The wedding ceremony is a celebratory event romanticized by couples nationwide for its ability to unite creativity and tradition in a convenient package. One need only observe the plethora of wedding trends, from outlandishly alternative to stringently orthodox, to understand how important representing individuality remains among contemporary couples. In retrospect, much of the symbolisms attributed to these trends come from centuries of applied social significance; couples see the most value in a marriage celebration which allows them to flaunt their unique qualities as individuals while simultaneously modeling the long-standing customs of preceding weddings. In the 2002 film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, director Joel Zwick illustrates the …show more content…
The inherent personal expression found when one includes culture to a wedding ceremony provides a timeless experience for a bride or groom who see their marriage as a transitional rite of passage. Engaging in heritage can be a personal, frequent pursuit for some, thereby suggesting deeper importance when it is included in a wedding ceremony through venues, specific events, a symbolic activity, and so forth. Our society actively promotes this theory, from media resources meant specifically to appeal to the everyday American to smaller communal hubs like religious circles or family members who instill couples with the distinct values they subsequently carry into marital lives. My Big Fat Greek Wedding focuses primarily upon the tribulations of Toula, whose Greek heritage invades all aspects of her life, including her relationship with the markedly American, culturally lacking Ian Miller. Toula’s family perpetuates all the customs of a Greek household down to specific female values among which Toula recites, “Nice Greek girls are supposed to… marry Greek boys.” Her heritage emphasizes marriage and breeding within the race, proving that
Toula is a Greek girl who was always the weird kid when growing up. Toula was the nerdy Greek girl as a child. Toula’s father Gus is a very ethnocentric man, who believes the Greek culture invented everything. He says every English word came from an ancient Greek word. Gus is the head of the house making the family patriarchal. Toula’s mother Maria sometimes plays the dominant role. Her father believes that she should get married to a Greek man, have Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day we die. Toula’s older sister Athena lives up to those expectations when she marries and has three children. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is full of Greek culture.
As a typical intercultural movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is about Toula, a lower middle class Greek American woman who fell in love with a non-Greek upper middle class “white Anglo-Saxon Protestant” Ian Miller. They overcame a series of difficulties and eventually held a big fat Greek wedding. This movie shows us how Greek Americans live, reflecting the conflicts between Greek culture and American culture in a humorous way. Guided by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, this paper mainly explores how Greeks and American handle the cultural conflicts, and how they integrate into each other’s culture. Therefore, we will arrange the paper in three
Weddings, a joyful occasion where family and friends get together to celebrate the love of two people. Louna lost her father at a young age causing her mother to leave her simple farm life to live the opulent life of a well known wedding planner. Helping her mother run the business means Louna has seen more weddings than most people see in their whole lives. She focuses on work and has no desire to go out and meet people. Then she meets Ambrose, a charming and easy going boy who seems to have a new girl everyday. When he gets a job working with Louna and her mother, she is furious, but as time goes on she starts to think that maybe he is not as bad as she originally thought. While Ambrose is easy to characterize, Louna is fairly closed off so I have many questions about her past and predictions about what will happen between these two later in the book.
Marriage has often been described as one of the most beautiful and powerful unions one human can form with another. It is the sacred commitment and devotion that two people share in a relationship that makes marriage so appealing since ancient times, up until today. To have and to hold, until death do us part, are the guarantees that two individuals make to one another as they pledge to become one in marriage. It is easy to assume that the guarantee of marriage directly places individuals in an everlasting state of love, affection, and support. However, over the years, marriage has lost its fairy
The change on the contemporary wedding, from what the society has been seeing in the 21st century, is phenomenal. People approach marriage very differently nowadays. Individuals still look for their “would-be” spouses. However, it's not for love or companionship purposes but convenience. In fact, Dr. Strohschein is quoted saying in the talk show says that marriage evolved to a "capstone" to an individual’s life and no longer a cornerstone of life as it used to be (Woodford, Luke, Grogan-Kaylor, Fredriksen-Goldsen, & Gutierrez, 2012). This paper explores Strohschein’s views in the light of sociological concepts and theoretical paradigm.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a romantic comedy about a 30 year old single woman name Toula Portokalos. Toula is a Greek women struggles to find her own in a family whose traditional Greek traditions doesn’t match the life she wants to live. According to Toula “There are three things that every Greek woman must do in life: marry Greek boys, make Greek babies, and feed everyone.” Instead of living up to the tradition as she seek out to try and make something out of herself by convincing her family in particular her father that it would be a great idea for her to go to college for computer so it could better help the her aunts traveling agency . During her time working for her aunt she meet a non-Greek man and sees him in secret while lying
Denise Ryan’s “Getting married in B.C. today more about choice than numbers,” illustrates multiple perspectives on the concept of marriage. Marriage is a memorable occasion; it allows individuals to exhibit their emotions and devote his/her love to one another. While the significance of marriage remains the same, society's ideologies have evolved in numerous ways.
In late October 2016 there was one event that changed my already amazing life. No, it wasn’t Halloween, it was my Uncle’s wedding. It was at a nice church, with an amazing lobby, many Sunday school rooms, and a beautiful sanctuary. The sanctuary was decorated with fall designs specifically for the wedding. Everything seemed to be perfectly in place for the wedding. But before any wedding, no matter how big or how small, there’s the bridal shower and the rehearsal.
While numerous cultural values are displayed in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” two stand out as ones that may be universal. Namely, the values of love and family here may pervade across cultural boundaries. These values may take different forms or possess varying degrees of importance, but they most likely speak to people no matter their culture.
Almost every little girl dreams of her wedding day. There is so much planning and preparation that goes into a wedding. There is the dress, venue, food, guest list, and so much more that is involved in a wedding. Mark Auslander’s essay explores the rituals of an average American wedding, and how some of these rituals have European ties.
As societies change in ideologies evolve, young wishfuls are moving away from the traditional idea of a wedding day and instead moving towards more modern trends. Depending on one's cultural background and the influence of their family on their decision making, this transition may be harder for some soon-to-be married couples compared to others. Toula Portokalos and Ian Miller are a perfect example of a couple who’s journey into married life was not as smooth as they had hoped. Growing up in a large and very traditional Greek household, Toula’s parents always anticipated that she would marry a handsome Greek man early on in her life. However, when she meets Ian, an upper class Canadian Protestant, Toula was forced to choose between
“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a charming romantic comedy that explores cultural differences in a combination of adorable romance and cute humor. The story revolves around Toula, a thirty-year-old Greek American single woman, who lives with her family in the suburb of Chicago. Like many obedient Greek daughters, she works in her family’s business, a restaurant called “Dancing Zorba’s.” Toula belongs to a traditional collective upbringing where all good daughters are expected to marry from their ethnic background. However, she struggles with her father’s limited ambitions for her and she longs for something else in life. She enrolls in college and takes computer classes. With the computer diploma under her belt, a rebellious Toula emerges.
For my next film assignment, I picked the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. The main plot involves a 30 year old woman named Toula battling her ethnic traditions to get a higher education and marry a man outside her family’s culture. This movie uses a comical approach to present these common barriers of society. The main character, named Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos at age 30 is going through an early midlife crisis.
30-year old Toula faces pressures from her close knit Greek family to “marry a Greek man and have Greek babies” (Goetzman, Hanks, Wilson, & Zwick, 2002). However, life has other plans for Toula once she begins dating the non-Greek, vegetarian, Ian. The differences between their cultures clash along with their families, making the possibilities of having a Big Fat Greek Wedding all the more difficult.
Once you’re ready with your wedding day prep and have finalized most major details like the venue, dresses, rings, food, and guest lists, you must start thinking about the photos. It’s going to be your red carpet moment and you want to look your best! You should be the center of attraction so that all eyes follow you.