Cultural Essay
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:48 pm
Alexander Alomar
Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes are both movies centered around a female protagonist trying to fulfill their dream after moving to a new state or country. The difference between the movies stem in the themes and cultures of what these two protagonists experience. Katherine Ann Watson, the lead protagonist of Mona Lisa Smile, starts her new job as a professor in an all-female Wellesley College. Though in doing so, she finds that the students she teaches all closely follow the traditions of getting married and living the rest of their lives as housewives. Watson, not agreeing with this tradition, tries to encourage these students to break these traditions and use their education to seek out better lives for themselves.
Wang Cai Ling, the leading protagonist of And the Spring Comes is a professor seeking out her dream job of becoming an opera singer in Beijing. However, in trying to fulfill her dream, she is ultimately rejected and seeks out something else to do with her life. In the meantime, Cai Ling is not married and is constantly finding men in her life but no luck in forming a relationship. In terms of culture, Watson is encouraging other women to avoid the common tradition while Cai Ling is haunted by it.
Cai Ling is often reminded that she should get married at her age, but she never finds the right man. The only one in the movie that she fell for didn’t see her the same way, and the other men who wanted to marry her were only thinking of themselves. She mentions the idea of just living life by herself, but it’s constantly seen as a negative that she isn’t married. The Chinese culture of the movie is centralized on the woman being married at a certain age, and how not having a husband can be detrimental. It is to the point that Cai Ling’s friend who practices ballet wanted to marry her strictly to improve both their status among society.
Meanwhile, Watson is a woman who isn’t yet married, and while other characters see that as a negative, she does not. Many of her relationships are ones she’s broken away from simply because she does not feel ready to be in that level of commitment. It doesn’t affect her social status nearly as much, and she’s able to have a life of her own as a professor. In fact, a lot of conflict arrives in trying to get one of her students, Joan, to follow her dream of becoming a lawyer instead of being a stay at home wife.
In terms of logos, both main characters are teachers and their students respond to them in different ways. Cai Ling’s students often seek her out to help them fulfill her dreams. It began with the artist in the beginning who went with her to Beijing to chase his goal, and then ended with an aspiring opera singer lying to Cai Ling to get her to teach her for the competition in Beijing. Her students see her knowledge as valuable so they do what they can to get her to share said knowledge with them. Sometimes it’s through tricking or lying to her, but there is some value to her talent that motivates them to go that far to learn from her.
Watson’s career is centered on teaching, and her students tend to not listen to her. At the beginning of the movie, she found that the students had already studied everything on the syllabus and realized she couldn’t teach them unless she went beyond what the syllabus said. She tried to convince Joan to follow her dream as a lawyer but she ultimately ignored that encouragement to be a housewife. Similarly, she doesn’t find Betty’s honeymoon to be an excuse for avoiding class, and she is blamed for attacking their tradition.
In terms of tradition, Mona Lisa Smile tries to subvert the expectations of women in that time, focusing on the idea of life still being fulfilling without the need to fulfill a man’s desires. And the Spring Comes holds tradition in which Cai Ling struggles with the fact that she is an older woman who hasn’t married and how that affects her status among society. In terms of logos, Cai Ling has knowledge and talent that is constantly sought out by others trying to achieve her dreams, while Katherine’s knowledge and message are constantly ignored by her students who continue to fall victim to general expectations of them.
One key commentary that both films agree on is that society shuns the concept of an older woman living her life without a husband. The pressure of marriage hangs over the heads of Cai Ling and Watson, but in the end the two don’t give into marrying for the sake of marrying, and would rather carry on by themselves waiting for the right man even if that man never arrives. However, the different perspectives on marriage between eastern and western culture exist in how it is handled.
Watson teaches in a world where women are expected to marry but she isn’t pressured to marry nor is devalued for not doing so to the extent of Cai Ling. In the case of the ballet dancer, he wanted to marry Cai Ling simply to help them both rise in social status. Western culture perceives the woman as belonging to a man, so the standard is that their end goal should be to marry and have children as it is the extent of their purpose. In eastern culture, the marriage between a man and a woman is simply the standard once they’ve grown older. The idea of not starting a family is considered a failure in both genders, as opposed to an anomaly in just one. And it seems more likely that people in the east will get married even if they don’t love each other just to make themselves look better.
Marriage perceived by the west is a lifestyle and one that women are limited to, while it’s a symbol in the east that let’s society believe you are successful. Though this stands as a commentary of all that is wrong with society, as both movies explore. And the conclusion that both films come to is that women can enjoy life on their own and work towards a better future without the need of a husband.
Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes are both movies centered around a female protagonist trying to fulfill their dream after moving to a new state or country. The difference between the movies stem in the themes and cultures of what these two protagonists experience. Katherine Ann Watson, the lead protagonist of Mona Lisa Smile, starts her new job as a professor in an all-female Wellesley College. Though in doing so, she finds that the students she teaches all closely follow the traditions of getting married and living the rest of their lives as housewives. Watson, not agreeing with this tradition, tries to encourage these students to break these traditions and use their education to seek out better lives for themselves.
Wang Cai Ling, the leading protagonist of And the Spring Comes is a professor seeking out her dream job of becoming an opera singer in Beijing. However, in trying to fulfill her dream, she is ultimately rejected and seeks out something else to do with her life. In the meantime, Cai Ling is not married and is constantly finding men in her life but no luck in forming a relationship. In terms of culture, Watson is encouraging other women to avoid the common tradition while Cai Ling is haunted by it.
Cai Ling is often reminded that she should get married at her age, but she never finds the right man. The only one in the movie that she fell for didn’t see her the same way, and the other men who wanted to marry her were only thinking of themselves. She mentions the idea of just living life by herself, but it’s constantly seen as a negative that she isn’t married. The Chinese culture of the movie is centralized on the woman being married at a certain age, and how not having a husband can be detrimental. It is to the point that Cai Ling’s friend who practices ballet wanted to marry her strictly to improve both their status among society.
Meanwhile, Watson is a woman who isn’t yet married, and while other characters see that as a negative, she does not. Many of her relationships are ones she’s broken away from simply because she does not feel ready to be in that level of commitment. It doesn’t affect her social status nearly as much, and she’s able to have a life of her own as a professor. In fact, a lot of conflict arrives in trying to get one of her students, Joan, to follow her dream of becoming a lawyer instead of being a stay at home wife.
In terms of logos, both main characters are teachers and their students respond to them in different ways. Cai Ling’s students often seek her out to help them fulfill her dreams. It began with the artist in the beginning who went with her to Beijing to chase his goal, and then ended with an aspiring opera singer lying to Cai Ling to get her to teach her for the competition in Beijing. Her students see her knowledge as valuable so they do what they can to get her to share said knowledge with them. Sometimes it’s through tricking or lying to her, but there is some value to her talent that motivates them to go that far to learn from her.
Watson’s career is centered on teaching, and her students tend to not listen to her. At the beginning of the movie, she found that the students had already studied everything on the syllabus and realized she couldn’t teach them unless she went beyond what the syllabus said. She tried to convince Joan to follow her dream as a lawyer but she ultimately ignored that encouragement to be a housewife. Similarly, she doesn’t find Betty’s honeymoon to be an excuse for avoiding class, and she is blamed for attacking their tradition.
In terms of tradition, Mona Lisa Smile tries to subvert the expectations of women in that time, focusing on the idea of life still being fulfilling without the need to fulfill a man’s desires. And the Spring Comes holds tradition in which Cai Ling struggles with the fact that she is an older woman who hasn’t married and how that affects her status among society. In terms of logos, Cai Ling has knowledge and talent that is constantly sought out by others trying to achieve her dreams, while Katherine’s knowledge and message are constantly ignored by her students who continue to fall victim to general expectations of them.
One key commentary that both films agree on is that society shuns the concept of an older woman living her life without a husband. The pressure of marriage hangs over the heads of Cai Ling and Watson, but in the end the two don’t give into marrying for the sake of marrying, and would rather carry on by themselves waiting for the right man even if that man never arrives. However, the different perspectives on marriage between eastern and western culture exist in how it is handled.
Watson teaches in a world where women are expected to marry but she isn’t pressured to marry nor is devalued for not doing so to the extent of Cai Ling. In the case of the ballet dancer, he wanted to marry Cai Ling simply to help them both rise in social status. Western culture perceives the woman as belonging to a man, so the standard is that their end goal should be to marry and have children as it is the extent of their purpose. In eastern culture, the marriage between a man and a woman is simply the standard once they’ve grown older. The idea of not starting a family is considered a failure in both genders, as opposed to an anomaly in just one. And it seems more likely that people in the east will get married even if they don’t love each other just to make themselves look better.
Marriage perceived by the west is a lifestyle and one that women are limited to, while it’s a symbol in the east that let’s society believe you are successful. Though this stands as a commentary of all that is wrong with society, as both movies explore. And the conclusion that both films come to is that women can enjoy life on their own and work towards a better future without the need of a husband.