Cultural Analysis

[jbb5635]

Joe Brili

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile’s protagonists both strive to define themselves in spite of their culture’s expectations of them in order to be personally satisfied with their lives. In And The Spring Comes Cai-ling Wang wants to become an opera singer, but her profession expects beauty and being “normal”. For Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Watson is expected to adhere to Wellesley’s 1950s American tradition of teaching women in becoming loyal wives or else she loses her job. Although the two films are difficult in culture, they are unified in advocating their audiences to not make choices based on society’s expectations, but instead to choose who they want to be and how they want to be their desired profession.

In And the Spring Comes, Cai-ling Wang wants to become an opera singer in Beijing despite her unattractive looks. Ms. Wang does not view her looks as an obstacle; rather, she places significant value in her voice, hoping that people would look past her physical features and instead focus on her singing. Although she is confident in her voice, her understanding of people expecting opera singers to be gorgeous and “normal” proves to be a challenge for her. This challenge is shown when Ms. Wang chooses to sing as part of a talent show in front of a crowd. She attempts to persuade the crowd of her talent by having makeup and wearing a fancy dress in order to convince people of her talents. In this scene, she is conforming to the ideal representation of an opera singer. But her plan does not work. The crowd gets bored and eventually leaves her alone, but she stills sings. Despite trying to emulate the image of a typical opera singer, Ms. Wang fails in getting the attention of her crowd. But her decision to still sing shows how she is focusing on her singing talents, making sure that she is doing something that will make her happy. She learns her lesson later in the film when Hu, the dance teacher, wants to marry her in order for people to stop thinking he is strange. Hu mirrors Ms. Wang in that they both want to excel in their dreams, however, Ms. Wang refuses his marriage proposal. Her refusal shows how she has accepted herself as a “strange” person, and instead of finding an easy way out of her dilemma, she instead emphasizes that part of her character. By the end of the film, she decided to adopt a kid, an action that may seem irrational, but for her, she sees it as the perfect step in making her happy. By having a kid to look after, she is able to pass onto him her ideals of being herself, regardless if people accept it or not. As such, Cai-ling’s character has many similarities with Katherine Watson in Mona Lisa Smile.

Much like Cai-ling, Katherine Watson has a passion not only for the arts but for defying expectations and wanting to think for herself. She accepts a teaching position at Wellesley, and, after seeing that her students are being taught to accept a life of a typical housewife in the 1950s, she strives to show them that there are more pathways in life than the safe and expected one. Her teaching method is shown when she takes her students to a warehouse and shows them a modernist painting. She tells her students that there won’t be an exam, and “to consider it”. In this sequence, Ms. Watson is showing her students that art is not about one, defined interpretation as seen in the film’s beginning when the students simply memorized the textbook. She wants to show her students that art is one’s own unique interpretations. But as she teaches in a school that prides itself on tradition, she is eventually lambasted by the school’s seemingly only editorial writer, Betty, who critiques Ms. Watson for disrespecting the school’s tradition. The next day, Ms. Watson dedicates her class to showing slides of advertisements that depict women performing tasks expected of them. These advertisements show women cleaning the house and taking care of their man, but all the while they are shown studying. Ms. Watson’s argument is that these advertisements are telling women that they are expected to be good housewives who are also well educated. This scene shows that Ms. Watson wants her students to not become the stereotypical wife, nor follow the school’s creed of being a wife and an undergraduate mindlessly, but to choose a life that makes them happy. The result of Ms. Watson’s teaching shows with Joan’s character. At the beginning of the film, Ms. Watson pushes Joan to apply to Yale Law School, telling her that being a lawyer is much better than graduating from school and only being a housewife. By the end of the film, Joan decides on not going to law school and staying with her husband. At first, Ms. Watson is upset, but then Joan describes that she made the decision of not attending on her own and that she will feel happier by supporting her husband. As such, Ms. Watson impacts Joan’s life in a positive way, with Joan making her own decision that is not influenced by America’s traditions of being housewives. While the film ends with Ms. Watson leaving Wellesley, her students follow her taxi, showing that they will never forget her impact on their lives. Thus, Mona Lisa Smile’s ending mirrors And the Spring Comes in that both characters stick to their beliefs, and in doing so, they are able to leave behind an impact for future generations to consider.

