Parenting is no easy task. Whether you are a mother or a father, dealing with children is difficult. As specifically expressed in both of these 1992 films: Mississippi Masala and Gas Food Lodging, the themes of family, love, heartbreak, responsibility, and maturity are all shown throughout both. Overall, speaking volumes on what it truly means to be a parent. Specifically, the relationship between mother and daughter can range from flawed to superior. Universally, mothers and fathers will always have control no matter what their child's age is. However, we see in time with some children, they can age faster than the others, leaving this mark plausibly on how they missed part of their childhood. This is mostly characterized in Mississippi Masala. From a broad perspective looking at Gas Food Lodging, it is not only about the themes that are focused it is the emotions, and the relationship that exists in the film between economics and family stability, What are Nora and Trudi’s career and economic prospects, and how do they affect their …show more content…
mother-daughter relationship. The 1992 Mira Nair-directed romantic comedy/drama, Mississippi Masala, features notable actor Denzel Washington who portrays Demetrius, a carpet cleaner who experiences racism occasionally in his hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi.
However, the movie's main focus is towards the family of his true love: Mina. They meet when Mina accidentally hit the back of his car causing damage. She and her parents are of Indian descent; however are all from Uganda, Africa. Her ancestors stayed in Uganda for an extensive period of time to complete the railroad system in 1972. Throughout the motion picture, there is this sense of competition of "which race is more oppressed?" between the people of India and African-Americans in Greenwood, Mississippi. Furthermore, the families of each person try to keep Mina and Demetrius from encountering one another. By that standard, love conquers all as they realize how crucial they are towards each
other. Mina and Kinnu: However, beyond those battles, lies the evergoing definitive battle of mother and daughter, Mina and her mother, Kinnu. Mina began to develop her own identity after being brought up in the United States. In a natural state as a child, Mina held on close to her parents; however, as she got older in Mississippi, she began to develop a social life. For example, Mina took pleasure in attending the bars to dance, socialize and have fun overall, but, she came across Demetrius a few moments later. Her mother has had moments of showing leniency; nonetheless, it took time for her to come to terms with that her child and desired to have a new life of her own. However, for any mother, this can be challenging to accept; however, it does not mean under any circumstances that this is the end of the road. In connection to “end of the road,” the additional 1992 film centered around the relationship between mother and daughter is Gas Food Lodging, directed by Allison Anders. This film follows Nora, a mother who works as a waitress, along with her two daughters, Trudi and Shade. Each daughter has their own personal process of displaying affection or some type of feelings towards their mother, whether through abhorrence with a malicious, sarcastic attitude or with a misunderstanding in hopes of having a father.
After viewing an episode of I Love Lucy, positive aspects of family and financial issues can be clearly seen in the 1950s. The Ricardo's are middle class, Ricky works as a club band leader and Lucy stays home and `poured all her energies into their nuclear family.' (37) This is a positive side of the 1950s because compared to a few decades before, `women quit their jobs as soon as they became pregnant,' (36) and concentrated more on raising children. These families were much more stable and made almost `60 percent of kids were born into male breadwinner-female homemaker families,' (37) which is a important factor for children to have a good childhood.
The children in this book at times seem wise beyond their years. They are exposed to difficult issues that force them to grow up very quickly. Almost all of the struggles that the children face stem from the root problem of intense poverty. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation. Kozol reports "All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York." (Kozol 4). The symptoms of the kind of poverty described are apparent in elevated crime rates, the absence of health care and the lack of funding for education.
The film’s brilliance lies in the choice to show three distinct familial units with varying and different responses to their disadvantaged circumstances. The three boys who are the main subject of this film each experience a set of challenges and disadvantages associated with growing up in poverty. Appachey lives with his mother and younger siblings and has little to no adult supervision because his single mother must work long hours to support the family. Harley lives with his grandmother because his mother is incarcerated for attempting to kill the man who sexually abused her son. Harley suffers from anger and personality disorders and has a difficult time fitting in at school. Andrew lives with his father, mother and sister but is subject to repeated and frequent moves due his father’s inability to secure stable employment. His mother also suffers from significant mental illness and bouts of manic
This characteristic continued to develop in Aminata after she was forced into slavery and lasted until the final moments of her life. Aminata treasures her family, and this value gives her both pain and happiness during her life in slavery. Aminata encounters many people whom she cares for as family in her life, and the interactions with these people provide Aminata with courage and joy. However, the loss of these people also gives Aminata unimaginable pain. The value of family or the bond between parents and children is one of the main themes in the novel "The Book of Negroes.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
In conclusion, both Faulkner and Morrison show how a mother's actions and expression of love can affect how their children will grow up to be and act.
