Preview

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1690 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Throughout the semester, we have been introduced to many topics related to interpersonal communication. I have come to believe that these concepts have allowed me to better understand interactions that occur in our daily lives. My knowledge of these concepts was challenged when asked to relate these notions to a movie. During the time that I was watching the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I realized myself grasping onto what was going on and being able to relate certain scenes and situations to topics I had previously learned about. Interactions in My Big Fat Greek Wedding display concepts of conflict and politeness theory, which can be pointed out in a few specific scenes.
During the movie, I found that these concepts that were taught in class helped me better understand and relate to certain clips of the movie. Throughout the rest of the paper, I will be going into a bit more detail about exactly what these concepts are and mean, following that I will be giving examples from the movie that demonstrate the concepts of conflict and politeness theory.
The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding is about a 30-year old and single woman named Toula Portokalos who although has lived a very Greek life-style up this point, decides to pursue a relationship with a non-Greek man. This, of course, is disturbing to her family since they are so proud about their culture, and do not really know anything different. Her whole life, Toula has been instilled with a very traditional Greek outlook on life. She has been expected to do three things: Marry a Greek boy, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day they die. Throughout the movie, Toula overcomes inner struggles to find her own identity, and she overcomes struggles with her family.
The first topic that is found in the movie that was taught in class is conflict. Conflict is expressed disagreement over perceived incompatible goals (Daena Goldsmith, class presentation, October 25, 2004). Although it may seem it,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Here is a list of related texts that are overused by HSC students. More and more students are using these texts, and while SOME may be effective related texts for the Area of Study, they are overused because all of the following texts can be found analysed in study guides. If you use a pre-prepared analysis for your related texts realise you will be competing with the thousands of other students who used the exact same text and analysis.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Watch your selected film, identify an interpersonal conflict that was not handled effectively, and write a two-page paper (excluding title and reference pages) regarding why the conflict was not handled effectively and what could have been done differently. Be sure to focus on one particular interpersonal conflict and not the movie as a whole. Films can be viewed online via streaming media sites, such as Netflix or Amazon Instant Video . You may also rent DVDs from these sites, or from your local DVD rental outlet. Some films may be available for free at streaming sites, such as Hulu or Crackle . You may also check them out at low or no cost from your local library.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Furthermore, it is pointed out that cross-cultural problems can easily be avoided when both parties are ready to understand and accept each other opinion and cultural identity. Toula’s father, for example, feels personally attacked by the decision of his daughter not to get married to a Greek man. But the fact that Ian even gets baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church for the sake of Toula and her family convinces Gus in the end that he deserves to get married to his beloved daughter. The Portokalos clan is portrayed as the stereotypical Greek family: They are loud, crazy, greedy, chaotic, chatty, old-fashioned, warm-hearted, proud of their origin and ancestors, caring, vivacious, fiery etc. Certain characters like the one of Gus are a caricature of stereotypical Greek people but nevertheless Joel Zwick achieves to create culturally informative characters. It seems as though these exaggerations are necessary in order to make the differences between the Greek and the American culture visible and understandable for the audience. When Ian’ s parents, for example, meet the Portokalos clan, the differences between the two cultures become obvious. Ian’s parents are the exact opposite of the Greek clan; they are extremely introverted, silent, conservative, reserved etc. Despite the problems at first, the two families learn to adapt very well to each other’s culture. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is highly recommendable since it provides interesting (cross-)cultural insights. Furthermore, the movie shows how misleading the misinterpretation of the values and the attitudes of a foreign culture can be. The message of the movie is to be tolerant when confronted with a foreign…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" there were many aspects of culture shown. Some were more obvious and visible while others were harder to find, you could call them invisible. A visible aspect of culture is one that can be seen showing up one someone's behavior, or daily routine. An invisible aspect can only be seen through someone's thoughts or concepts on life.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a romantic comedy that explores cultural differences in a combination of romance and humor. The story revolves around Toula, a thirty-year-old Greek American single woman, who lives with her family in the suburb of Chicago. She works in her family’s business, a restaurant called “Dancing Zorba’s.” Toula is expected to marry from their ethnic background. However, she struggles with her strict father to convince him that she longs for something else in life. She enrolls in college and takes computer classes. She manages her aunt’s travel agency and starts dating Ian Miller, a white high school English teacher. They date secretly for a while, before she has the courage to introduce him to her family. Her father is angry over her dating a non-Greek. The overall of the story occurs when both sides try to adjust to each other.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Instructions: To complete the film analysis assignment, you are to view and analyze the film, The Blind Side. After viewing the entire film, you must be able to recognize at least seven of the interpersonal communication concepts displayed within the movie that we have discussed throughout the course. You are not to just briefly mention the concepts; instead you must describe each concept in detail as it correlates to the film. In addition, when you name each communication concept, list the page number to support your statements/findings, and also define the concept as well. So for each of the seven boxes within the template that is attached, you should state the communication concept, the page number that the concept is located at within…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, there was a lot of positive and negative communication that influenced the main character’s life decisions. The story is about a young woman, named Toula, that is of Greek decent who is fearful of being stuck in the life she is now living. She is a frumpy girl that works in her family’s restaurant because she has not been able to find a Greek man to marry, and because of this, her family claims that she is old and has failed in life. She is allowed to attend college, which in turn, gives her new confidence and she is able to fall in love with a non-Greek man that is named, Ian. During the movie she struggles to get her family to accept him as the man she loves, and she also finally comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity. At the end of the movie, Ian is accepted into the family, he becomes a baptized Greek, agrees to marry in the Greek Orthodox Church and participate in the Greek culture. Despite the happy ending of the movie, Toula struggled to follow the rules and values of her culture, practiced nonverbal communication with Ian, and received empathy from her mother while Ian had to deal with a language barrier of English and Greek.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The film titled My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a Hollywood-style anthropological film. This romantic comedy tells the story of a Greek family who emigrated from Greece to North America and who have three children, one being a daughter who is a bit plain and has never married. The daughter’s name is Toula Portokalos and she is in her thirties. Toula is a socially awkward lady who works long hours in her parents’ restaurant as a waitress. She starts to see her life slipping by and isn’t happy with the direction it is taking. Toula has a large, extended Greek family. Her extended family consists of aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, and one eccentric grandmother. She loves her family tremendously, but at times they can be overbearing and overly opinionated. They view the world through the Greek culture and they have many Greek customs that they practice.…

