Language In Mona Lisa Smile

For part 1 of English course we studied about language in cultural context and explored different texts that express global cultural values. This written task relates to my study of language in cultural context and, in particular, to the focus on the gender inequality.

In this part of my course, I have considered how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts. The other learning outcome I believe I had achieved is to demonstrate an awareness of how language and meaning are shaped by culture.

In addition, my written task is informed by my study of the gender inequality in the film, “Mona Lisa Smile” which explores life through feminism, marriage and education led by a modernist teacher in the circa of the 1950’s. Accordingly, for this written task, I wrote an informal letter to Katherine Ann Watson, the main character in the film, as Lalithambika Antharjanam, an Indian author and social reformer. Undoubtedly, the target audience would be Katherine. To her,

I couldn’t decide which emotion was stronger as this marriage went along with the expensive dowry; guilty since I was nothing but a huge expense to my parents; disgusted due to the sexism in patriarchal society. You were right, women are so much more than gratification to a man. Whatever we suggest meant nothing but an outcry of an irrational woman, going off just emotions. We are always behind man. Man has dominance over woman. We had totally no say of how things were done. As a wife, I was expected to prepare the meals and eat only after the men, with whatever meager amount left. Surprisingly, I wasn’t malnourished like the other women in the village who didn’t only looked like scarecrows but had blotches of blue-black bruises as a result of the domestic