in socialization, background, and when the Religious meets the Secular. A generation gap is, by definition, a lack of communication between one generation and another,especially between young people and their parents, brought about by differences of tastes, values, outlook, etc. Laayouni breaks down the generation gap in the movie between immigrant parents, specifically Maghrebi immigrant parents, and their children. The Maghrebi parents obviously is referring to the father, and the children is referring to Réda. Laayouni tells on page 2, “Both the parents and their children were socialized differently: while the parents are very connected to their culture of origin, their children are much less so and are unable to negate the impact of their social upbringing in France”. In this observation, Laayouni also describes how the trip was the last chance for the father to immerse Réda in his cultural and religious heritage. The biggest aspect that formed a gap in the generations of the two was religion and modern things such as the fact that Réda had a cellphone, in which his father did not understand. Throughout the trip, the two were able to put aside their differences and try to see eye to eye even if just for a moment. By sharing a car, food, and a hotel room brought them the opportunity ...

1. The Journey of a Lifetime
Le Gran Voyage, literally meaning “the big trip” was much
more than just that. It was a teaching and learning opportunity
for the characters in the movie as well as the audience. Yahya
Laayouni from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
composed an article, From Marseille to Mecca: Reconciling the
Secular and the Religious in Le Gran Voyage (The Big Trip)
(2004), about the movie and pieces apart many scenes and
lessons in the film. Before and after reading the article, the
audience is left with a few questions such as “Why did he write
this?” and “What is he going to examine?” Laayouni states, “I
argue that personal experiences are not isolated reflections of
the self and that each individual experience carried within itself
traces of other ‘selves’ whose recognition is quintessential to
selfhood.” Laayouni is describing moments in the film when
different experiences between Réda and his father before,
during, and after their journey to Mecca. They had the same
journey, but it was experienced differently. This is one of the
many clear arguments that Laayouni made in the article.
Another very clear remark that Laayouni made was much later
in the article, but just as important. “My contention is this paper
is that Beur identity formation is a site of struggle where the
Beurs are constantly negotiating their position as individuals
with respect to two paradoxical cultural experiences.” Identity
is not just natural, there are parts that are natural, but it is not
fully formed until different experiences are had to form a
unique personal identity. Laayouni reveals many insightful
topics in the article such as generation gaps, differences in
socialization, background, and when the Religious meets the
Secular.
A generation gap is, by definition, a lack of communication
between one generation and another,especially between young

2. people and their parents, brought about by differences of tastes,
values, outlook, etc. Laayouni breaks down the generation gap
in the movie between immigrant parents, specifically Maghrebi
immigrant parents, and their children. The Maghrebi parents
obviously is referring to the father, and the children is referring
to Réda. Laayouni tells on page 2, “Both the parents and their
children were socialized differently: while the parents are very
connected to their culture of origin, their children are much less
so and are unable to negate the impact of their social upbringing
in France”. In this observation, Laayouni also describes how the
trip was the last chance for the father to immerse Réda in his
cultural and religious heritage. The biggest aspect that formed a
gap in the generations of the two was religion and modern
things such as the fact that Réda had a cellphone, in which his
father did not understand. Throughout the trip, the two were
able to put aside their differences and try to see eye to eye even
if just for a moment. By sharing a car, food, and a hotel room
brought them the opportunity to think about the differences that
they had. The large generation gap brought up the topic of
socialization and how not only do they have a gap because of
age, but because of modern socialization.
Socialization has changed dramatically from today and in the
past, for example, when Réda’s father was being raised. Today,
socialization is all about technology via texting, facebook,
snapchat, twitter, whatever it may be. That is how Réda was
different from his father. There is a scene in the film where
Réda is talking to his girlfriend, who is a non-muslim woman,
on a cellphone and his father does not understand any of it. This
shows many differences between them, the biggest being that
Réda is dating a non-muslim girl, which is something that
would never happen in his father’s generation purely because of
their religion and what they believe in. Laayouni speaks of
some more background about differences in being raised in the
section Background: Children of Maghrebi Parents in France.
The section Background: Children of Maghrebi Parents in

3. France is sort of a sidestep from the main topic and instead
offers the readers a lot of information. Some information that
Laayouni teaches the readers is about the Beur generation. “The
Beur generation refers to French citizens who are born or raised
in France and whose parents are of Maghrebi origins...The term
‘Beur’ is the result of a syllabic inversion of the word “Arab”.
This generation was introduced in the early 1980’s and started
with children of Maghrebi parents who were born and/or raised
in France. There are many more valuable facts that Laayouni
speaks about in this section. But, the most important thing that
Laayouni talks about is when the Religious meets the Secular.
On the bottom of page 11, Laayouni discusses when the
Religious meets the Secular. He states, “Though he is not a
practicing Muslim, religion is a cultural experience that Réda
shares, and it constitutes a central part of his identity
construction”. He also speaks how Réda has a Muslim
authoritarian father on page 12. He confirmed this position in
the beginning of their trip when he threw out Réda’s phone
because he didn’t want him to be distracted on the journey, as
mentioned before. He also wants him to remember his religion
and where he came from, but most importantly, his
“Frenchness”. One more point that Laayouni makes in this
section is about language. Language is an important part of
culture and religion. On page 13, it is described that Réda and
his father speak different languages and that kind of sets them
apart from one another. Réda speaks french, from his mother,
and his father speaks Moroccan Arabic which is the language of
the Quran. Each of the languages is a symbol for their
differences and represents each other.
On the contrary, there were some points made in the article that
differ from popular belief. For example, there is a comment that
says, “Réda, forced to go on the trip, does not understand the
importance of the Hajj until the end.” (Laayouni, pg. 2)
Although the point about not understanding the importance of
the Hajj is true, the comment about Réda being forced to go on
the trip is not. His father really wanted him to go with on the

4. trip to submerge him in culture and his heritage so he doesn’t
forget who he truly is despite the modern world taking over his
life. The trip was a journey for the both of them mentally and
physically, but he was not forced to go on the trip. If he had
said no to his father, it would probably have caused major
conflict, but he could have said no if he wanted to. It was a
good decision for him to go because he really did learn about
himself and what his heritage really is all about.
There was another remark Laayouni made on that states, “Most
naturalized Maghrebi immigrants still think of themselves as
strangers because they have been enculturated in their home
countries before moving to the Hexagone (France)” (Laayouni,
pg. 7)For this comment, the knowledge on the disagreement on
the statement comes from an article by Jhumpa Lahiri called My
Two Lives. Jhumpa described her life as an “Indian-American”
and how, “Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure
to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new,
approved of on either side of the hyphen.” The comment about
her having to be loyal combination of both cultures both
coincides and contradicts Laayouni’s statement. It agrees with
not feeling like fitting in, but differs because Lahiri mentions
how she adapts to the American society. She talks in depth
about how the adaptation was hard because of her parents. “My
parents had little knowledge or control of: school, books, music,
television, things that seeped in and became a fundamental
aspect of who I am.” Réda relates to this statement very much
because he was a modern person with cell phones and
girlfriends and his father simply did not understand.
“Growing up, the family home is the only place that connects
Réda to his parents’ origin; outside home, he is French with all
that the word entails.” This is another statement made by
Laayouni that can be argued against. Lahiri, in her article, talks
a great deal about tradition and how there is a correlation
between tradition and a safe place, which could mean her home
or her home country. She says how at home, they followed
many traditions and customs that come with being “Indian-

5. American” such as what and how they ate, songs, and even
clothing. Outside of her home, she acknowledged how, yes,
there were many barriers such as language that made things like
work, school, going to the store, etc. very difficult. Réda
probably experienced some of these difficulties sometimes, but
not really because he was still submerged in the culture even
though is was more modernized than his father had hoped for.
Overall, the article had more agreeable points than not and
Laayouni’s points were very educational and well thought out.
Réda was an individual who had to go through hard times to
eventually reveal to himself his true colors. Lahiri made a great
final comment on page 2 of her article that stated, “The
immigrant's journey, no matter how ultimately rewarding, is
founded on departure and deprivation, but it secures for the
subsequent generation a sense of arrival and advantage.” It is
ironic how she spoke of a journey, being that Le Gran Voyage
was all about a journey. She has a great point, though, about
how struggles and hardship have to happen in order to be
rewarded in the end, just like Réda had to face a lot of affliction
in the film, but was ultimately rewarded.
INT 113 Module Two Discussion Sample: Cultural Analysis
Follow the format of this post to complete your own analysis.
You will use some of the same
resources cited in the bibliography, so please follow the same
format.

6. Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture: Turkey (Hofstede, 2015)
Power Distance: Score of 66
rs
Individualism: Score of 37
ce of nepotism
Masculinity: Score of 45

7. and rules
alistic
Long-Term Orientation: Score of 46
Communication (Turkey - Turkish Language, Culture, Customs
and Etiquette, 2016)
Language: Turkish (90%), Kurdish (6%), Arabic (1.2%)
Nonverbal: Shaking hands and kissing on both cheeks, standing
to greet those senior to you,
crossing arms while talking is impolite, staring is typical
Business Etiquette (“Turkey - Turkish Language, Culture,
Customs and Etiquette,” 2016)
essary

8. —likely to be left waiting
—standing very close is
typical
Business Observations:
countries that are more direct in
communication, especially early in a business relationship.
should expect a high level of respect
to be shown. Communication will be more indirect between
management and subordinates.
important in the workplace.
be useful. A manager should
outline the best approach to conflict management with the use
of indirect communication.

9. Bibliography
Hofstede, G. (2015). Turkey - Geert Hofstede. Geert-
hofstede.com. Retrieved from http://geert-
hofstede.com/turkey.html
Turkey - Turkish language, culture, customs and etiquette.
(2016). Commisceo-Global. Retrieved from
http://www.commisceo-global.com/country-guides/turkey-guide