Preview

Not Without My Daughter

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
606 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Not Without My Daughter
“Not Without My Daughter” Perspectives Essay

In the Movie Not Without My Daughter, there are many sociological perspectives that can be used to analyze the events of the movie. Some may agree with what was done and say that this is the way of life there, while others may strongly disagree and simply be disgusted by the whole concept based on the fact that they grew in a different society. Overall the movie presents a multicultural couple with a girl, the husband Iranian and the wife is an American. The husband suddenly decided to bring his family back to Iran and live there. The wife gets lured to come to Iran and thus she can’t leave the country because her husband got her passport. In the end the wife escapes with the daughter to Turkey and back to the USA. There are several scenes throughout the movie that can be analyzed in different sociological perspectives, one of which is the scene where the wife is offered a chance to leave but without her daughter, weights the options and decides not to go. This can be analyzed with the systems theory, the social exchange theory, and the conflict theory.

When one decides to analyze this scene using the systems theory, one would conclude that the decision made by the wife was simply because of the fact that she was trying to work things out and go with the idea that when one of the family members is going through a phase or a problem the whole family must adapt and help that member out. A systems theory expert would suggest that the wife was simply trying to reason with him and bear with him through his phase.

If a social exchange theory expert was to analyze this scene he would say that the wife was looking at what would be more efficient for her, to stay in Iran with her daughter and not leave without her or to save herself and get the daughter later. The decision was made not to leave without the daughter and therefore all the struggle has occurred and all of the problems occurred. As well as the decision,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Chapter Two: The Absent Meanings in Chaotic Iraqi Women's life in Absent: War marks everyday Iraqi life for the past thirty years. Internal wars and then wars with the neighboring countries, especially Iran after its 1979 Islamic revolution, have marked the rhythm of existence in the world’s oldest civilization. The interference of the hegemonic United States, that controls hegemonic ideology and discourse of power, on Saddam Hussein’s behalf in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980–88 empowered the new president until the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 that turned the former supporters into enemies. In March 2003 the United States and its allies invaded and occupied Iraq. These events that the Iraqis' witnessed are an excellent application of psychological…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Islamophobia In Amreeka

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages

    civilization. In the movie, A divorced mother (Muna) and her son (Fadi) travel to America from…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Her behavior changes as she adjusts to her condition. She tends to avoid a lot of movement and strenuous jobs. She seeks more help at work from her colleagues. This makes her feel more dependent on others. She does not have a comfortable relationship with her patients since she cannot attend to their medical needs, sit with them for longer and adjust their beds and pillows easily for comfort since she is under pain. At home, she limits her playing sessions with the children. She seeks more assistance from her partner than before. Her children have to learn to do simple jobs by themselves. They feel distanced from their mother and do not understand why. The mother sees these emotions and distance and emotionally, it hurts and drains her. Her partner has to play mum and dad to the children. He is more tired than before. As a result, they can blame the wife for her sickness. Eventually, the nurse feels like she is a liability to the hospital and her friends. She feels lonely and less useful and helpless at home. She develops stress and anxiety. She is less social and happy. She puts on weight due to the depression and reduced muscle activity. Emotional breakdowns are manifest in new behavior such as high irritability, lack of or increased appetite for sugar and high calorie food, too much time spent watching TV or reading alone. Her cognitive responses change. According to cognitive theory, she expresses her emotions as she feels them, be they positive or negative, mild or strong.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The man is respectful and delighted to enter the country, and luckily for him, he has all of the right documentation to enter the country. As the player gives back the passport to the man, he then mentions that his wife is behind him and pleads to let her through. The wife appears afterwards, and unfortunately, does not have all of the documents to legally enter the country. She also mentions to the player that if she were to go back to her country, she will most likely be killed. The player is then presented with a moral dilemma, and must make a decision at that exact moment. If the player lets her in, he or she will receive a citation and could possibly affect the amount of money they could bring back to their family. This money determines the health of the entire family; food, rent, medicine, etc. are used to provide for the player and their family as they barely scrape through poverty. The player also risks letting in a terrorist and risking the lives of citizens as well as getting in trouble with the law and being thrown in jail. However, the player will also feel content for letting the wife in and keeping a family together, as well as maybe even saving her life and keeping them safe. If the player does not let her through, the exact opposite happens. The player receives personal gain but will most likely feel guilt for sending a woman possibly to her…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    affect her decision to go through with it. When her sister Ismene and her were going back and forth about why she should and should not continue with the task, she disregards what Ismene says because in her mind she…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    which puts a strain on her marriage, but she can see no end in sight. That is why, when she finds…

