Marriage or Career, Which One Is Better for Woman

[Yanqiong Y.]

Yanqiong Yang

Marriage or Career, Which One Is Better for Woman:
Commenting on “And the Spring Comes” and “Mona Lisa Smile”

Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 American film and Julia Roberts is the lead actress. In this movie, Julia Roberts plays a woman named Katherine Ann Watson. The story in the movie takes place in 1953. After graduating from the Department of Art History at UCLA, Katherine takes a position in teaching history of art at Wellesley College, a conservative women’s private liberal arts college in Massachusetts. The students in this college come from upper-class. Like most of other American upper-class girls, they are conservative and dream of getting married with eligible young men. However, Katherine tends to encourage her students to achieve more than that.

And the Spring Comes is a Chinese film directed by Gu Changwei in 2007 and the lead actress Jiang Wenli plays a woman named Wang Cailing, who is a talented vocal teacher in a small town and dreams to be a diva in Beijing Central Opera Theater and singing opera in Italy National Opera one day. The story in this movie takes place at the end of 1980s.

At the first glance, these two movies seem to have nothing in common with each other. On the one hand, the story of Mona Lisa Smile takes place at an exclusive school in the developed country United States in 1953, while And the Spring Comes depicts a story happening in a poor small town in developing country China at the end of 1980s. On the other hand, the life depicted in Mona Lisa Smile is about upper-class girls. They are beautiful and literate. The clothing and other scenes are gorgeous. And the Spring Comes happens in a poor little town in China. The people in this movie come from a lower class. The clothing and other scenes are shabby and dilapidated. Even though the two films have many differences, both discuss a common topic: what woman should pursue, marriage or career? Which one is better? Should woman give up their career to pursuit family life or give up family life to pursuit career? Which choice is proper or which choice is wrong?

What woman should pursue, marriage or career? And the Spring Comes and the Mona Lisa Smile suggest that women can do both. The two choices are not contradictory. Both lead actresses in these two films, Katherine and Wang Cailing, are teachers in college and they are not the traditional woman who only dreams to be a wife and a mom. They think woman should pursue more than marriage. However, they don’t reject marriage. In fact, they pursuit true love and dream of a good marriage. For example, Katherine not only seeks to inspire her students to learn to think independently, critically and pursuit career, but also set an example for them. She loves art and is very interested in her career. She also enjoys a romance relationship. Katherine believes in the balance between career and romance relationship. The reason why she declines a proposal from her boyfriend is that she does not love him enough. Once she realized that Bill is not an honest guy, she ended their relationship. At the same time, she always persuades Joan that marriage and career are not in conflict with each other. For Cailing, she tried her best to escape from a small town. Once she loves Huang sibao, she decided to give up her dream to help Huang sibao. She even has sex with Huang sibao. But Huang sibao does not love her and escaped away from her. She declines a proposal from Zhou Yu, the man who admired her, since she does not love him. She also refuses Hu Jinquan’s proposal for fake marriage. Cailing says she is a regular woman and, thus, she never gives up the dream of being a wife. She even registers in a marriage introduction service. To conclude, Katherine and Wang Cailing don’t reject marriage and they want a romantic relationship with a man they truly love. Even though both Katherine and Wang Cailing eventually failed in their romance relationship, Katherine continue to pursuit her dream. She quits her teaching position because of the harsh prerequisite and leaves to Europe. Wang Cailing adopt an orphan girl and operates a tiny shop to sell meat. Both Cailing and Katherine are very happy and relax at the end of the two movies.

By contrast, Mrs. Zhang, who is Cailing’s colleague, is a beautiful conservative woman, she dreams of a good marriage. However, her husband betrays her. She is sad and worried about how others will judge her. She becomes unconfident and even thinks that she is inferior to Cailing because of her failed marriage.

Which choice is appropriate? According to Katherine’s students, they make a deliberate decision according to their own interest. They change their original mind. They learn to think what they really want to do. For example, Betty, at the beginning, is highly opinionated and outspokenly conservative. She has lots of conflicts with Katherine and other people who insist on unconventional idea, like Gisselle and Amanda Armstrong. After she fails in her marriage, she tends to accept Katherine’s ideas. She changed her mind and divorced with her husband and she is going to have a life of her own and has applied to Yale Law School. She even accepted Gisselle’s liberal life and room with her. On the contrary, Joan is a talent student and dreams of being a lawyer. Katherine encourages her to apply to Yale Law School. She gets an offer from Yale. However, at last, she gives up her opportunity to be a law student in Yale. She struggles with marriage and career. At last, she gets married and gives up her opportunity to be a law student. When Katherine tells her that she can do both at the same time and she should not give up anything, she tells Katherine that choosing to be a wife and mother does not make her life any less intelligent. Betty and Joan make different choice at last, but we cannot judge which choice is better. If they are happy with their choice, that is enough.

To conclude, both Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes argue that there is something other than marriage for woman to pursue. Woman should not be confined only in family life, to be a wife and a mom. Marriage is not the only choice. Woman need not to choose either-or between career and marriage. They can do both. What’s more, just as Joan said, choosing to be a wife and mother does not make her life any less intelligent. To pursuit career or to pursuit marriage, woman should choice according to their own interest. Everybody has a freedom to decide what he(she) wants to live. Thus, career or marriage, which one is better? There is not conclusive answer for this question.

[Taylor H.]

Yanqiong Y,

From the start, you wrote a strong introduction that summarizes both movies accurately and concisely. Since I am also interested in women's empowerment, I enjoyed the approach you took to analyzing these movies by discussing the concept of women's choices and their happiness. I also like that you compared Katherine's students Joan and Betty as they follow opposite paths and have conflicting ideals at times. Although I did not interpret Cailing to be totally happy in the end, I think she chose to be a mother to escape her failed musical career.

I also liked how you wove Cailing's and Katherine's pursuits for romance into the essay as it serves as a source of happiness to them and proves their ability to make choices since neither of them marry in the end.

In terms of recommendations, I think strengthening the thesis statement by eliminating or answering the questions posed (what woman should pursue, marriage or career? Which one is better? Should woman give up their career to pursuit family life or give up family life to pursuit career? Which choice is proper or which choice is wrong?) will help show the direction of the essay. Saying something along the lines of "in the end, women are free to make life choices that make them happy" could be a good improvement to consider.

-Taylor

[Chris L.]

Yanqiong,

Extremely good analysis and very well written, I would suggest touching up the introduction a little bit. Perhaps consider foreshadowing your body paragraphs more and cut down on your introduction. The bulk of your essay is extremely well written, and you don't want it marred by a minimalist introduction.

Although you analyzed the question of marriage vs career very well, I am interested in other connecting points. What did you think of the cinematography, and the other aspects of the movie. What about the other tragic heroes of both movies? Are Betty and Joan in a better place?

I want to challenge the idea that both Cailing and Katherine are truly happy. Katherine has 'helped" a generation of students, but what about the future ones, do they not face the same challenges now that she is gone? As for Cailing, I want to bring your attention to the final scene, what do you think its purpose was for?

I do agree that there is no "conclusive" answer, the superficial answer may be simpler found, but I think there are grimmer undertones behind both movies.

Thanks,

Chris

[Yanqiong Y.]

Hi Taylor,
Thanks very much for your feedback. I'm very appreciate your suggestion that saying something like " in the end, women are free to make life choices that make them happy". I asked series of problems and didn't give clear answers since these questions were related.As for Cailing, she didn't get married. She even lost her job. It seems like very sad for her and she unable to recover after the comedown. However, she adopted Fan and worked very hard. She didn't grumble and depressed. So it is not a bad ending. And happy is kind of relatively speaking.

Yanqiong

[Yanqiong Y.]

Hi Chris,
Thanks very much for your response and your suggestions. I agree with that if I add cinematography and the other aspects of the movie to analyze the topic, it will be much better. I analyzed other tragic heroes like Betty and Joan in my essay. As for whether Katherine and Cailing are happy. I think it is kind of relatively speaking. They suffered a lot. However, they are not disheartened. They are very strong and they have a strong desire to continue pursuing their vision of a better life.

Yanqiong

[Taylor H.]

Yanqiong Y,

I agree that your paper poses many questions but not any solid answers...although isn't that the point? Everyone is able to make decisions for themselves. I like that you leave these questions up to personal interpretation. Since these questions are posed as a thesis statement of sorts, using my previous recommendations about making the thesis statement a declarative sentence will direct the paper better for readers.

After reading this and talking with others about the ending of And the Spring Comes, I realized that the ending isn't as dark as I initially interpreted so I appreciate hearing your interpretations.