Feminism in Mona Lisa Smile Essay - 915 Words

Mona Lisa Smile takes place in 1953 and tells the story of a feminist teacher who studied at UCLA graduate school and left as a first-year teacher from Oakland State University. She also leaves her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles, California, to teach at Wellesley College, a conservative womens private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, United States. Katherine Ann Watson tries to open her students minds to their freedom to do whatever they want with their lives. She encourages her students to believe in themselves, to study to become career professionals, and to improve their economic futures. She uses her art teachings as a vehicle to put across her opinion to the young women; that her students neednt conform to stereotypes of†¦show more content†¦Watson showed them how to live. The ideas about schooling of girls in that time were persistently influenced by the dominant ideologies regarding the role of women in wider society. The dominant ideal upheld by the middle cla sses for women was that of the good wife and mother, so the girls were offered a curriculum that would make them attractive in the marriage market. In Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Watson challenges the college’s existing practices for the girls. She presents more liberal feminist ideas that are taken especially by three of her students, Betty Warren, Joan Brandwyn and Giselle Levy. These three girls thought they had everything figured out for their future. Throughout the movie they constantly challenged Ms. Waston’s ideas about the future of women and in the end they realized there was so much more to life then what they were previously taught by their mothers and teachers. Joan was my favorite character. She was very bright and was more open about Ms. Watson’s teaching. She constantly questioned her and wanted to know more, instead of not listening at all like a lot of the other girls. Joan has the love of a Harvard boy and plans on getting married to him after co llege. But deep down she has thought about going to law school but thinks it would be wrong to go onto more schooling to peruse a career instead of getting married and having children. Giselle Levy is the promiscuous girl of the group. She is smart as well and agrees with aShow MoreRelatedAn Abstraction of Application Psychoanalysis on Mona Lisa Smile Movie1129 Words   |  5 PagesAN ABSTRACTION OF APPLICATION PSYCHOANALYSIS ON MONA LISA SMILE MOVIE By : Yoga Sudarisman In the late 19th century Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud developed a theory of personality and a system of psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis. According to this theory, people are strongly influenced by unconscious forces, including innate sexual and aggressive drives. Sigmund Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg. 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