Mona Lisa Smile-Then and Now

By watching Mona Lisa Smile, I noticed that life as a young adult during the 1950 's was similar and very different than how life is now in 2005. In the 1950 's birth control was unheard of and people made it out to be against the law whereas today, birth control is the most widely used drug to prevent pregnancy. Within a typical 1950 's household, the soul responsibility of a wife was taking care of her husband and kids and the husband’s role was working for his family and keeping them financially stable, which males still make the effort to do. Similarly, a wife’s role today is also providing financial stability and actually finding a job in the workforce. Moreover, women’s roles in the 1950 's differentiate the most from the roles in 2005. Today, young adults go to college to educate themselves and to prepare themselves for their future and for when they enter the workforce, most expectations of students attending college. Similarly students in the 1950 's received an excellent education, yet it seemed that social forces interfered with the hopes of their careers and focused more on marriage or “the family.” On an ending note, the concept of the “nuclear family” during the 1950 's and in 2005 was generally seen by society as the wife, husband, and kids. One theory clearly expressed in Mona Lisa Smile was the functionalist theory. In one situation in the movie, Giselle shocks her friends, especially Becky Warren (Kirsten Dunst), when she tells them she is on birth control and had gotten it through the school nurse. Since it was unheard of for girls to be on the pill, they were all speechless except for Becky which in response wrote an article pertaining to birth control ridiculing the school nurse. As a result, the school nurse lost her job. This situation shows that in the 1950 's society was strict and women had a high standard of values to meet and morals to abide by. Another situation that showed functionalism was portrayed by Becky Warren and Joan