The universal themes that are used in the story are racism and better the young.”And mothers and fathers, if it is too late for you, think of your children. Make it safe so they don't have to run away, for I want for you and your children what I had.”( Baker, 83) These themes are universal because both talk about things that has happened multiple times. Like better the young. We want the young to be the greatest generation and not make the mistakes we had made. The children of each generation need to be better than the last generations. The other theme racism. Racism was back then and it is now. The theme talks about the racism in the past and in the present and in the future. Racism will be the theme for lots of things in the present but also
While watching the documentary “Two American Families” there was three aspects I noticed within the two families. The first being how there was a shift in the social class of the families due to economic problems. The second being the role reversal of the male and the female. The third being the effect of the families’ financial instability on the children and their decisions into adulthood.
The definition of family has changed dramatically over the course of history, especially from culture to culture. It is quite interesting to research the definition of family within slave communities because the slave definition of family not only changed from plantation to plantation, but also slave to slave. Upon reading the secondary sources, “The Shaping of the Afro-American Family,” by Steven Mintz, & Susan Kellogg, "Marriage in Slavery," by Brenda Stevenson, and “Motherhood in Slavery” by Stephanie Shaw, and the primary sources WPA Interviews of former slaves conducted in the 1930s. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, throughout all of these readings there seemed to be some definite themes. One is the roles between mother and father and their children, second is the role slave owners and their families, and another is the fact that for many slaves the definition of family was broad based.
The encounters various people come across in their life define the characters and personalities they develop. Family structure, an experience element frequently ignored, plays a significant role in the development of an individual’s personality. Outstandingly, the family is a sanctified union that greatly cultivates the character of an individual. The traits that a person develops from the family as they grow up in highly contribute to the type of parents they become in future. From the past to date, authors have always created awareness on how everyday family activities can influence the character of those involved. Events that negatively affect an individual could lead to dysfunctional families in future. O’Connor and Hemmingway are not
The family structure is made up of individuals living together in intimate groups with the purpose of caring and supporting each other. Rules and boundaries, spoken and unspoken, are developed by the family members. Family rules and boundaries change and shift over time in order to evolve and grow as a family unit. Some changes are subtle, but some events force major change within the family system. This paper applies the concepts of systems theory to the family system in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Reese Witherspoon (Melanie Smooter) and Josh Lucas (Jake Perry) star in this heart-warming film telling a story of a young woman who flees from Alabama to reinvent herself in New York City as a high fashion designer. She leaves behind her redneck husband and white-trash upbringing. Melanie finds herself engaged to the cities most eligible bachelor and has to return to Alabama to request a divorce from her first love and confront her past ("Alabama," 2002).
Disney’s intentions were more than to captivate young children. They were ultimately to retell the original story of Pocahontas and the settlers and to address social issues of lifestyle and acceptance depending on race and the way they are being treated, proving that marriage isn’t all that important and addressing familial gender roles in society based on having a mother figure. Since 1995, the story of Pocahontas serves to entertain the young minds of children, but none the less the messages for seen in the movie, are mentioned to stress the issues of a series of systems in which maintain the imbalance of power among society’s social organization.
Jean Louise “Scout” and Jem Finch experienced life in the 1930’s living in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Their childhood was a nonstop adventure that brought jocund days and testing trials that teenager’s today experience even with the world around us changing every day. The moral upbringings, educational importance, and the crime rate of small towns all contributed to the childhood memories that were built every day in Maycomb County. These attributes to childhood experiences have changed a lot over the vast time period between the 1930’s and 2000’s. The moral upbringings are different in the way that children living now are experiencing a different surrounding in their everyday life and have lost morals that were taught in the 1930’s. Education is more important now than in the 1930’s because of the many laws that have been established to keep children well educated to help them succeed. Living in a small town had many advantages like the low crime rate; crime rate has risen and caused an effect on small town life. There are many similarities as well as differences between the childhood in the 1930’s and the 2000’s. The changes that have occurred affect my life as a young Alabamian every day in many ways.
Throughout the book, I’ve also learned about many racist things. It was painful to read about the hateful treatment of Blacks during that time and the effect that it had on Black children. When Maya had a bad tooth and her grandmother took her to a white dentist in town. The white dentist refused to help Maya because, as he stated, "I would rather put my hand in the mouth of a dog than to put it into a nigger's mouth." This incident serves only as an example of the many ways that Blacks were cruelly mistreated in those days.
Today, India is the second most populous country in the world. The culture of India is also among the oldest to survive, reaching back to nearly 5,000 years. India received their inde-pendence from Britain on August 15th, 1947, thus allowing them to become the most populous democracy in the world. There are many aspects as to what makes India unique, one principle in particular is their food. Indian cooking is vivid, exquisite, and simply delicious. It depends on a wide variety of spices, herbs, and grains for its specific taste. The different types of food which India carry include basic spices, traditional foods, and tasty snacks. It is notable that India has been one of the world’s main dealer of spices for at least 3,600 years.