My Big Fat Greek Wedding Analysis
Our culture is a part of what makes us who we are and how we communicate with others. My Big Fat Greek Wedding does an amazing job at illustrating cultural differences and all the dilemmas that occur from them. More importantly, the film shows us that with proper communication people can find a way to get along, no matter how significant the cultural differences may be.
Cultural communication barriers are seen many times throughout the film. One example of this could be when Ian’s parents were attending his wedding and mentioned they couldn’t understand anything the Greek orthodox minister was saying and were astonished at the sight of people in the audience spitting on the bride. Another example might be when Ian mentioned to Toula’s Aunt that he was a vegetarian and she insisted that lamb was not considered meat.
In the film we see also many instances of misunderstandings that arise due to the differences in culture. For example, when Ian met Toula’s father for the first time, Toula’s father took it as an insult that Ian did not ask permission before attempting to date his daughter. Due to Ian’s ignorance of nurturing culture like Greek culture, Ian unintentionally angered Toula’s father by his actions. Another example is when Ian’s parents meet Toula’s family for the first time. Ian’s parents also unintentionally upset Toula’s father by acting too uptight. Greek culture is classified as a collectivistic culture, so it easy to see how acting fairly reserved could come across as distasteful.
Despite all the significant differences between the two families culture, in the end they were able to happily coexist and learn from eachother. The Miller family learnt how to loosen up and be more accepting of other cultures, while the Portokalos’ learnt that being different isn’t necessary a bad