My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Despite knowing that they are "nicer, brighter," they cannot ignore "the honey voices of parents and aunts and the obedience in the eyes of [their] peers, the slippery light in the eyes of [their] teachers" when Maureen is around or the topic of conversation (74). The way Maureen dresses and behaves in front of adults is not the only way she affects Claudia and Frieda. With racist comments such as, "What do I care about her old black daddy...[and] you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute," she infuriates the girls, for in their eyes Maureen is black too. Racist attitudes like Maureen's affect the poorer, darker blacks and can eventually lead them to think racist thoughts of their own.

People from different cultures can have a good relationship The movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” mentions how can people who live abroad maintain their traditions but at the same time accepting some of their new society’s traditions. For example, Gus always tries to keep on his Greek traditions while he is living in different culture. In addition, the movie mentions some relationships issues such as in some cultures, parents ask their children to marry people who are from the same culture. For instance, Toula’s father wants her to marry Greek man and when she wanted to marry an American man he refused at first just because that man not from their culture.

Her stubbornness and strict discipline is evident when she pokes Sophie with a stick, trying to make Sophie come out of a foxhole in which she hid herself in, not giving up on the idea of the punishment. The character is round, as we are introduced to her most inner thoughts and personality traits while she narrates the story. At the same time, the protagonist is a static character, since her critical behavior of other cultures does not change throughout the story. In the end, the main character still displays her intolerance when she says, “Of course, I shouldn’t say Irish this, Irish that, especially now I am become honorary Irish myself, according to Bess. Me! Who’s Irish? I say”. The protagonist represents someone who despite being herself an immigrant sees other cultures and ethnicities as outsiders and is critical of others such as her son-in-law’s family and the previous American babysitter.

As the story develops, the reader’s thoughts are guided by the structure of the piece in a way that Tan is able to share an important lesson through the form of a personal narrative. The opening text immediately introduces the narrator and her insecurities as she wishes for a “slim new American nose” (Tan 1). The story initially takes on a negative tone as Tan proceeds to have a negative outlook throughout the entire evening. Her overwhelming anxiety can almost be felt by the reader as she worries what Robert will think of her “noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners” and overall “shabby Chinese Christmas” (Tan 1). With the tone set, Tan continues to amplify each dreadful detail of her family’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner. This includes the actual meal, that of which appeared to be

This shines light upon her Native American roots and how it can be an inspiration for her Century Quilt, each square representing her family’s racial diversity and mixed roots. It is quite difficult to learn of all the harsh animosity they were enduring, such as Meema and her yellow sisters whose “grandfather’s white family nodding at them when they met” (24-27). The hostility is clear as the white relatives only register their presence; no “hello” or warm embrace as if they didn’t acknowledge them as true family. However, with descriptive imagery, the speaker’s sense of pride for having the best of both worlds is still present as she understands Meema’s past experiences and embraces her family’s complexity wholeheartedly; animosity and all.

When the mothers of Twyla and Roberta visit on Easter Sunday, the two friends are happy for them to meet each other. As they are introduced to each other, Twyla’s mother stuck her hand out to shake hands, Roberta’s mother looked at her, grabbed Roberta and walked away. Roberta’s mother presented a snobbish attitude, and the generation of prejudice still existed.

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.

An exploration of Mother Tongue reveals that parental expectations places immense pressure on children and causes them to fail in their pursuit of their dreams. This is also clear in Only Daughter. The narrator in Mother Tongue describes a speech that he delivered: “The talk was going well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room” (Tan, 1990). From this description, it is evident that the narrator’s mother held her back from delivering a captivating talk. The mother had established a manner of speaking that was different from how the narrator was delivering the talk. This can be taken to mean that the mother expected the daughter to deliver the

At first glance, the documentary Meet the Patels could easily be billed as a real-life My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Centered on Ravi Patel – a first generation Indian-American man – and his quest for love, it certainly displays all the trappings and inner workings of a riveting romantic comedy. However, beneath the exterior mesh of a typical boy-meets-girl frame story, as well as Ravi’s interactions within his branch of the Patel clan, one can also detect various allusions to the struggles of American homosexuality and gay marriage within the plot.

Race in the South has always been a major topic within the canon of southern literature ever since John Smith’s discussion of Native Americans in “The Generall Historie of Virginia.” The majority of this ongoing conversation on race has revolved around African Americans, white people, and Native Americans. However, in Bitter in the Mouth, Monique Truong challenges these stereotypical ideas of race in the South, namely assumptions on how race and outside appearance impact cultural identity and personal ties to southerness. Her primary strategy of doing this is the structure of the paper, where she keeps Linda’s race a secret for the first part of the novel before exploring it in-depth during the second half. Within this larger structure, she uses the juxtaposition of place to contrast southern aspects of Linda’s identity with northern culture and highlights stereotypical cultural markers of southerness such as dialect and food within Linda’s identity. With these strategies, Monique Truong uses the unique point of view of Linda Hammerick, who is racially Asian but culturally southern, to challenge the reader's assumptions of how race affects cultural identity and to expand understandings of what makes someone southern in today’s cultural landscape.

Mr. Lindner’s visit to the Younger’s family depicted high level of racial segregation in the areas of Chicago. When Mr. Lindner comes to meet with Walter’s mama and Beneatha opens the door for him, “Beneatha is somewhat surprised to see a quiet looking, middle-aged white man in a business

This writing is about her time living in New York. She is a mother and belongs to a poor family. Anna lives in the slums of New York City along with many immigrants who all come from different countries. Anna’s family has experienced many cultural differences collide together to make a mixed culture. Anna herself is a Italian and lives peacefully with many different ethnic people such as Yugoslavians, Spanish people, Japanese people, and more. One example that displays how she lives along with different immigrants is by letting her children eat with them. Anna writes “My children are upstairs in the house next door, having dinner with the Ecuadorian family that lives on the top floor” (Quindlen 1). Anna letting her kids eat with a different ethnic family shows that she is fine with her kids assimilating into a different culture. Another instance of a cultural mix is shown when people buy squid. Quindlen writes, “About a third of the people in the neighborhood think of squid is calamari, about a third think of it as sushi and about a third think of it as bait” (Quindlen 1). This sentence displays that people from different countries arrive to America and share different ideologies. For instance, Japanese people will use squid for sushi. In contrast, Italians will use squid to make calamari. Only people from different ethnic backgrounds will have differing values and traditions. If only Americans lived in this

The examination of black women's need to keep their powerful heritage and identity is important to the protagonist in “Everyday Use.” Walker uses the mother’s voice to show the trials and tribulations of a small African American family located in the South. She speaks on multiple levels, voicing the necessity and strength of being true to one's roots and past; that heritage is not just something to talk about, but to live and enjoy in order for someone to fully understand themselves. Unlike Kincaid, Walker gives her black female character’s an identity of their own, each in their own right, and observes the internal conflicts of each mother and daughters struggle with identity. The mother represents a simple content way of life where identity and heritage are valued for both its usefulness, as well as its personal significance. In order to illustrate how the mother viewed identity versus her daughters, Walker quickly acknowledges that the mother has inherited many customs and traditions from her ancestors. She describes herself as a large big-boned woman with rough man-working hands (485). She also describes here various abilities including, killing and cleaning a hog as mercilessly as a man. Being able to work hard and not care about being such a lady, is how the mother defines identity at this point. On the other hand, the two daughters each have opposing views on the value and worth of the different items

the play are ―rich symbol[s]‖ that convey the barriers of a ―racist society‖ (Kenny par. 18). The