    • 1984 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The seventh and final component to consider when assessing a family's decision-making process is to realize that some families do not value a sort of shared governance (Hepworth et al, 2002). Many families place worth in having one or two people who make all the decisions. If this is not recognized and alternative ideals are forced into the family functioning, the possibility of disruption in patterns arises (Hepworth et al, 2002). Until Mama died, it was important for her to hold the position of "final decision maker" as her last piece of worth and…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Conflict In A Separation

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages

    - She is caught in the middle of conflict he lays onus on her to direct his choices…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nasser Ali married Nahid because he couldn’t marry Irane. He wishes death upon himself after he sees Irane and his grandchild…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Iranian revolution of 1979 refers to the overthrowing of the last king of Iran. It was an Islamic revolution which attempted to replace Mohammed Reza Shah, with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution. Strong opposition against the Shah showed that the people wanted a religious ruler rather than someone they saw as an American puppet. Many Iranian people would think that the Shah was a ‘capitalist pig’ who ran a corrupt and repressive regime but tried to embrace western style democracy. In saying this, Iran was a very developed and modern nation during the Shah’s reign where students were educated together and westernization took over. The Shah, who was supported by many western powers, ruled Iran like a dictatorship. He oppressed his people, many of which were illiterate, and kept most of them in poverty which made him very unpopular. The people of Iran were living in an oil rich country, and yet poverty was not uncommon. They enjoyed freedoms unheard of in Saudi Arabia, yet were kept under the brutal force of the secret police, the Savak. On the other hand when Khomeini took over the government was a theocracy and ended all progression in Iran and forced his Islamic rules on the people. Iran became a completely different nation after Khomeini took power losing all its foreign industry and development. Khomeini believed that Iran was losing its origins and history to Americanization. He ruled using the Quran, the Islamic holy book. This meant new Islamic laws were imposed on people, a new dress code was coerced on woman while men had more freedoms displaying patriarchy in society. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were ostensibly protected, at least as long as it did not contradict Islamic law. He expelled all other influences whereas the shah agreed with capitalism and modernization on the culture and economy. This caused Khomeini to cut off western influence…

    • 2324 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Road to Chilfa

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Now, let’s focus on the other main character, Maha, the girl who gave the proposal to go to Chlifa as well as taking care of a baby along their journey. In my eyes, she is an impossibly brave and sensitive girl with a fragile heart. She always pretends to be strong but in fact she has been hurt by Karim again and again. She fell in love with Karim in a silent way and she is willing to be his soul mate during their…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not Without My Daughter

    • 773 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lighting, framing, camera angles, and music are two elements of film that can evoke strong emotional responses called textual features of film. Many of these features are prevalent in the film Not Without My Daughter. This film is set in the 1980’s during the Iranian Revolution. The Mahmoody family consists of husband and wife, Moody and Betty, and their daughter, Mahtob, who decide to visit Iran. In Iran, Moody decides to keep his family but Betty does not want to stay. Betty tries to escape multiple times but Moody catches her and resorts to beating his wife in attempts to keep her there. Brian Gilbert used textual features such as lighting, camera angles, shots and music to demonstrate the conflict between the members of the Mahmoody family.…

    • 773 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The conflict in this story is the couple’s decision to either keep the baby or have an abortion. During this story the American man and his girlfriend, Jig fail to have a direct conservation about the unplanned pregnancy instead, they bicker and disagree about everything. Here are a few examples of conflict between Jig and her boyfriend “oh cut it out” (591) and “Well let’s try and have a fine time” (591). By the end of the story, the couple’s inability to talk about the pregnancy may have caused them their relationship.…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The husband needs to take steps to solve the problems. When we meet a problem, we ought to think about solving the problem and face it bravely. Also, communication helps us to fix the problem in a more efficient way. When the husband had a problem about the coffee and the rope, he didn’t discuss the situation or try to settle the problem with her wife. “Sometimes it seemed to her he had second sight about the precisely prefect moment to leave her ditched” (528). He just tried to avoid the confrontation and got away. His inability to understand…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not Without My Daughter

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This movie is based on the book with the same title that was written by the woman who actually lived through this ordeal. If you read the book, you will see that over and over again, Betty states that not all Iranians are bad. In fact, she frequently mentions that without the help of many friendly Iranians, she would never have gotten out of Iran alive.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics