10 - Women’s Empowerment in Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes

[Mckenna K.]

Women’s Empowerment in Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes

The movies Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes both have a strong, independent woman as the main character who faces constant pressure from society to change the way that she is acting to align more with the social norms of society. The women both remain resilient in the midst of oppression and rhetoric is employed throughout the movies, both by the women and by society. The two movies share a lot of common themes, but both present some differences as well when it comes to the way society pushes back and the fate the women end up receiving.

In Mona Lisa Smile, the main character, Katherine Ann Watson, moves from Individualistic California to teach at a very traditional and elite women’s college, Wellesley, in New England. Katherine is a free-thinking art history teacher who is unmarried and independent during a time period when most girls get married very young and disregard any thoughts of a future career so that they can simply become housewives and dote on their husbands. Katherine sees how incredibly intelligent all the girls are and how much potential they possess, so she becomes incredibly dismayed to hear that they sacrifice their own future careers for their husbands. Subsequently, Katherine makes it her mission to try and persuade the girls to shoot for their career aspirations and have both a strong marriage and a fulfilling career. She does this while teaching her students art history by appealing to pathos, ethos, and logos. She appeals to logos when she explicitly explains to the girls how they don’t have to listen to what society thinks and that they are so intelligent that it would be a waste to simply abandon their talents. She connects logos to the art history she teaches by asking questions with ambiguous answers like “what makes art good and who declares it?”, which causes the girls to then start questioning society and ask themselves questions like “what makes a good life and who declares it?”. Katherine appeals to pathos by forming emotional attachments to the girls. One specific example of when she focuses on pathos is when she teaches an art lesson with slides of advertisements for household products with dolled up, smiling housewives on the cover. Katherine even goes so far as to say, “this is the art future generations will associate with our era”, which she said to convey her feelings of anger against a society where all there is promoted for women is to support her husband and throw away any personal dreams. Ultimately, she appeals to ethos by conveying the image of the empowered and independent woman that she is preaching to her students to become by showing through example. All in all, the girls that Katherine teaches become empowered and benefit greatly from having her as their teacher.

In And the Spring Comes, the main character Wang Cailing is an independent opera singer who dreams of making it big in Beijing. Wang Cailing faces many obstacles and oppression throughout the movie, making her journey of developing her talent very difficult. Wang Cailing is an unmarried woman who is not seen as attractive and consequently has a large target put on her back by society because it is looked down upon to be an unmarried woman at that time. She also is passionate about singing European opera, which is foreign and not very well respected or appreciated in the small town in China that she lives in. Society pushes back strongly on her. An example is when she performs in the street and everyone boos and leaves. Wang Cailing’s independence gets her branded socially as an outsider. Li is especially important in this movie and is the reason why society is so against her. She doesn’t conform to the rituals(li) that are important to the area, and an example of this is her not getting married. Wang Cailing subliminally uses rhetoric throughout the movie to persuade society to accept her individuality. Contrary to Mona Lisa Smile, by the end of the movie Wang Cailing’s individuality and independence is still not rewarded or accepted and she never makes her big break singing.

[Mckenna K.]

1) What were your expectations for the border-crossing activity? Are your expectations met? Why or why not?
a. My expectations for the border-crossing activity were to get insight and advice from students from China and to see similarities and differences between the views between college students in different places in the world, and my expectations were met.

2) Please name three things that struck you most when you interacted with the Chinese peers and explain why. (You may comment on the differences and/or similarities in lexical choice, writing style, idea presentation, rhetorical preference, cultural convention etc.)
a. Three things that struck me the most were how similar the ideas were between the Chinese students and American students, how similar the writing styles were, and also how much we were able to connect and discuss essays even though we live in different countries. Altogether, I really found it interesting that we were able to have strong discussions and learn about the views of other college students through this activity.

3) Did you incorporate what had been discussed into the revised draft? If so, please elaborate on how the discussion had led to the revisions you made. If not, please explain why.
a. In my revised draft, I focused on elaborating on the rhetoric behind the movies. I also focused on strengthening my points that I made and also connecting similar themes between the two movies more.

6) Could you provide three adjectives to describe the activity? Please explain your choice.
a. Three adjectives I would use to describe this activity are: stimulating, insightful, and cultural. I felt that this activity was very insightful, stimulating, and cultural because it allowed me to connect with others from across the globe and learn more about their views and opinions.

7) Could you provide three adjectives to describe your feelings about the activity? Please explain your choice.
a. Three adjectives to describe my feelings about this activity are: intrigued, excited, and curious. I was very intrigued and excited by the activity because I wanted to get to learn more about the thoughts and opinions of students from a different country. I was very curious about the activity because I wanted to learn more about the views of other students my age throughout the world.

8) Any additional comments, suggestions, and observations you would like to make to better help us assess your performance in this activity?
a. I really enjoyed this project and would have liked to have started it sooner in order to have developed stronger and longer relationships with the Chinese peers.

[Mckenna K.]

Women’s Empowerment in Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes
The movies Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes both have a strong, independent woman as the main character who faces constant pressure from society to change the way that she is acting to align more with the social norms of society. The women both remain resilient in the midst of oppression and rhetoric is employed throughout the movies, both by the women and by society. The two movies share a lot of common themes, but both present some differences as well when it comes to the way society pushes back and the fate the women end up receiving.
In Mona Lisa Smile, the main character, Katherine Ann Watson, moves from Individualistic California to teach at a very traditional and elite women’s college, Wellesley, in New England. Katherine is a free-thinking art history teacher who is unmarried and independent during a time period when most girls get married very young and disregard any thoughts of a future career so that they can simply become housewives and dote on their husbands. Katherine sees how incredibly intelligent all the girls are and how much potential they possess, so she becomes incredibly dismayed to hear that they sacrifice their own future careers for their husbands. Subsequently, Katherine makes it her mission to try and persuade the girls to shoot for their career aspirations and have both a strong marriage and a fulfilling career. She does this while teaching her students art history by appealing to pathos, ethos, and logos. She appeals to logos when she explicitly explains to the girls how they don’t have to listen to what society thinks and that they are so intelligent that it would be a waste to simply abandon their talents. She connects logos to the art history she teaches by asking questions with ambiguous answers like “what makes art good and who declares it?”, which causes the girls to then start questioning society and ask themselves questions like “what makes a good life and who declares it?”. Katherine appeals to pathos by forming emotional attachments to the girls. One specific example of when she focuses on pathos is when she teaches an art lesson with slides of advertisements for household products with dolled up, smiling housewives on the cover. Katherine even goes so far as to say, “this is the art future generations will associate with our era”, which she said to convey her feelings of anger against a society where all there is promoted for women is to support her husband and throw away any personal dreams. Ultimately, she appeals to ethos by conveying the image of the empowered and independent woman that she is preaching to her students to become by showing through example. All in all, the girls that Katherine teaches become empowered and benefit greatly from having her as their teacher. She remained resilient in her quest to remain individualistic, and although she did not change all of the opinions of the girls in the way Katherine was originally planning, she did spark change and guided them to embrace themselves and pick their paths.
In And the Spring Comes, the main character Wang Cailing is an independent opera singer who dreams of making it big in Beijing. Wang Cailing faces many obstacles and oppression throughout the movie, making her journey of developing her talent very difficult. Wang Cailing is an unmarried woman who is not seen as attractive and consequently has a large target put on her back by society because it is looked down upon to be an unmarried woman at that time. She also is passionate about singing European opera, which is foreign and not very well respected or appreciated in the small town in China that she lives in. Society pushes back strongly on her. An example is when she performs in the street and everyone boos and leaves. Wang Cailing’s independence gets her branded socially as an outsider. Li is especially important in this movie and is the reason why society is so against her. She doesn’t conform to the rituals(li) that are important to the area, and an example of this is her not getting married. Wang Cailing subliminally uses rhetoric throughout the movie to persuade society to accept her individuality. Contrary to Mona Lisa Smile, by the end of the movie Wang Cailing’s individuality and independence is still not rewarded or accepted and she never makes her big break singing. She does still remain resilient, though, and shows this by not getting married and still daydreaming about the possibilities that could lie ahead. Also, she adopts a daughter and, as this may be seen as an act that conforms to societal norms, I believe that it shows how she shifts her prior goals and realizes that through raising a child she can still inspire her daughter to follow her passions and can empower individualism for generations to come.