My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a romantic comedy about a 30-year-old single woman living in Chicago named Toula Portokalos. As a girl, raised by a very traditional Greek family, she faces many deep questions about her priorities in life. These questions range from the role of family in a contemporary society, to the pressures placed upon her by her family and their cultural norms. The Greeks in this movie are very ethnocentric, meaning they tend to evaluate other people and cultures according to the standards of their own culture. Everything through their eyes is classified as Greek and non-Greek. The Greek way of doing things is always better.
The movie begins at the Portokalos’ family restaurant, Dancing Zorba’s, where Toula is constantly reminded that her life clock is ticking. According to her family’s norms, women who are not married and work in the family business are considered a failure. Toula comes from a traditional upbringing. This means all of the daughters are expected to marry men from their ethnic background. According to Toula, “There are three things that every Greek woman must do in life: marry Greek boys, make Greek babies, and feed everyone.” This is a value that the older generations of Greeks cherish
The movie shows the key sociological concepts of accommodation because the film portrays the need to overcome ethnic differences while not diminishing the beauty of ethnic tradition. Ian shows acculturation by being baptized before the wedding to bring him into the church and allow for Ian and Toula to be married in the Church. It can be concluded that Ian’s decision to be baptized leads to showing key sociological concepts of assimilation because he will be with his wife every day and will see how it is be a part of a Greek Orthodox family. He may even begin to practice Greek traditions because of his wife’s
There has been many discussions about how people try to fit in society, whether it is for music, interests in subjects, or even trying to fit in a specific culture. Groups and individuals seems to have a distinction among each other when it comes down to fitting in society and how they differ and have tensions among each other to conform to social norms. In “Making Conversation” and “The Primacy of Practice” by Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses how all cultures have similarities and differences but sometimes those differences are so different that they can not connect to another nation. Manuel Munoz in “Leave Your Name at the Border” argues how immigrants in a city are forced to act more societal and how it typically affects the diversity in
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding is about a 30-year old and single woman named Toula Portokalos who although has lived a very Greek life-style up to this point, decides to pursue a relationship with a non-Greek man. This, of course, is disturbing to her family since they are so proud about their culture, and do not really know anything different. Her whole life, Toula has been instilled with a very traditional Greek outlook on life. She has been expected to do three things: Marry a Greek boy, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day they die. Throughout the movie, Toula overcomes inner struggles to find her own identity, and she overcomes struggles with her family.
The Wedding Singer was put on by the Ole Miss Theatre Department on November 11, 2016. It took place in Fulton Chapel on the Ole Miss campus and featured a very talented cast of Ole Miss students. Rene Pulliam was the director and Kate Prendergast was the choreographer for this musical. The play was dynamic and engaging. From the acting, to the set, to the energy of the cast, The Wedding Singer was a lively musical that left the viewer feeling excited and spirited.
Notwithstanding Brubaker (2001) argues that there are two basic meanings of assimilation, namely: the general and abstract sense and the specific and organic sense and both differ in their affective overtones, moral and political connotation, and intellectually respectability. The general and abstract sense, deals with the process of increasing similarity or becoming similar or likeness but not identical. It focusses on the process and not the final state — designates a direction of change, not a particular degree of similarity. While specific and organic sense, focuses on the final state and assimilation is a matter of either /or, not of degree. Assimilation in this sense implies complete absorption into the system or community (Brubaker, 2001).
Appropriation in itself is an attempt towards assimilation in which the superior culture picks and chooses aspects of the minority tradition, absorbs them into majority society in a new, inauthentic manner, and all the while completely disregarding the traditions they do not favor. While Fanon, says that the possibility for integration is what is needed in order to achieve equality in society, Baldwin’s theory on black acceptance into white society means that the success of integration is unlikely. With assimilation comes the risk of the minority culture losing itself completely to the dominant culture. The issue of integration is that neither white nor black society seeks to participate in a cultural exchange resulting in an equal intermingling
The story begins with Tita passionately in love with Pedro Muzquiz and he with her. "She would never forget the moment their hands accidentally touched as they both slowly bent down to pick up the same tray" (18). Their romance is cursed from the start, however, because of an old family tradition, stating that the youngest daughter must remain unmarried and care for the mother as long as either may live. Pedro, unaware of the tradition, comes to the ranch to ask Tita's mother, Mama Elena, for Tita's hand. Mama Elena tells Tita, "If he intends to ask for your hand, tell him not to bother. Heíll be wasting his time and mine, too. You know perfectly well that being the youngest daughter means you have to take car...
In both Xenophon’s Oeconomicus and Lysias’ defense of Euphiletus’ murder of Eratosthenes, insight into the purpose and function of Athenian marriage may be gained by examination of the speeches of two citizens about their wives and their homes. Through both texts, it becomes apparent that the citizen’s value of his wife is based upon his wife’s ability as an “oikonomikos” or “skilled household manager” (Strauss, 3). It is through filling this role as her husband’s housekeeper that an Athenian woman experienced a loss of personal freedom and found herself trapped within a marriage in which she had little contact or much in common with her husband. A woman’s role as oikonomikos is described by Euphiletus’ address of an Athenian citizen-jury and by Socrates’ discourse with Ischomachos, through which he strives to understand the best way by which a household may be managed.
Immigration and assimilation is a divisive topic that has been heavily debated in America ever since we became a country. There are two stories that explore the assimilation issue from different viewpoints’; in Mary Pipher’s story; “The Beautiful Laughing Sisters – An Arrival Story”; provides the viewpoint of immigrants leaving a hostile home for America. Elizabeth Wong details her journey to break with her culture and become Americanized in, “The Struggle to be an all American girl.” and (McWhorter, 2010 pp522-529). At debate today is whether immigrants and their families should blend into American culture even if it means breaking with their past. Once cultures intermingle, they are forever changed.
With their great stability to maintain their love, they were able to convince her stubborn father to finally get married. They had their wedding ceremony at an Orthodox Church based on her parent's strong religious beliefs, her relatives were spitting on her while she was walking down the aisle to let the evil away which really surprised Land’s western parents. The weddings service in the Greek Orthodox faith is an ancient and beautiful ceremony that is full of symbolism that is highly influenced by the Greek culture, which it’s quite the opposite in westerns weddings where it’s usually less crowded and
Indisputably, everyone learns from things that they are not accustomed to or that are different. Everything that we see or don’t has an aspect of human diversity due to the existence of differences between one another. Hence, diversity exists everywhere and, honestly, makes life more interesting! As a common theme in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” diversity proves to be an invaluable life lesson to major characters in the film and in the cultures they represent. However, all too often in the real world, some people take the meaning of diversity and use it as a lever to induce discomfort, polarization, and conflict between individuals or groups.
A town with a secret Goal of this essay will be to describe the meaning of the epilogue where Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, having given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne, a new resident in Stepford, appears poised to become the conspiracy's next victim. This scene is highly pro-individual and symbolic of what we are now experiencing in western democracies - what with robotic call centre staff, girls who dress and look like fake barbie dolls with fake nails, hair extensions, cosmetic surgery, and businesses that are replacing people with machines to save costs. The Stepford Wives is a highly pro-individual movie that shows one of many problems of our society. The film was not perfectly, very pro-democratic and anti authoriarian, including that it is more than forty years old, but the subject is absolutely genius. The main idea of author was to make the viewers deeply question themselves: what do
An immigrant country for immigrants founded by immigrants, America was destined the melting pot of all religion, race, and culture. During the decades of fresh new freedom, rush of the west, industrial and political machines, and the hustling, bustling new America, the country’s identity was not yet established or important. The ideal American at the time was the kin of her founders, white and protestant, the first immigrants, the true natives, and the powerful. Many believed it was the duty of the ideal American to help those who did not meet the definition, thus beginning the age of assimilation. Sometimes assimilation is deeply rooted in the fear of the foreign and the desire to transfer one’s own identity and beliefs to a seemingly inferior
As previously stated, religion is a large influencer in the acculturation process. This is evidently seen in certain cultures such as in the Catholic community. The Catholic faith teaches women’s primary role as mothers and caregivers. This may lead to women under the Catholic faith to avoid being active in public or non-family tasks and activities (Koeske). The restrictions set on certain individuals, by religion, limits them from fusing the new culture with their traditions from home, ultimately disallowing the individual from growing and learning. Now that we know that the acculturation process affects all members in an immigrant family, we can see that the youth in these families struggle to become independent. These feelings are brought on by the youth feeling obligated to help their families while the American society is pushing for independence. This can lead to confusion among the youth in every family and can cause issues relating to their self-identity. While the youth continue to feel obligated to care for their families, they will find it more difficult to become independent and much harder to integrate the new culture into their lives when their family is promoting old
To begin, I want to define assimilation which according to the Oxford dictionary means “The absorption and integration of people, ideas, or culture into a wider society or culture” After see this definition I may say that we as humans, we are always trying to adapt to new cultural environments in the places where we are living. So, when a child or an adult move to a different place or to a different country, they consciously or unconsciously tend to adjust themselves to the new culture of the dominant population. Talking about assimilation I think that a person in his/her own choice, can opt how much they want to integrate to the new culture. To illustrate this point and giving an example of my own, I would say that in my case I always want