Intercultural Analysis of My Big Fat Greek Wedding Essay

In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Greek family relationships were often a repeated cycle between the husband, wife and their children. Based on the generations including Ouranos, all the men that came to rule automatically loathed their child, because they believed their children would take away their power. Since this behavior was similarly recurring every generation, the women were often forced to create wicked plans involving their children’s rise to power. The cycle of power, deceit and achievement created by the families in the first generation of Greek mythology became dominant characteristics that future generations would inherit.

Power distance describes the distance between power and the members of a particular culture. France has a higher power distance than the United States. Gudykunst describes countries with a high power distance as, “Individuals who accept power as part of society. As such superiors consider their subordinates to be different from themselves and vice

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I analyzed the scene where Toula’s family is having a party, and Ian Miller’s parents are going to come and meet the family for the first time. This is an extreme clash of individualistic vs. collectivistic culture. Ian’s parents seemed to be a traditional white, American couple with no sense of foreign food, customs, or culture of any kind. When the parents originally start walking up to the house, and there have to be at least 30 people outside partying, it is an instant sense of confusion and intimidation that they seem to feel. Ian’s parents hand Toula’s parents a Bundt cake and Toula’s parents had never even seen one before. They were so confused about it, that later in the scene they brought it out

The duo begins dating and falls in love. But Ian is not Greek, so he is unacceptable to Toula’s father. Knowing this, she does not tell him. He finds out, however, and denies Ian permission to date his daughter. They continue going out anyway, and eventually Ian proposes. Toula ecstatically accepts.

She also incorporates problem and solution when she is describing how she had to talk for her mother. Her belief is that people will not take you seriously if you do not speak proper English, and to prove this, she shows how her mother encountered that kind of attitude often. Tan describes how she had to call the stockbroker because her mother was concerned about not getting a check, and how the hospital would not look for a lost CAT scan until Tan was called to mediate. Even though the mother speaks English, Tan still needs to act as a translator.

It is inferred that the parents should take care of their children and have their best interest at heart. This however, is not the case in Greek and Roman mythology. The killing of ones own children, or filicide, was not viewed as negative upon in their era. The contemporary times contrast with the ancient Greek and Roman’s because it was justified to use any means necessary to obtain a higher status. The Greeks and Romans valued keeping a high social reputation and having respect for those of great power. The motherly union between their children conflict with the reality that the father strives to retain or gain control. These circumstances cause a tense bond between the members of the family. The strained parent to child relationship in

In the films Bend It Like Beckham and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, two very different folk cultures are shown. Due to the culture and traditions of the protagonists, there are some significant gender conflicts, as well as conflicts with popular culture. Both Jess, the main character of Bend It Like Beckham, and Toula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding want to have experiences that the do not agree with the ways of their families. With these differing views, there are high tensions between family and friends, and some secrets are kept. Throughout the films, the effects of folk culture on young adults in a modern society are demonstrated.

Research by Tayeb in 1988 indicated that matched pair organisations for India and the UK were similar on dimensions of specialisation and centralisation but were different in the degree of consultation and delegation of authority. UK managers consult subordinate more widely in decision-making and delegated authority further through the hierarchy than in India. Another study showed that in China the level at which decisions could be taken was higher up the organisational hierarchy than in UK (Masterby-Smith, Malina and Yuan 1996).

Power is the definitive goal for the characters of Homer’s The Odyssey. In a society ruled by gods, relationships are influenced by a gods’ power, which also affects relationships between two mortals. This explains why the relationship between Telemachus and Athena becomes submissive opposed to the dominant and disrespectful relationship, which Telemachus has with his mother, Penelope. The difference in relationships between Telemachus and Athena to Penelope and Telemachus, in Fagles’ translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, is due to the significance of power within the poem.

In Greek mythology, there is always a perpetual notion of power. The desire for power is associated with the father figure of a family. Furthermore, a father sets the tone for his family by setting rules and establishing their reputation. From the beginning of time, there has been angst in losing power, starting with the Earth and sky. Arising fear occurs when a father finds that one of his children is a threat to his throne. It also develops when a father realizes that since he sabotaged his own father, potentially his child could the same. Taking into consideration both of these cases, it is understood that a male parent in ancient Greek consciousness seeks a role having power. This thirst for power has resulted in the betrayal of wives and the attempt to destroy an upbringing of children. Through the fatherhood of Ouranos, Cronos, and Zeus, it is clear that their role is to exercise dominance, moreover keep away potential threats.

A person’s worth and identity in modern culture is not determined solely by the principles of either of the two Greek cultures; rather, both have contributed aspects to the system we have. The

The second part of this text is looking at Virginia Satir's view on the dynamics of a family system. It explains her thesis how the hierarchy or power structure in a family relates directly to the development of character in a person.

For this assignment according to professor Noh I suppose to examine examples of multiculturalism and polyculturalism from the novel “I Hotel” by Karen Tei Yamashita. For the examples I present in this essay I am going to explain why and how these are examples of multiculturalism or polyculturalism. Also, I am going to explain how the novel presents a new form of identification and how the examples of polyculturalism are related to such a new form of identification. Let start with a little of background of I Hotel: A Novel, according to professor Noh this Novel consists of ten novellas. Each novella introduces interesting stories of various social and ethnic movements, comprised of diverse participants, such as Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, Russian immigrants, college students, factory workers, intellectuals, etc., which orbit around a shelter in San Francisco for new immigrants and low income working class people of color, called the I Hotel. Based on then years of research and over 100 interviews with real people who were involved in the multi ethnic political movements, Yamashita seeks to illustrate people’s struggles to create strong political grounds for “hyphenated Americans,” as well as their frustrations toward the bureaucratization of ethnic identification as a tool for dividing people. In particular, Yamashita represents this period of civil rights movements as linked to the critiques of capitalism and solidarity along class

The dimension of power distance affect the HR activities by reactions to management authority differently among cultures. There will be greater status and authority differences between superiors and subordinates if the power distance increases. The next factor is individualism which it can up to which people in a country prefer to act as individual in the group. Asian countries more toward to group-oriented meanwhile United Stated more prefer to individualism. The last factor are masculinity and femininity which means masculine is for men and femininity is for women. The person with assertiveness, success, and competitiveness well known as masculine meanwhile feminine known by quality of life, close personal relationships, and

They emphasized on adaptation and interpretation, as well as finding similarities in their audiences’ cultures. By identifying how western culture and non-western culture fit into each dimension of Hofstede’s original concept, one can better understand how to approach audiences from the audiences’ cultural