    • 2388 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the movie, ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, Gus Portokalos is the father of the main character, Toula Portokalos, and is the patriarch of the Portokalos family. He is portrayed as a man who has a lot of pride for his country and can be ethnocentric if his ideas are different from others. He wants Toula to marry a Greek man and doesn’t want Toula to leave him. However, Toula falls in love with a non-greek man, Ian. This causes Gus to show ethnocentrism towards Ian because of their different cultures. Even so, Gus accepts Toula’s marriage to Ian and even buys them a house in the end.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Family Stone

    • 1797 Words
    • 8 Pages

    This analysis gives attention to the elements that make up conflict between parties in the movie, Family Stone. While it focuses on the communicative exchanges that make up the conflict episodes in the movie, it also attempts to help one understand that people involved in conflicts have perceptions about their own thoughts and feelings and perceptions about the other’s thoughts and feelings; conflict is present when there are joint communicative representations of it (Wilmot & Hocker, 2011). In this analysis of the movie, joint communicative representations of the parties’ thoughts and feelings are identified in “expressions of struggle” between Everett and his family; between Meredith and Everett’s family; and between Everett and Meredith, and finally examining the emotions set off within the parties as a result of unresolved conflict.…

    • 1797 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is going through an early midlife crisis. At thirty, she is the only woman in her family who has "failed". Her family expects her to "marry a Greek boy, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day she dies." Instead, Toula is stuck working in the family business, a restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's". In contrast to her "perfect" sister, Athena (Stavroula Logothetis), Toula is frumpy and cynical. She fears she's doomed to be stuck with her life as it is.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding is Canadian-American movie which was directed by Joel Zwick in 2002. The movie combined between romance and comedy to show the different habits between Greek and American ordinary people. The main character is girl named Tula who suffers from her Greek family whose tried to prevent her from marrying the man she loved. At last Tula won and married her lover Ian Miller and they celebrate in a purely Greek wedding.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages

    We watched a movie last week titled “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” which shows that a Greek woman (Toula Portokalos) who’s in her 30’s still haven’t married yet and all her dad wants is for her to marry a Greek Boy but the woman doesn’t have one yet. Then she took computer classes and work at her aunt’s agency, finally saw an American boy who she saw years before also single. Then they met and talked finally both of them have fallen in love. But the problem of them is that she can’t marry a non-Greek man which is the American boy (Ian Miller). This is unwanted by the father of the woman because he wants to preserve the Greek blood, culture, heritage and culture, but in the end the father finally accepts the American guy in the family and he has to adapt the culture of the woman.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. What social issues do the following episodes of the film present? Expound each of the issues by citing sociological concepts which were discussed in class.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this movies, I can find a lot of concepts that we have been studied in this four chapter. Although I mostly disagree the main idea of this movie, I think it is fight for survive and there are not clear justice, I admit it is a good movie to study intercultural communication.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays