This is my first draft of Paper2. It’s a very typical counterexample of what an argument should be. I use “communication & love”, which is a very general topic, as the title of my paper. Then I analyze each love affair and show why it’s important for the movie to prove my thesis “each relationship has its own meaning”. But When I look back, I realize my argument is pale and weak since I can’t find any powerful evidence to prove it. At the conference with Professor Kim, she tells me to combine the keywords like “desire” “communication” “announcement” “unexpected ending” together. Finally, I decide my claim–Making announcements is one of the most effective and acceptable ways for characters to express their improper and unexpected behaviors. This claim gives me more space to develop because it’s easier for me to find evidence from the movie. This paper tells me the difference between analysis and argument and teaches me how to write a powerful and arguable thesis.
Yifei Du (Cathy)
09/23/14
WR100 Professor Kim
Paper2 First Draft-“Communication & Love”
“Eat Drink Man Woman”, directed by Ang Lee, is a movie about family problem and generation conflict. The leading role of the whole movie is a retired chef whose name is Mr. Chu. He has three daughters who have different personalities and hold different values about life and love. In this film, Mr. Chu uses food to maintain the harmony of family but every time he receives the shocking news at the dinner table. All daughters prefer to announce instead of communicating and that’s why their soul are leaving gradually. We see a lot of types of love in this film and I believe that each relationship has its own meaning.
Mr. Chu believes that food stimulates family bonding but every time when he and his three daughters sit and eat together, they are not trying to bond with each other, and that why the food is always left over. They prefer announcement instead of communication. For example, his first daughter-Jiazhen announces that she has already married with Coach, his second daughter-Jiaqian announces that she is cheated and loses everything that she has, and his youngest daughter-Jianing announces that she is pregnant so she has to leave home and starts her own life. Every daughter leaves no space for consulting and negotiating. They try to be independent, try to decide everything by themselves and get away from their family as soon as possible.
Mr. Chu is not only a father but also a man, who needs love and sex. He chooses to tell his daughters that he falls in love with Jinrong because he cares about them even the relationship is just about two people. Mr. Chu is extremely responsible to his family. He does a lot of things that a mother should do and he bears a lot in the process of the whole story. Although he is professional in the field of cooking, who is really needed by the restaurant, he is a tender guy in his family. But at the end of the story, he gets his taste back and tells everyone that he falls in love with Jinrong, everybody is shocked. He did everything for others, but no one cares about his feeling. I think it’s a kind of hope of the director-Ang Lee who wants to express that it’s time for the father to take off the burden and get what he desires.
Love is the center view of the movie. The love between Mr. Chu and his wife is deep but lack of romance and enthusiasm. The first daughter-Jiazhen treats this relationship as the old blind date and the second daughter-Jiaqian thinks that they have no love since they always fight with each other. Although they get together not purely because they love each other, we see many scenes about the portrait of the dead wife.
The love between Mr.Chu and Jinrong is the true love with regardless of public opinion. Love makes people crazy and encourages people to find freedom.
How about Jiazhen’s love? She is a typical woman who is entangled with the traditional thought. She is obstinate, sensitive and restrained. She is afraid to love and to be loved. She imagines a relationship that does not exist and she uses religious faith to anesthetize herself. But at the end of the film, she explodes in silence since she marries with Coach and leaves home at the first day when they confirm their relationship.
The second daughter-Jiaqian has a typical postmodern love in this film. She not only has the relationship with a guy who has family but also has an ambiguous relationship with her peer of work. She should be considered as the most dissolute woman in this story but if we can watch this film carefully, we will see that her inner bones still contain the feudal thoughts. She chooses to alienate his former boyfriend when she knows that he is going to be married and to alienate his co-worker when she thinks that he is her sister’s former boyfriend. She has no regard for the old and ordinary love but she finally gets a bleak ending because of irresponsibility. I think it’s a kind of criticism that Ang Lee wants to express, and that’s why he chooses the second daughter-Jiaqian to be the only one who accompanies with Mr. Chu.
Finally, let’s talk about the love of the third daughter. Although she is the youngest girl in this film, she is the earliest one who marries with someone and has a baby. It’s definitely the most impulsive love in “Eat Drink Man Woman.”
In conclusion, Mr. Chu uses food to hold his family together. Everybody has desires for both food and love.