Matthew Koval
Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Mona Lisa Smile, and And The Spring Comes are two movies that try to depict what life was like from a women’s perspective in twentieth century America, and China. Mona Lisa Smile takes place in America when women were expected to be “stay at home moms.” Women no matter what they desired or strived for were supposed to just submit to their husbands and do what was in the best interest of their family. Even if that meant that they had to sacrifice their dreams and ambitions. Meanwhile men were allowed to do whatever made them happy. And The Spring Comes takes pace in China during the communist regime. Throughout this story there are several different artist from singers, dancers, to painters all of whom had dreams. All of them just wanted to pursue their dreams but because of the social norms of the country at the time what they did was looked down upon. So the artists of the movie are constantly feeling suppressed, and feeling like they are constantly misunderstood by society.
Throughout both of these movies there are reoccurring themes of women’s empowerment also success and the means to achieve it. Throughout both cultures during this time period women were not treated as equals and were seen as inferior to men. However, both movies have female characters who do not care about the social norms of the time. They are trying to rise above what society says their place is. In Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Roberts tries to push her students and tries to explain to them that just because they are women that does not mean that they cannot want more out of life. They are at one of the best colleges in the country, so they all have the tools to be successfully. Katherine Roberts is trying to push them, and give them the motivation to achieve the most out of their lives. Katherine Roberts embodies women’s empowerment. In And the Spring Comes, Ms. Wang is an immensely talented singer, however she is not beautiful. In fact, throughout the story she is called ugly several times. In society when people typically think of female entertainers they are beautiful, but because she is not beautiful that is a reason why no one wants to give her a chance. Even though she is extremely talented. Throughout the movie she does not let the fact that she is a women or that she is not beautiful stop her from pursuing her dream. Ms. Wang is constantly showing success and the means to achieve it.
In both movies I think there are very good appeals to logos. When thinking logically about the plot of these movies in Mona Lisa Smile the female students should want to be more than just housewives. They are all very intelligent women; that is something that is clearly displayed. Some of the women may be even smarter then their husbands. Thus that is a great appeal for them logically for them to want to achieve, and strive for more. Similarly, in And The Spring Comes Ms. Wang is a phenomenal singer with a wonderful voice. So she should try to aspire to be a great singer. Both of these movies make great logically arguments as to why these women should want to accomplish more than what society has said their ceiling is. Both stories in my opinion make a great appeal to pathos as well. Watching both of these two stories I could not help but gain an emotional attachment to the main charterers. One starts to empathize with both of them because you realize that in both stories none of the main charterers have done anything wrong. Just because of the societal norms they are not allowed to focus or pursue their dreams. Finally I think the ethos or the audience of this story is anyone. Anyone could learn a valuable lesson from this story. If you are someone who has been discriminated against you can use these stories as motivation to not give up. Or if you are someone who is on the other side of the spectrum. This shows the affect that you have on people with your words and actions.
Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
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Matthew K.-K.
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:33 am
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Dear Matthew
After reading your article, I feel that you have a strong ability of description. You can retell the stories tersely and lively, from which I know that both movies give you a sensational feeling.
However, I think that the article is lack in your own opinions and thoughts. What is the "logically arguments" in the movie? What kind of "emotional attachment" the movie give you?What lesson both movies teach to audience?Could you please give me more details of your ideas?
Wu,Tong
After reading your article, I feel that you have a strong ability of description. You can retell the stories tersely and lively, from which I know that both movies give you a sensational feeling.
However, I think that the article is lack in your own opinions and thoughts. What is the "logically arguments" in the movie? What kind of "emotional attachment" the movie give you?What lesson both movies teach to audience?Could you please give me more details of your ideas?
Wu,Tong
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Dear Matthew,
Thanks for you shateing your composition. I really enjoyed reading your analysis. And now, I would like to give you some personal opinions and advice after reading and thinking.
In my general reaction, your composition has strong logic and the general topic you chose is easy to understand. All of these were the points where I appreciate you.
