Strength
For as long as I can remember, growing up in my house, my father was the one who wore the pants in the family. It was a very patriarchal household. He was the breadwinner, he could fix anything broken, and he swore he knew everything, and for those reasons, he was in charge. My mother, on the other hand, was to listen to everything he said and do as he said without putting up a real fight, unless of course it called for one. She was physically his size, and yet she was meek and submissive. However, also growing up in America, I saw other households that were so very different from mine that I assumed it was just in the Greek culture that patriarchy existed-that the men "controlled" everything, including women. Actually, it's very common to see households like that all over Greece. So when I took this class, I was very, very surprised to see that the women in these films were actually portrayed as having a mind of their own and having strong backbones. Here I saw women who stood up for themselves and listened to their own hearts in order to be happy or, in other cases, to be able to go on with their lives. Furthermore, every movie has a male director. So these are men, who, all except for one, grew up with the Greek cu
(I couldn't even imagine what that kind of power over men would feel like. ) She tries to convince her father that there must be some other way to get around it, that it's not fair to give up her life for some woman, her aunt, who never really wanted to be with them anyway, that she loves him too much and that she is too young to want to die now. Even Mitso, a man who made her happy in the simple relationship they were in, eventually wanted to marry Stella. She knows that she wants to sing in the taverna for the rest of her life. However, she holds her own and does as she is told. It's OK for a woman to be brave; it's OK for a woman to not be controlled by a man; and it OK for a woman to make her own decisions. She then meets Milto, someone as carefree as she was, and he attracted her with is dangerous aura that he had surrounding him. There was no one there to hold her hand, or to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. On a side note, I believe that the fact that Jules Dassin, the director of this film, had a lot to do with all of this. She lives to sing and dance and is a very free-spirited person. He is outraged that she has changes the stories around, but that is what makes her happy. (Take it from me, another woman, we all want to be considered sophisticated. She is still that care-free woman who loves to sing and dance, and be the center of attention. He then offers to help her, to show her "the truth" and she agrees to it.
Common topics in this essay:
Jules Dassin,
Melina Mercouri,
,
Finally Milto,
Michael Cacoyannis,
Deep Ilia,
Milto Milto,
It's OK,
Homer Ilia,
Ilia Iphigenia,
greek culture,
ok woman,
strong woman,
life change,
weaker sex,
it's ok woman,
mind own,
ancient greek,
woman feel,
director portray,
sing dance,
takes strength woman,
|
Acceptance Essays
