Film: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Essay

When Janie is about sixteen her grandmother finds her in the act of kissing a boy, and afraid for Janie, she arranges for Janie to be married to Logan Killicks, who is an older man with vast property to his name. Nanny, as Janie calls her, is unable to wrap her mind around the idea of marrying for love and mocks Janie saying, "So you don't want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?" (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 13). Her grandmothers’ gift of life is different from the life that Janie wants to live. She tells Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.'” (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 11). Nanny doesn’t believe that trying to find love and make a better life for you will succeed, she tells Janie that marrying and older man with land to his name will bring security, and she shouldn’t want more than that. Because of this Janie agrees and goes along with the plan. She is depicted as very compliant and rarely speaks her mind, even saying “But Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along” (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 90).

Interpersonal Communication is a very important ingredient in making strong, healthy relationships. Communicating is how we get a better understanding of one another’s perception of things, as well as how we help someone to better understand ours. We need to express our feelings in relationships and know that they are reciprocated. Not communicating leads to problems and misunderstandings. People need to learn to understand what the other person is trying to communicate. Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages: it is face-to-face communication. It is about what is said, how it is said, and the use of non-verbal communication through

In the beginning of the novel, Nanny forces a romantically curious Janie to marry Logan Killicks, a mature land owning man, in hopes of ensuring her a stable life. Although Janie is apprehensive of her grandmother’s decision, she submits to Nanny’s will after she lectures her of life’s harsh truths and the lessons that she had learned, stating, “So de white man throw down de load and tell de n----- man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De n----- woman is de mule uh de world..." (Hurston 14). Nanny’s words illustrate her twisted view of black women, which influenced her ideals of life and in turn, tarnishes Janie’s dream of finding true love. Through experience, Nanny learned that black women were mules; people who were brutally discriminated against by everyone other than themselves for being both the less dominant gender and a minority. In order to prevent Janie from experiencing the same abuse in life, she arranges a marriage for Janie with Logan. While doing so, Nanny disregards Janie’s personal needs, which soon took her down a turbulent path in life. Years into the future and long past her neglected youth, Janie comes to the realization that, “She hated her grandmother…She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love.” (Hurston

Janie and Nanny’s views on marriage are completely different. Nanny was born during slavery and has seen firsthand the struggle of black women. She wants Janie to live a semi privileged life with a man that can provide for her. She is not concerned with age or love. “De black woman is de mule of de world as far as Ah can see” (Hurston; 1.14). Janie is young and in love with the idea of love and marriage. She has lived a privileged life with minimal worries and does not understand the importance of a man in her life. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day? (page 21) After her three marriages, Janie believes that love is more important than a big house and

It is stated, “It was merely a nondescript collection of houses and buildings in a region of farms- one of those sad American places with sidewalks, but no paved streets; electric lights, but no sewage; a station but no trains that stopped…And it was 150 miles from any city at all (Hughes, 3).” Even though Cora was a relying, humble and hard working women she was unaccepted to white society. Cora was only seen for her labor. It is stated, “Cora iron my stockings, Cora come here… Cora, put… Cora… Cora… Cora! Cora! (Hughes, 4).” At a very young age colored people had to work for a living. On the other hand white society had an education and a far better future. Therefore, the circumstance of working with unpleasant superior was not discussed. Any job at the time was appreciated. Throughout the years that Cora worked with the Studevants she fell in love and had a child. At this time contraception or birth control was illegal. Even though Cora was looked down by society she had no shamed and became a proud mother. Unfortunately, due to the lack of medical assistance her child died from whopping cough. The years passed and the Studevants had a child named Jessie which Cora nursed and treated her as a daughter. When Jessie was in high school she experienced Cora’s situation, pregnant and unmarried. On one side Cora advise to have the child and become a proud mother just like her, but the mother disagreed she viewed this situation

Initially Janie was raised in a impecunious African American household by her grandmother. She was taught from a young age that marriage equals love and that women depend on men for financial security. Janie wanted a love “sweet…lak when you sit under a pear tree” (29) but instead receives Logan, a man who wants her to “chop and tote wood” and calls her “spoilt rotten.” (31) Janie was stuck to succumb to these expectations when she was with Logan. However, Janie’s second marriage begins with a personal choice that Janie makes to leave Logan and follow Jody, a man whose plan was to build “a town all outa colored folks” and become a leader in the new city. Just the fact that she left her first husband was a very bold move, but the profound point is that Janie chooses to get together with another man. Janie expresses her true feelings and voice by leaving Logan and telling him that he “ain’t done [her] no favor by marryin’ [her.]” This displays that Janie’s views on marital expectations have took a turn and she will no longer be put under this illusion of a perfect woman during this time period. However this newly acquired confidence that Janie had gained

Till had recently went down south to Money, Mississippi to visit some of his family, including Moses Wright who testified and was a witness in this case. Since Till was from the north he hadn’t know how segregated the south still was. With the Jim Crow Laws intact, he had no idea that talking to a white