Under this topic of women’s empowerment, you have talked about two arguments. One is that both of these movies have reoccurring themes of women’s empowerment also success and the means to achieve it, another one is the argument why women should want to accomplish more than what society has said their ceiling is. These arguments and the evidences fit your general topic well.
In my mind, you have set yourself in an objective position to give your thinking. The quantity of the evidences you choose are appropriate. And they include lots of details. Some relation of them and the arguments you support were easy to be missed, just like the evidence that the female roles are intelligent in both movies. According to your article, it is the logical reason why they deserve to have chances to fight for their dream. That was what I didn’t realize during analyzing these films.
However, I also would like to give you some suggestion. Please allow me to begin in the part of the evidences. Although you have used mounts of powerful details to support your arguments, most of them are just listed contrastively. Making minutely description and analysis of one or two details will make your composition more vivid and more persuasive.
And, when it comes to the organization and coherence of your composition, I feel the paragraphs are too long without some transitional sentences and short paragraphs. It makes your readers have difficulties in understanding that you have begun talking about another argument immediately, such as the second and the third paragraph. Maybe you can turn the first sentence of the third paragraph into the one with transition part. Take example:
“Besides what have been mentioned above, I think there are very good appeals to logos in both movies.”
Apart from these, I suggest that you could also change the expressions or the sentence patterns of some sentences in order to make them easy to understand. Take example, we students of eastern culture usually don’t put the part that “no matter what they desired or strived for” in the middle of a sentence since it is not easy to understand directly. And some main sentences and their clauses don’t have commas between, which also make me have a bit of difficulties to understand what you want to expressed. Then, I hope you can think about whether you can add some transition sentence or paragraphs and change some sentence patterns into some patterns easier to understand in the next version.
You did very nice job! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Yours,
Zhen S.
Thanks for you shateing your composition. I really enjoyed reading your analysis. And now, I would like to give you some personal opinions and advice after reading and thinking.
In my general reaction, your composition has strong logic and the general topic you chose is easy to understand. All of these were the points where I appreciate you.
Under this topic of women’s empowerment, you have talked about two arguments. One is that both of these movies have reoccurring themes of women’s empowerment also success and the means to achieve it, another one is the argument why women should want to accomplish more than what society has said their ceiling is. These arguments and the evidences fit your general topic well.
In my mind, you have set yourself in an objective position to give your thinking. The quantity of the evidences you choose are appropriate. And they include lots of details. Some relation of them and the arguments you support were easy to be missed, just like the evidence that the female roles are intelligent in both movies. According to your article, it is the logical reason why they deserve to have chances to fight for their dream. That was what I didn’t realize during analyzing these films.
However, I also would like to give you some suggestion. Please allow me to begin in the part of the evidences. Although you have used mounts of powerful details to support your arguments, most of them are just listed contrastively. Making minutely description and analysis of one or two details will make your composition more vivid and more persuasive.
And, when it comes to the organization and coherence of your composition, I feel the paragraphs are too long without some transitional sentences and short paragraphs. It makes your readers have difficulties in understanding that you have begun talking about another argument immediately, such as the second and the third paragraph. Maybe you can turn the first sentence of the third paragraph into the one with transition part. Take example:
“Besides what have been mentioned above, I think there are very good appeals to logos in both movies.”
Apart from these, I suggest that you could also change the expressions or the sentence patterns of some sentences in order to make them easy to understand. Take example, we students of eastern culture usually don’t put the part that “no matter what they desired or strived for” in the middle of a sentence since it is not easy to understand directly. And some main sentences and their clauses don’t have commas between, which also make me have a bit of difficulties to understand what you want to expressed. Then, I hope you can think about whether you can add some transition sentence or paragraphs and change some sentence patterns into some patterns easier to understand in the next version.
You did very nice job! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Yours,
Zhen S.
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Matthew K.-K.
