My Big Fat Greek Wedding Essay

The film , My Big Fat Greek Wedding, portrays a clear conceptual view of intercultural communication between families by focusing on two cultures, White-American, and Greek, and making a mockery out of the cultural stereotypes within these cultures. The film follows the story of Toula Portokalos, a 30 year old American-Greek woman working as a waitress in her family’s greek restaurant. The movie shows a strong but stereotypical representation of what a greek family is like; some stereotypes, focused on in the film, are that Greek heritage is highly honored, Greeks are very emotional and clingy, family to Greeks is very important, and strong reliance on parental figures, both financially, and instructionally, is typical and supported in a

Ian is not greek, and this disappoints Toula’s family, considering the many differences between Ian and Toula’s cultures, which makes the two families clash. A good example of culture clash, was in the scene where Toula’s family, invites over Ian’s, and their parents meet for the first time. In this scene, you can distinctly see the discomfort each family gets when being introduced, simply because of the differences in their cultures; Ian’s parents are hesitant to approach Toula’s family’s crazy family party, while Toula’s family shows no hesitation to run right up and hug and kiss Ian’s parents, making it obvious that the two families have nothing in common. On the topic of interpersonal relationships, this scene depicted that unlike Americans, Greeks are more emotionally expressive through body language and gestures, and also have no personal space. The movie portrays American families, on the other hand, to be emotionally empty, and uninvolved in their child’s