The movie “The Scent of Green Papaya” revolves around a servant girl named Mui who goes to work for an affluent Vietnamese family during the Vietnam War. Within the movie there are many symbols of war, nature, and gender roles.
When the movie starts, there are airplane noises in the background that the audience can hear flying over the house. Also, they point out several times throughout the movie that they must be home by a certain time because there is a curfew. These symbols are meant to reiterate the point to the audience that there is a war going on during the movie. The little boy in the movie is seen many times picking on Mui. He goes to the bathroom in a vase that she has to clean, he dangles a lizard over her shoulder, and he almost knocks over her water bucket. His action symbolize the way Vietnam was treated by the various countries that came in and attempted to change the country. The little boy is also seen dripping hot wax on ants, which is very close to the way the Americans used napalm on the Vietnamese people during the war.
The film shows a lot of nature and animals. The whole house is open on all sides, exposing it to the outdoors and all of nature. Mui is often seen admiring the plants and animals, even the ants that are around the house. In the beginning of the movie, Mui is cutting up a papaya and the older servant tells her to throw the rest of it away, but Mui cuts it open and appreciates the seeds inside of the papaya. Mui also watches the papaya tree as the pants leak juice onto the leaves below. These small acts by Mui represent just how much the Vietnamese people care about their land and the nature that they have. The Vietnamese people appreciate the nature that they have and make it a habit to observe it every day.
The roles of the females and males are very apparent in this movie. The servants are only women and are always either cooking for the masters or cleaning the house. The father and is sons are sitting at the table waiting for their food and go to school. The sons don’t get in trouble for their wrongdoings even though they act out and Mui never does. Mui discovers that the husband has left his wife three times before with all of their money and she still welcomes him back into the house. The grandmother tells the wife it was her fault for not being a better wife to him. When he returns to the house, she’s not upset with him, but she is relieved that he has come back to her even though he openly disrespected her.
The movie “The Scent of Green Papaya” revolved around a servant girl named Mui who goes to work for an affluent Vietnamese family during the Vietnam War. Within the movie there were many symbols of war, nature, and gender roles.
ReplyDeleteWhen the movie started, there were airplane noises in the background that the audience could hear flying over the house. Also, they point out several times throughout the movie that they must be home by a certain time because there is a curfew. These symbols were meant to reiterate the point to the audience that there was a war going on during the movie. The little boy in the movie was seen many times picking on Mui. He went to the bathroom in a vase that she had to clean, he dangled a lizard over her shoulder, and he almost knocked over her water bucket. His action symbolize the way Vietnam was treated by the various countries that came in and attempted to change the country. The little boy was also seen dripping hot wax on ants, which was very close to the way the Americans used napalm on the Vietnamese people during the war.
The film showed a lot of nature and animals. The whole house was open on all sides, exposing it to the outdoors and all of nature. Mui was often seen admiring the plants and animals, even the ants that were around the house. In the beginning of the movie, Mui was cutting up a papaya and the older servant told her to throw the rest of it away, but Mui cut it open and appreciated the seeds inside of the papaya. Those small acts by Mui represent just how much the Vietnamese people cared about their land and the nature surrounding them. The Vietnamese people appreciated the nature that they had and made it a habit to observe it every day. They nurtured the food they had and did not allow the war to stop them from having the pleasure of nature. The cricket in the movie was heard very often as a reminder of the nature they kept in their lives.
The roles of the females and males were very apparent in this movie. The servants were only women and were always cooking for the masters or cleaning the house. The father and his sons were sitting at the table waiting for their food and to go to school. The sons didn’t get in trouble for their wrongdoings even though they acted out and Mui never did. Mui discovered that the husband had left his wife three times before with all of their money and she still welcomed him back into the house. The grandmother told the wife it was her fault for not being a better wife to him. When he returned to the house, she was not upset with him, but she was relieved that he had come back to her even though he openly disrespected her. This showed that the men were very dominant in Vietnamese culture and the women had to cater to their needs. They were not allowed to put up a fight against the men and were obedient to their every need.