To Nanny, a woman who was dominated by slavery, there is no companionship for women to experience, only hardship. Janie is reminded of Nanny’s ideals after the death of her second husband Joe when a man from Eatonville voices, “Uh woman by herself is a pitiful thing… Dey needs aid and assistance. God never meant ‘em tuh try tuh stand by theirselves” (Hurston 90). Despite Janie’s constant questioning about Logan Killicks, Nanny realizes love does not beget marriage. Tracy Bealer states, “Nanny 's experiences with institutionalized racism and pervasive misogyny teach her that for black women, erotic love is infused with shame, physical pain, and unsatisfying labor” (315). Inevitably, Nanny begins to teach Janie what her place in the world is, under man. Janie is a young girl, and after kissing Johnnie Taylor she can only think about love. So Nanny tells her love does not exist in marriage and to forget about searching for her dreams. Janie would carry this belief into her first marriage, allowing Nanny’s fear of death and her own fear of loneliness to guide her into adulthood. Janie holds onto these fears long after her grandmother’s death.

While Janie yearns for “idyllic union” and emotional fulfillment, Nanny maintains the “prevailing sexual and racial milieu” by arranging her marriage with wealthy landowner Logan Killicks (Meese 264). Hurston purposefully compares Janie’s progressive ideals to those of feminists who were coined as “New Women” who sought marriages based on equality. She directly relates this contrast in beliefs to feminist’s dreams of and efforts towards success and equality through female autonomy rather than material wealth and security under a man’s control. Furthermore, as Janie settles in her second marriage with Jody Starks, she becomes increasingly dissatisfied. Janie’s feelings of confinement and entrapment steadily rise as Jody orders her to remain introverted and shuttle between the general store and home (Moss and Wilson 3). He forces Janie to play the role of a beautiful and submissive wife and “does not allow her to articulate her feelings or ideas [although she] longs to participate in everyday town life” (Moss and Wilson 3). Accordingly, Hurston scorns Jody for believing “She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” (43) and utilizes his chauvinistic outlook to promote women to establish importance outside of homemaking and caregiving. Hurston’s proposal directly reflects and supports Catharine Beecher’s influential efforts to “reconcile women to the limitations of the domestic sphere” (Cott 40) and expand women’s ability to excel in a multitude of different

The film Our Family Wedding illustrated the diversity among and between families. The film depicted the views of different generations within a family and how an interracial marriage affected them differently. The film explores new contemporary marriage trends and challenges traditional family roles and marriage trends. This paper will explore different demographic trends as it relates to the social constructs of class, race, and gender, survey the recent trends and changes towards contemporary marriage, and study the changes in the family relationships within the film. Conclusively, this film analysis will use textbook concepts and examples in the movie to establish a framework for the diverse family system and the changing marriage.

Interpersonal communication is the most important kind of communication. It happens when two individuals are in a close proximity to each other, and they are able to provide immediate feedback to one another. IPC (interpersonal communication) is the way we express our thoughts, feelings, and ideas to the people around us. Interpersonal communication is something you need to do well as it affects many aspects of your life.

Kevin Rodney Sullivan's 2005 movie is an overt comedy that, while not ignoring the race issues altogether, uses them more frequently for humor than to illustrate serious points. Both film’s premises are about the same situation of an interracial marriage.

The grandmother’s bigotry is also on display as the family rides past a black youth standing near his modest home. Her reaction to seeing him is like walking past an adorable dog; “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (12). When her granddaughter June Starr comments on the boy’s lack of clothing, the grandmother explains that “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do” (12). As the grandmother emits racism through her comments, she is also inserting such notion into her grandchildren’s minds. Nor Bailey or his wife says anything, so it can be suggested that they are used to such comments and may hold the same views as well. The grandmother does not see a reason to be empathetic; the boy waves and she does return the gesture. Instead she romanticizes the boy’s plight as a missed opportunity, suggesting that “If [she] could paint, [she’d] paint that picture” (12).

Interpersonal communication can be described as communication that occurs between two or more individuals. While communication can be either verbal, nonverbal, or written, interpersonal communication is more commonly practiced through face to face, verbal communication (Burton, 2011). The interpersonal communication process begins with a “sender”, which is the person that is communicating a message to another person. The “receiver” is the person that is retrieving the message from the sender. It is then the receiver’s job to interpret the message, and give feedback to the sender, allowing them to know that the message was received, and understood (Burton, 2011).

Communication is the process of gathering meaning from the world around us and using verbal and non-verbal messages to share this meaning with others. (Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond, 2005) More specifically, interpersonal communication can be defined as; “a distinctive, transactual form of human communication involving mutual influence, usually for the purpose of managing relation ships.” (Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond, 2005, p. 6) Interpersonal communication is extremely complex and encompasses many different themes and issues that affect many aspects of our daily lives. These