The roles of family and values were largely emphasized in the films Gone with the Wind, The Godfather and the Joy Luck Club. Even though they looked at family from very different perspectives, because of the various storyline, time settings, background and the different plots.
However, they share a common idea of the family and how important it is throughout one’s life. Gone with the wind was one of the most beloved film as it presents a sentimental view of the family in which Scarlett struggles to protect her family and beloved home, Tara, through times of war (i. . by shooting a Yankee).She sought to control her economic status for the family, first by planting cotton and then running a successful lumber business later in her life.
It shows how much effort she had put in to help her family even through the Civil War years. Throughout the film, we can see that family values within Scarlett did not change. It has always been very significant to her even at the beginning of the film when she was a spoiled, selfish Southern girl.We can see this at the beginning when she went to greet her father after his trip. We can also see that Scarlett saw family as a support through her times away from home. Therefore we can understand her excitement when she arrived home as she cries out ‘mother, mother, I’m home! ‘ On the other hand, Scarlett showed her sadness when she realized how her hometown have been slaughtered by the Yankees, facing a mentally declining father, not only did Scarlett stuck by her family but reassured him by saying “Don’t worry about anything, Scarlett’s home. However, the family continually faces threats to their lives as there was a lot to worry about, including Melanie’s new born baby, her sick sisters and the lack of food and money.
Despite these problems, Scarlett vowed to save the plantation to become “the head of the family. ” It was interesting to see how Scarlett was enforced into becoming a hard and defiant woman, due to the troublesome surroundings especially when she clenched her fists and said “..
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. I will never be hungry again, no, nor any of my folks..
. This clearly shows how much her family means to her. However, her effort in setting up her own family seems to be rejected, despite many attempts including marrying 3 husbands. Therefore, it was fascinating to see how her defiant behaviour was eventually punished by Butler’s cool response of denying her love “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. ” With Scarlett’s strong personality, she refused to acknowledge this rejection. As she knows that she can always return to her home Tara, the place where generations of her family has been.Gone with the Wind showed how a girl with strong family values stuck by her family during hardship while The Joy Luck Club concentrated on the mothers instead and how they insist on sticking to their own family values, what they believe is right. The Joy Luck Club unraveled the life stories of Chinese women in four different families, and the different types of mother-daughter relationships.
Even though Amy Tan only explored the mother-daughter relationship rather than family as a whole, it still showed that family members are the priority for them.It clearly reveals the problems that people may face within a family, such as lack of communication or misunderstanding through the generation gap. For example, the Americanized June never feels that she can live up to her mother’s expectations.
However, we can see between Suyuan and June that despite the confusion and conflict, their relationship ultimately composed of deep love and commitment for one another. This was mainly due to the drastic differences in their life experiences. These conflicts are only resolved when June realizes her mother’s past.
The relationship and conflicts they face developed in a way to raise awareness of our life, decision of choices, understanding ourselves and our families which were cleverly addressed by the director. During the film, we were constantly reminded of the significance of family values and the role it should play in our lives. Particularly in third section of the film where mothers gave advice regarding to their daughters’ problems, the daughters either took the advice or ignored it. It was not until the end when the daughters finally realize that their mothers had been right about everything all along.According to this film, the roles of mothers are very valuable and significant, as one of the “aunties” said “…
Your mother is in your bones” The power and importance of the mother-daughter bond is the central theme in this film. Family is vital which carries hope, pride, sacrifices and happiness. It also contained a message to say that family is always important and it never hurts to listen. In The Joy Luck Club, there was very little emphasis on men or male characters, the film was mainly dominated by women.We can see a big contrast of this with The Godfather because there is little room for women in The Godfather and for those women who exist in the film was an insignificant shadow. The Godfather is a story that traces the history of a Mafia family over a ten year period in which power is passed between generations. This may be a reason why women received very little attention. This film tends to value the concept of family even more than the other two films discussed.
Family is important to the extent that nothing comes before your family and each member of the family is equally vital.The first sign showing the importance of family values is when the Don was worried about not having one of his sons Michael in the family portrait, as he asks “Where’s Michael?…
We’re not taking the picture without Michael. ” Or later on when the Don stated “… A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. ” However, Michael denied some of his father’s family values at the beginning to an extent because he did not want to be involved with the mafia. Therefore, he rejected some of his father’s family values by reassuring his girlfriend “That’s my family, Kay.It’s not me.
” However, it was interesting to see how Michael changed from an independent young man to a merciless mafia Don. This dramatic change derived from Michael’s killing of his family’s enemy Sollozzo. During this change, he developed his father’s family values and loyalty to the family. It was to the point where he had to remind his brother who opposed his own family’s interest and support an outsider, Michael said “Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you.But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the Family again, ever.
Throughout this film, the director constantly sends out the message that the most important thing in life is the family, and the loyalty to the family. All these films have a different perspective of family values and the roles of family. The level of family values and their concentration on family issues for each of the film varies and are slightly different. However, they all come to a similar agreement that family is an important issue in our lives. Nothing is more important than your own family, something that will always be with you.