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:33 am
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Tong Wu
Thank you for the compliments. When I go to make revisions to my essay I will try to be more descriptive and explain more logic more in depth. I think in regards to feminism both movies make a good logical argument as to why these women should have more rights, and why they would pursue their dreams. I will try to explain that more in depth. Also the emotional attachment I felt when hearing these two plots. Finally I will address the lessons that the audience can learn.
Matt Koval
Thank you for the compliments. When I go to make revisions to my essay I will try to be more descriptive and explain more logic more in depth. I think in regards to feminism both movies make a good logical argument as to why these women should have more rights, and why they would pursue their dreams. I will try to explain that more in depth. Also the emotional attachment I felt when hearing these two plots. Finally I will address the lessons that the audience can learn.
Matt Koval
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Matthew K.-K.
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:33 am
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Zhen
Thank you for your feedback. I will restructure my essay when I make my changes so that the paragraphs are less dense, and try to make it more colloquial for the reader. In reference to my logical arguments I try to make my essay sound unbiased, because I try to be as objective as possible so that is why sometimes my arguments may sound like they contrast each other. I will try to emphasize that when I make my revisions as well.
Thank you for your feedback. I will restructure my essay when I make my changes so that the paragraphs are less dense, and try to make it more colloquial for the reader. In reference to my logical arguments I try to make my essay sound unbiased, because I try to be as objective as possible so that is why sometimes my arguments may sound like they contrast each other. I will try to emphasize that when I make my revisions as well.
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Matt
Thanks for giving me suggestion and your letters in reply. But I found out a point I am interested in. I noticed that both you and Kate pointed out my problems of the logic of writing. (The relationship of the examples and the analyses and The logic of the examples with analyses and the overall claim). In my memory, when I was in senior middle school, my English teachers usually focus on the structure, the rhetoric and the sentences patterns when correcting our compositions. Though they would also correct the logic, I thought they seemed pay more attention to the others. I wonder is the logic of writing a focal point of American writing education? And I think maybe it is a difference between American writing education and that in China.
Zhen
Thanks for giving me suggestion and your letters in reply. But I found out a point I am interested in. I noticed that both you and Kate pointed out my problems of the logic of writing. (The relationship of the examples and the analyses and The logic of the examples with analyses and the overall claim). In my memory, when I was in senior middle school, my English teachers usually focus on the structure, the rhetoric and the sentences patterns when correcting our compositions. Though they would also correct the logic, I thought they seemed pay more attention to the others. I wonder is the logic of writing a focal point of American writing education? And I think maybe it is a difference between American writing education and that in China.
Zhen
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Matthew K.-K.
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:33 am
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Zhen
I think it may be cultural thing. I remember when I was in middle school as well there was a big emphasis on structure as well. However, the deeper I got into my academic career I realized when you write its not enough to just focus on structure it is about being able to analyze and come to a conclusion. The the way you support your conclusion is with logical arguments. From my international friends I hear Americans are very strong minded and always have opinions. I think that is because of how we are taught growing up. We are encouraged to have thoughts and opinions but because everyone has different opinions you need to have good logical arguments to support them. Otherwise people will question you and no one will take them seriously. I hope that answers your question. If not let me know.
Matt
I think it may be cultural thing. I remember when I was in middle school as well there was a big emphasis on structure as well. However, the deeper I got into my academic career I realized when you write its not enough to just focus on structure it is about being able to analyze and come to a conclusion. The the way you support your conclusion is with logical arguments. From my international friends I hear Americans are very strong minded and always have opinions. I think that is because of how we are taught growing up. We are encouraged to have thoughts and opinions but because everyone has different opinions you need to have good logical arguments to support them. Otherwise people will question you and no one will take them seriously. I hope that answers your question. If not let me know.
Matt
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Matthew K.-K.
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:33 am
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
Mona Lisa Smile, and And The Spring Comes are two movies that try to depict what life was like from a women’s perspective in twentieth century America, and China. Mona Lisa Smile takes place in America when women were expected to be “stay at home moms.” Women no matter what they desired, or strived for were supposed to just submit to their husbands, and do what was in the best interest of their family. Even if that meant that they had to sacrifice their dreams, and ambitions. Meanwhile men were allowed to do whatever made them happy. And The Spring Comes takes place in China during the communist regime. Throughout this story there are several different artist from singers, dancers, to painters all of whom had dreams. All of them just wanted to pursue their dreams but because of the social norms of the country at the time what they did was looked down upon. So the artists of the movie are constantly feeling suppressed, and feeling like they are constantly misunderstood by society.
Throughout both of these movies there are reoccurring themes of women’s empowerment also success and the means to achieve it. Throughout both cultures during this time period women were not treated as equals and were seen as inferior to men. However, both movies have female characters who do not care about the social norms of the time. They are trying to rise above what society says their place is. In Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Roberts tries to push her students and tries to explain to them that just because they are women that does not mean that they cannot want more out of life. They are at one of the best colleges in the country, so they all have the tools to be successfully. Katherine Roberts is trying to push them, and give them the motivation to achieve the most out of their lives. Katherine Roberts embodies women’s empowerment.
In And the Spring Comes, Ms. Wang is an immensely talented singer. However, she is not beautiful. In fact, throughout the story she is called ugly several times. In society when people typically think of female entertainers they are beautiful, but because she is not beautiful no one wants to give her a chance even though she is extremely talented. Throughout the movie she does not let the fact that she is a women or that she is not beautiful stop her from pursuing her dream. Ms. Wang is constantly showing success and the means to achieve it.
In both movies I think there are very good appeals to logos. When thinking logically about the plot of these movies in Mona Lisa Smile the female students should want to be more than just housewives, because they have the qualifications too. They are all very intelligent women; that is something that is clearly displayed. These women are all attending Wellesley college one of the premiere colleges in the United States at the time. Some of the women may be even smarter then their husbands. Thus that is a great appeal for them logically for them to want to achieve, and strive for more. If you are someone who is very intelligent you should want to maximize your intelligence, and not let it go to waste. Similarly, in And The Spring Comes Ms. Wang is a phenomenal singer with a wonderful voice. So she should try to aspire to be a great singer. Being a great singer is something that you are born with. It is not something that you can develop you either have that skill or you do not. So if you are fortunate enough to have that talent a person should want to maximize your talent and not let it go to waste. Both of these movies make great logically arguments as to why these women should want to accomplish more than what society has said their ceiling is.
Both stories in my opinion make a great appeal to pathos as well. Watching both of these two stories I could not help but gain an emotional attachment to the main charterers. One starts to empathize with both of them because you realize that in both stories none of the main charterers have done anything wrong. Just because of the societal norms of the time they are not allowed to focus, or pursue their dreams. I think that is something that any audience can relate to. Especially in the United States people tend to cheer for the “underdog” and in both of these stories the main characters are “underdogs.” That is why there is such a strong emotional attachment.
Finally I think the ethos or the audience of this story is anyone. Anyone could learn a valuable lesson from this story. If you are someone who has been discriminated against for any reason in life you can use these stories as motivation to not give up. Everyone in life goes through their own journey. Sometimes that makes it hard for other people to understand a person’s actions. Usually when people do not fully understand something that is when they start to discriminate which is a theme that happened in this movie. So if you are someone who has been made fun of, discriminated against, or told that you were never good enough watching these movies could give a person another lens to look through, and provide motivation to not give up and persevere. Or if you are someone who is on the other side of the spectrum, and does discriminate against other people then these two movies show the negative affects that discrimination has on a person. This shows the affect that words, and actions especially words of hate can have on a person. It shows that they those words can leave lasting impressions on people.
Mona Lisa Smile, and And The Spring Comes are two movies that try to depict what life was like from a women’s perspective in twentieth century America, and China. Mona Lisa Smile takes place in America when women were expected to be “stay at home moms.” Women no matter what they desired, or strived for were supposed to just submit to their husbands, and do what was in the best interest of their family. Even if that meant that they had to sacrifice their dreams, and ambitions. Meanwhile men were allowed to do whatever made them happy. And The Spring Comes takes place in China during the communist regime. Throughout this story there are several different artist from singers, dancers, to painters all of whom had dreams. All of them just wanted to pursue their dreams but because of the social norms of the country at the time what they did was looked down upon. So the artists of the movie are constantly feeling suppressed, and feeling like they are constantly misunderstood by society.
Throughout both of these movies there are reoccurring themes of women’s empowerment also success and the means to achieve it. Throughout both cultures during this time period women were not treated as equals and were seen as inferior to men. However, both movies have female characters who do not care about the social norms of the time. They are trying to rise above what society says their place is. In Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Roberts tries to push her students and tries to explain to them that just because they are women that does not mean that they cannot want more out of life. They are at one of the best colleges in the country, so they all have the tools to be successfully. Katherine Roberts is trying to push them, and give them the motivation to achieve the most out of their lives. Katherine Roberts embodies women’s empowerment.
In And the Spring Comes, Ms. Wang is an immensely talented singer. However, she is not beautiful. In fact, throughout the story she is called ugly several times. In society when people typically think of female entertainers they are beautiful, but because she is not beautiful no one wants to give her a chance even though she is extremely talented. Throughout the movie she does not let the fact that she is a women or that she is not beautiful stop her from pursuing her dream. Ms. Wang is constantly showing success and the means to achieve it.
In both movies I think there are very good appeals to logos. When thinking logically about the plot of these movies in Mona Lisa Smile the female students should want to be more than just housewives, because they have the qualifications too. They are all very intelligent women; that is something that is clearly displayed. These women are all attending Wellesley college one of the premiere colleges in the United States at the time. Some of the women may be even smarter then their husbands. Thus that is a great appeal for them logically for them to want to achieve, and strive for more. If you are someone who is very intelligent you should want to maximize your intelligence, and not let it go to waste. Similarly, in And The Spring Comes Ms. Wang is a phenomenal singer with a wonderful voice. So she should try to aspire to be a great singer. Being a great singer is something that you are born with. It is not something that you can develop you either have that skill or you do not. So if you are fortunate enough to have that talent a person should want to maximize your talent and not let it go to waste. Both of these movies make great logically arguments as to why these women should want to accomplish more than what society has said their ceiling is.
Both stories in my opinion make a great appeal to pathos as well. Watching both of these two stories I could not help but gain an emotional attachment to the main charterers. One starts to empathize with both of them because you realize that in both stories none of the main charterers have done anything wrong. Just because of the societal norms of the time they are not allowed to focus, or pursue their dreams. I think that is something that any audience can relate to. Especially in the United States people tend to cheer for the “underdog” and in both of these stories the main characters are “underdogs.” That is why there is such a strong emotional attachment.
Finally I think the ethos or the audience of this story is anyone. Anyone could learn a valuable lesson from this story. If you are someone who has been discriminated against for any reason in life you can use these stories as motivation to not give up. Everyone in life goes through their own journey. Sometimes that makes it hard for other people to understand a person’s actions. Usually when people do not fully understand something that is when they start to discriminate which is a theme that happened in this movie. So if you are someone who has been made fun of, discriminated against, or told that you were never good enough watching these movies could give a person another lens to look through, and provide motivation to not give up and persevere. Or if you are someone who is on the other side of the spectrum, and does discriminate against other people then these two movies show the negative affects that discrimination has on a person. This shows the affect that words, and actions especially words of hate can have on a person. It shows that they those words can leave lasting impressions on people.
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Matthew K.-K.
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:33 am
Re: Women’s Rights and the Pursuit of Happiness
1. My expectation of this assignment was to be able to see these two movies from an eastern perspective, and understand how these two movies are seen in the eastern culture. Growing up in America and having a chance to interact with people from other countries I understand that people can see the same situation differently then myself. This assignment did meet my expectations because I got to see the different writing and analytical skills of Chinese students learning English as their second language.
2. One thing that struck me was the difference in writing styles. Growing up in the United States I have been learning one way to write in English my entire life. So seeing a different writing style was different for me. A second thing was some of the similar interpretations or analysis of the movie. I thought since we were coming from two different cultures that maybe we would see things in a different way but that was not the case. The final thing was the similarities in culture conversation. After seeing some of the post that the Chinese students made, seeing their videos, and their faces it makes you realize that we really are all the same even though we are from different countries.
3. Yes I made many changes to my essay. I tried to break up some of my paragraphs because if they really are too dense I want to make my essay as smooth as possible for the audience to read. In my original essay I had 3 paragraphs and in my revised version I had 6. I also tried to explain more in depth my appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos. I was told that they were hard to comprehend, because I did not go enough in depth in my explanation. The goal of writing is to be able to communicate effectively. So I tried to make changes so that it could be better understood.
4. Yes I do believe that I learned new skills during this activity. I believe this activity made me more open minded and showed me that I need to start to look at things from other perspectives. Also I need to better understand that there are more than just one way of doing things, and just because something is different that does not mean it is wrong. So I think that is a valuable skill that I learned from this activity
7. Exciting, I was excited about doing this project since I first heard about it in the beginning of the semester. I have never done an activity like this before and thought it would be exciting to work with students from China especially because I am a Chinese minor. Fun, I always enjoy the chance to see things from other people’s perspectives and especially when people criticize you. I believe it is a great way to improve and learn new things so I enjoyed that. Surprising, I thought the activity would have been a little different. It would have been nice to engage with the Chinese students in a different way as well. Maybe talk to them before we started the activity and get to know them before hand, or maybe in class a chance to video chat just to make it more personal.
8. Overall I enjoyed the activity and learned a lot! If you could find a way to have notifications when someone responds that would be extremely helpful because days would go by and I would not reply because I was not aware that someone had replied to what I commented.
2. One thing that struck me was the difference in writing styles. Growing up in the United States I have been learning one way to write in English my entire life. So seeing a different writing style was different for me. A second thing was some of the similar interpretations or analysis of the movie. I thought since we were coming from two different cultures that maybe we would see things in a different way but that was not the case. The final thing was the similarities in culture conversation. After seeing some of the post that the Chinese students made, seeing their videos, and their faces it makes you realize that we really are all the same even though we are from different countries.
3. Yes I made many changes to my essay. I tried to break up some of my paragraphs because if they really are too dense I want to make my essay as smooth as possible for the audience to read. In my original essay I had 3 paragraphs and in my revised version I had 6. I also tried to explain more in depth my appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos. I was told that they were hard to comprehend, because I did not go enough in depth in my explanation. The goal of writing is to be able to communicate effectively. So I tried to make changes so that it could be better understood.
4. Yes I do believe that I learned new skills during this activity. I believe this activity made me more open minded and showed me that I need to start to look at things from other perspectives. Also I need to better understand that there are more than just one way of doing things, and just because something is different that does not mean it is wrong. So I think that is a valuable skill that I learned from this activity
7. Exciting, I was excited about doing this project since I first heard about it in the beginning of the semester. I have never done an activity like this before and thought it would be exciting to work with students from China especially because I am a Chinese minor. Fun, I always enjoy the chance to see things from other people’s perspectives and especially when people criticize you. I believe it is a great way to improve and learn new things so I enjoyed that. Surprising, I thought the activity would have been a little different. It would have been nice to engage with the Chinese students in a different way as well. Maybe talk to them before we started the activity and get to know them before hand, or maybe in class a chance to video chat just to make it more personal.
8. Overall I enjoyed the activity and learned a lot! If you could find a way to have notifications when someone responds that would be extremely helpful because days would go by and I would not reply because I was not aware that someone had replied to what I commented.