Ultimately, both And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa’s Smile shares a similar main character who constantly fights against their world’s definition of correct and does not conform to society’s expectations. Despite trying to change the world to conform to their views, they come to understand that eliminating tradition is impossible; however, they do not have to conform to tradition. Instead, they can live out their best lives that make them happy. Ms. Wang adopts a kid and enjoys working for her child’s sake and Ms. Watson leaves Wellesley on a high note, with her students chasing after her taxi because they are moved by her teaching method and will not forget her impact on them. As such, the two movies show that the best way forward in life is by following one’s heart.

[1595877752]

At the beginning, the author indicates the theme through brief introduction, which we should not make choices based on society’s expectations, but instead to choose who we want to be and how we want to be their desired profession. And then, based on the detailed plots, the author minutely expounds the similarities and differences; by analyzing characters, the author grabs the characteristics and their ways to persue success.
The whole passage is succint and clear, which is easy to understand. Moreover, the author underlines the standpoint that we should live out their best lives that make them happy. Although the reality may suck, we should find our own lives.

[1343749697]

Dear Joe
After reading your article, I think you also must be a person who follows your heart and loves freedom, just like the protagonists of these two movies. I actually agree with you that the best way forward in life is by following one's heart, only by this way can we keep our youth forever. You are very careful to compare the two films and find out their similarities. In my opinion, your article is an excellent work since it is well-founded and well-organized.
I agree with most of the points in your article, however, as a chinese student, I still have something different in my opinion . In your article you said that "Her refusal shows how she has accepted herself as a “strange” person " but in the film Cailin Wang said to the man that she was more common than him and she was in much better position than him which indicate that she may realize that she is strange in other's eyes but that does not mean she admit and accept she is a strange person. Through the film we can feel that she was confident about her voice and valued herself. What's more, you said that "both characters stick to their beliefs, and in doing so, they are able to leave behind an impact for future generations to consider" but we argue that what Cailin Wang's ending brings us more is a kind of sadness. In the end, finally gave up her dream and yield to the cruel reality. She no longer dreamt of going to Beijing and becoming a female singer but adopted a child alone and finally returned to the ordinary life with her dream buried in her heart forever. She indeed reconcile with life and she can really smile when she stand in Beijing but at the cost of sacrifice her dream. So that's why we argue she didn't stick to her belief, let alone leave behind social pressure.
That's all I want to say. We're looking forward to hearing from you again soon!

[jbb5635]

Dear Zhou,

Thank you for your kind words about my writing, I was moved by it and I'd imagine you are also somebody who follows their heart as well. Your question about my point regarding Cailing' Wang having a happy ending is a great discussion question, and you make a valid point. After all, she does not achieve her dream and seemingly stays as a Butcher. But I have to argue that this is not necessarily a bad ending for her. For starters, even until the very end of the movie, she does not allow herself to be controlled by anybody else. She refused Hu's marriage proposal, adopts a kid out of her own free will, and now she can encourage her kid to follow her heart as much as Cailing followed hers. I think the ending's purpose is to show that the world can be a cruel place and that not all of our dreams may be possible to obtain. However, the movie does not say that we should not follow them; Instead, we should strive to make our dreams into reality, even if they seem silly and foolhardy. For Cailing, what matters is that she tried, instead of giving up early on. As a result, she seems happy at the end of the movie because she tried did everything in her power to achieve her dream, and now that she has a kid, she cannot as easily pursue that dream. I suppose in that sense, she sacrifices her dream in order to raise her kid. I like to believe that she will raise her kid to pursue her dreams no matter what and that her kid may potentially succeed where Cailing failed. Thank you for the question and I look forward to your response! I hope you have a great rest of your day!

[jbb5635]

Dear Fei,

I am happy that you enjoyed reading my writing. The one that I focus on when writing is that it is at least enjoyable to read, even if the audience may disagree with my point. Admittedly, I was surprised to see that you described how life is full of struggles but that should not stop us from trying our hardest to achieve our dreams since I did not realize that my last paragraph was filled with my own feelings about the messages of both movies.

I noticed in your paper how you concluded by saying that we should always strive to reach our dreams, and when my professor in class mentioned that essays in China end with a broad statement about life, I understood more why you ended it that way and I really like it. From my experience, I was always taught to not write my personal bias into the paper since my argument shou8ld convey what I feel anyway. So I try to be somewhat objective, but I am glad that you caught how my ending showed a bit of personal opinion from myself. It definitely adds a unique touch to one's writing, which also benefitted your analysis as well. Thanks for your input and I hope we can talk soon!

[1343749697]

Dear Zhou,

Thank you for your kind words about my writing, I was moved by it and I'd imagine you are also somebody who follows their heart as well. Your question about my point regarding Cailing' Wang having a happy ending is a great discussion question, and you make a valid point. After all, she does not achieve her dream and seemingly stays as a Butcher. But I have to argue that this is not necessarily a bad ending for her. For starters, even until the very end of the movie, she does not allow herself to be controlled by anybody else. She refused Hu's marriage proposal, adopts a kid out of her own free will, and now she can encourage her kid to follow her heart as much as Cailing followed hers. I think the ending's purpose is to show that the world can be a cruel place and that not all of our dreams may be possible to obtain. However, the movie does not say that we should not follow them; Instead, we should strive to make our dreams into reality, even if they seem silly and foolhardy. For Cailing, what matters is that she tried, instead of giving up early on. As a result, she seems happy at the end of the movie because she tried did everything in her power to achieve her dream, and now that she has a kid, she cannot as easily pursue that dream. I suppose in that sense, she sacrifices her dream in order to raise her kid. I like to believe that she will raise her kid to pursue her dreams no matter what and that her kid may potentially succeed where Cailing failed. Thank you for the question and I look forward to your response! I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Dear Joe,

Thank you for answering my questions patiently and explaining your own understanding about the end of Cailing Wang. I bet your explanations can help me a lot to understand the film better and find something that I didn't find at the begining. I agree with your opinion that the two movies show us we should strive to make our dreams to reality but I argue that what And the Spring come want to show us is not limited to this. Just as you said the end of Cailing wang may not be a bad ending, but it is not a happy ending at least to me. In the movie she was strange to others and never be understood.It was her years of dreams that supported her to the present but in the end she finally gave up her dream and chose to become a common person in other's eyes. The way she assimilated herself to the society is burying her dream, hiding her peculiarity which indicate how the social at that time influenced people, espically women. So I argue that the movie not only shows us the awakening of feminist consciousness but also show us how the culture, the society influence our folks.Both of the movies were emphasized the power of women, however, comparing with two of them, we may found that women in our country at that time may not as brave as those in western country which may be caused by cultural background, traditional conscious and so on and that is worth for us exploring. That's all what I want to say, thank you for your response and hope you have a great rest of your day too!

[1595877752]

Dear Fei,

I am happy that you enjoyed reading my writing. The one that I focus on when writing is that it is at least enjoyable to read, even if the audience may disagree with my point. Admittedly, I was surprised to see that you described how life is full of struggles but that should not stop us from trying our hardest to achieve our dreams since I did not realize that my last paragraph was filled with my own feelings about the messages of both movies.

I noticed in your paper how you concluded by saying that we should always strive to reach our dreams, and when my professor in class mentioned that essays in China end with a broad statement about life, I understood more why you ended it that way and I really like it. From my experience, I was always taught to not write my personal bias into the paper since my argument shou8ld convey what I feel anyway. So I try to be somewhat objective, but I am glad that you caught how my ending showed a bit of personal opinion from myself. It definitely adds a unique touch to one's writing, which also benefitted your analysis as well. Thanks for your input and I hope we can talk soon!

Dear joe,
Of course I like your writing. You are right that we should convey what we feel truly. Although we are not saints, we deserve the rights to express our minds in articles. I think the movies should be aimed at encouraging ourselves to persue the dreams. Like you said, life is full of struggles but that should not stop us from trying our hardest to achieve our dreams. We ought to perceive the implication of the movies, so that we can do better in daily life.

[jbb5635]

Revised Cultural Analysis

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile’s protagonists both strive to define themselves in spite of their culture’s expectations of them in order to be personally satisfied with their lives. In And The Spring Comes Cai-ling Wang wants to become an opera singer, but her profession expects beauty and being “normal”. For Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Watson is expected to adhere to Wellesley’s 1950s American tradition of teaching women in becoming loyal wives or else she loses her job. Although the two films are difficult in culture, they are unified in advocating their audiences to not make choices based on society’s expectations, but instead to choose who they want to be and how they want to be their desired profession.

In And the Spring Comes, Cai-ling Wang wants to become an opera singer in Beijing despite her unattractive looks. Ms. Wang does not view her looks as an obstacle; rather, she places significant value in her voice, hoping that people would look past her physical features and instead focus on her singing. Although she is confident in her voice, her understanding of people expecting opera singers to be gorgeous and “normal” proves to be a challenge for her. This challenge is shown when Ms. Wang chooses to sing as part of a talent show in front of a crowd. She attempts to persuade the crowd of her talent by having makeup and wearing a fancy dress in order to convince people of her talents. In this scene, she is conforming to the ideal representation of an opera singer. But her plan does not work. The crowd gets bored and eventually leaves her alone, but she stills sings. Despite trying to emulate the image of a typical opera singer, Ms. Wang fails in getting the attention of her crowd. But her decision to still sing shows how she is focusing on her singing talents, making sure that she is doing something that will make her happy. She learns her lesson later in the film when Hu, the dance teacher, wants to marry her in order for people to stop thinking he is strange. Hu mirrors Ms. Wang in that they both want to excel in their dreams, however, Ms. Wang refuses his marriage proposal. She does not want to rely on anybody else in order to achieve her dream. In doing so, she eventually fails in becoming an opera singer, but instead of being beaten by society, Ms. Wang decides to adopt a kid in order to provide herself happiness. While the film ends with Ms. Wang as a butcher and not an opera singer, she is able to remain true to herself by not relying on other people for success, such as accepting Hu’s marriage proposal, now she has a little one to look after. Ms. Wang understood that her dream was not realistic, and decides to teach her daughter how to become a strong individual. As such, Cai-ling’s character has many similarities with Katherine Watson in Mona Lisa Smile.

Much like Cai-ling, Katherine Watson has a passion not only for the arts but for defying expectations and wanting to think for herself. She accepts a teaching position at Wellesley, and, after seeing that her students are being taught to accept a life of a typical housewife in the 1950s, she strives to show them that there are more pathways in life than the safe and expected one. Her teaching method is shown when she takes her students to a warehouse and shows them a modernist painting. She tells her students that there won’t be an exam, and “to consider it”. In this sequence, Ms. Watson is showing her students that art is not about one, defined interpretation as seen in the film’s beginning when the students simply memorized the textbook. She wants to show her students that art is one’s own unique interpretations. But as she teaches in a school that prides itself on tradition, she is eventually lambasted by the school’s seemingly only editorial writer, Betty, who critiques Ms. Watson for disrespecting the school’s tradition. The next day, Ms. Watson dedicates her class to showing slides of advertisements that depict women performing tasks expected of them. These advertisements show women cleaning the house and taking care of their man, but all the while they are shown studying. Ms. Watson’s argument is that these advertisements are telling women that they are expected to be good housewives who are also well educated. This scene shows that Ms. Watson wants her students to not become the stereotypical wife, nor follow the school’s creed of being a wife and an undergraduate mindlessly, but to choose a life that makes them happy. The result of Ms. Watson’s teaching shows with Joan’s character. At the beginning of the film, Ms. Watson pushes Joan to apply to Yale Law School, telling her that being a lawyer is much better than graduating from school and only being a housewife. By the end of the film, Joan decides on not going to law school and staying with her husband. At first, Ms. Watson is upset, but then Joan describes that she made the decision of not attending on her own and that she will feel happier by supporting her husband. As such, Ms. Watson impacts Joan’s life in a positive way, with Joan making her own decision that is not influenced by America’s traditions of being housewives. While the film ends with Ms. Watson leaving Wellesley, her students follow her taxi, showing that they will never forget her impact on their lives. Thus, Mona Lisa Smile’s ending mirrors And the Spring Comes in that both characters stick to their beliefs, and in doing so, they are able to leave behind an impact for future generations to consider.

Ultimately, both And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile share a similar main character who constantly fights against their world’s definition of correct and does not conform to society’s expectations. Despite trying to change the world to conform to their views, they come to understand that eliminating tradition is impossible; however, they do not have to conform to tradition. Instead, they can live out their best lives that make them happy. Ms. Wang adopts a kid and enjoys working for her child’s sake and Ms. Watson leaves Wellesley on a high note, with her students chasing after her taxi because they are moved by her teaching method and will not forget her impact on them. Despite both films taking place in different cultures, both main characters are depicted as facing similar struggles, thus showing that people are facing similar conflicts all around the world. In this sense, it is comforting to know that one is not alone in their struggles with success. As such, the two movies show that the best way forward in life is by following one’s heart.

[jbb5635]

1)Going into the border-crossing activity, I expected to see comments that focused on our essays’ grammatical structure more so than the content. For some reason, it never occurred to me that my group would talk about the content of the writing. It seemed natural that we would learn from our writing. So while my other group members touched upon grammar, they also focused heavily on the content portion of my paper. The activity exceeded my expectations because I was able to have conversations about our differing viewpoints about And the Spring Comes ending, which made me learn how I observe movies from my narrow-minded perspective as an American. The discussions allowed me to revisit my analysis of the ending and think more about it, resulting in adding more to my thoughts and learning a little more about the film’s character as a result.

2) The first thing that struck me was how Fei’s essay discussed the cultural period in Mona Lisa Smile. She described the Industrial Revolution as being a key part in impacting how Katherine Watson’s character wanted to differentiate herself from everybody else. Of course, the Industrial Revolution happened a hundred years before the film’s events, but at the same time, I can understand why they would use the period. The film’s premise shows how automation has taken over American society, and specifically, the role women play in automation, even though their role was relegated to them being married to a man. I appreciated Fei connecting the film to a historical point of reference since it allowed her to understand the characters more as a result. The second thing is how both of the Chinese essays are straightforward with their feelings about the films. As I discussed in class, I was taught to write from an objective standpoint, but of course, that’s impossible to do. Writing anything will always inherently include one’s bias about the topic. But while I try to conceal it, my group members embraced their opinions as part of the analysis. Their analysis became all the better for it as a result. If there is anything that I take away from this experience, it will be my group members’ honesty in their writing. And the third thing would be the disagreements I had with my members. At first, I did not think that my analysis was wrong, per se, but Fei argued against my point about Cai-ling’s fate being a happy end. However, she still respected my writing and opinion. So in our conversation about the ending, I respected her writing as well. I think it turned out well for both of us, resulting in a productive conversation that I am sure she enjoyed as much I did.

3) For my revision, I incorporated my discussion with Fei about the ending of And the Spring Comes. I changed my analysis by emphasizing that she rejected Hu’s offer not because she accepted herself as a strange person, but because she does not want to rely on another man to help her succeed in life. This change came about because of Fei’s opinion that Cai-ling was not being strange, but that she was confident in her voice and did not need Hu’s help to improve her chances at becoming a singer when she wants to show that world that she can do it herself. And I agreed with her argument and changed my paper to reflect her comments. Her discussion made me realize that both films are about women who are striving to make the most out of their lives on their own terms, rather than rely on somebody else. I still think that And the Spring Comes has a happy ending, but now I think the ending is satisfactory because Cai-ling chose the life she wants to lead and did not become an opera singer due to somebody else backing her.

4) The activity helped me understand how to argue with somebody whose opinion differed from mine. It allowed me to command a respectful tone in my writing, and respond to their points by crediting their skill in crafting the argument and providing further reasoning as to why I think the way I do. It also helped that I argued with somebody from a different country entirely, which made the exchange and conversation that much better.

7) The three adjectives I would use to describe the activity would be relieved, happy, and thankful. I say relieved since discussing with Chinese students about the films was an easy and simple process, made better with my group members being eager to discuss their feelings about any questions I had about their paper. For happy, it was a good time to talk to them about their writing in general. This past year, my experiences with writing and helping others made me realize how much I like writing, and this activity gave me a chance to express that love by talking to other people about their writing. And lastly, I say thankful because I appreciate the opportunity to talk to students from a different culture and compare and contrast our opinions and writing. Everyone’s writing style is different, and it is awesome to see how other people write and what my group members had to say about my writing.

8) This was a great activity and I hope that you continue working with Chinese students in order to make this happen for your future classes! It might be more interesting to have the activity last a week longer or maybe have us write two essays so that there is more to talk about, but those are just small tips. The activity as it works well and I am glad that I had the chance to participate in it!