PHIC

Pat2107

anyone got cultural context notes on philedelphia here i come?

Cultural context sample answer

Compare the texts on your comparative course under the term, cultural context.

Cultural context consists of the worlds of the texts, or the circumstances which face the plots and characters of the texts. Some elements of cultural context are the world’s attitudes, social rituals, structures and how cultural contexts influence the resolution of these texts.
The texts I have studied are the novel The Secret Life of Bees (SLB) by Susan Monk Kidd, the play Philadelphia Here I Come (PH) by Brian Friel and the film Cinema Paradiso (CP) by Tornatore.

One way to compare the texts on my comparative course under the term cultural context is to look at each text’s world’s attitude to education. Throughout the three texts on my comparative course education is viewed as important, showing the three texts to contain worlds and cultural contexts which value education, learning and knowledge, but for different reasons.
This is seen with PH. Here education is prioritised. The teacher in the play gives Gar a book of poetry, symbolizing his belief and the world’s in the importance of education and of a person being learned. This is mirrored in CP. Alfredo shows this with Toto. He places heavy emphasis on Toto passing his test, and uses Toto’s affection for him to manipulate him to focus his energy on passing the exam. While perhaps Toto does it for Alfredo and not for the sake of gaining education, Alfredo shows that he believes Toto needs education and perhaps we can here take the view of the adult more plausibly than the child. More of the same is seen with SLB. Here again education and intelligence is seen as something which should be attained. In one memory of Lily’s relating to reading, a teacher praises her for being intelligent and lends her books. Elsewhere she longs to become a writer, seeings books (which can be assocaited with education here as it is her love of reading that gets her praise from the teacher for being intelligent) as a way to escape or transcend one’s circumstances. Knowledge and education are seen as something to have rather than not to have in the text.

Another way to compare the texts I have studied under cultural context is to compare their possessing of religious rituals. Throughout the worlds of the texts on my comparative course religious rituals are identifiable, representing often worlds and cultural contexts who perhaps are uncertain or not in control of themselves, and rely on a different power to guide them or even keep them secure in a structure and routine, or sometimes worlds trapped by religion and its rituals.
We see religious rituals in SLB, such as the Daughters of Mary’s worshipping at the statue of Mary nightly. As a statue, the black Mary symbolizes the importance of having faith and believing in something larger than one’s self. August even considers Mary the mother of all humanity, showing how religion is recognized as a power force in the novel.More of the same is seen with PHIC. We see another religious ritual with the saying of grace before dinner. Again the world is governed by religious ritual, emphasizing an awareness of acting toward God, perhaps with one eye on the next world. Again we see religious rituals in CP, but with a difference through the power of the priest. Another world is presented to us which is governed by religious ritual but here this is not chosen; here the priest declares what is unsuitable material for film and hence what can and cannot be watched by the audience. At one stage he labels kissing on screen ‘smut’. The world is told how to act religiously, unlike the other worlds where they choose to act religiously.

As well as religious rituals, the texts on my comparative course can be compared through their structures. These worlds can be compared by their differing structures, all of which are unique; often we see hierarchical structure which tie people in tightly to their role, whereas in other texts we see little or no structure where people are free from constraint.
In PH the world is structured hierarchically. Class dicates how and where people are ranked. We see this as Gar is refused the position as Kate’s husband as he is not at a suitable level on the social structure. Kate is the daughter of a senator and thus can only marry in a suitable social circle, seen with her marriage to the local doctor.
Again we have a hierarchial social structure in CP. Here however wealth defines ranking. This is presented explicitly in the cinema. The well-off people sit higher, above the not so well-off people, resembling the structure of the world where the well-off are ranked higher than the not so well-off. Another hierarchical social structure is evident here. Females are subordinate in the world of the text. This is seen by the fact that when Lily has left to head toward a town loosely associated with her deceased mother, this is associated with breaking the law by Rosaleen’s annoyance of Lily breaking this law. Here Monk subtley shows how all, even female characters, are part of the cause of this hierarchial structure.

The final way to compare the texts I have studied is to compare how their cultural contexts influence the outcomes of each text. In doing so, we see how the unique worlds of the texts play a crucial role in how the texts are resolved; unlike other texts it is not simply character or plot which influences the text’s resolution.
In PH structure influences the outcome of the plots. Gar plans to go to America to gain more freedom from what he sees as a stifling way of life. Having failed to attain a suitable position in the society of Ballybeg, partly because of his failed interview with the Senator which led to him losing Kate, Gar decides to move to America where he has a greater hope of attaining a suitable rank in society. There is a change with SLB as religious rituals influences the outcome of the plot. At the novel’s end though her father arrives angry and violent, Lily finally has the strength to confront him about the past – this strength can be identified as coming from her new-found faith from the Black Mary, which allows her believe in something larger than the self. The religious rituals of worshipping the statue form and strengthen the relationship between August and Mary; August convinces T. Ray to let Lily stay in Tiburon at the end. Another change is seen with CP as structure influences the outcome here. Here it is only because Toto is rich and famous that he decides to return to Sicily. He left to find these things and it appears as though he has lost contact for some time with his childhood setting and everything associated with it; this is symbolized through his recalling of his childhood, almost as if he is trying to remember what has happened and where everything is and why it is there.

As shown, cultural context consists of the worlds of the texts, or the circumstances which face the plots and characters of the texts.
The three texts above can be compared when concerning this. This can be seen when comparing them under their attitudes to edcuation, religious rituals, structure and how these worlds are crucial in resolving the plots which are born and grow in these worlds.