Anna and the King free essay sample

This movie shows the differences between two persons personality, cultures The Oriental culture represented by King Mongkut and the Occidental culture represented by Anna. This differences strated when Anna came to Siam with her son Louis to teach the children of the King. Anna is direct person she says what she thinks, she has a strong character and the king is an inflexible person with a good heart and a strong desire of make his people progress without forgetting their own culture but he is used to be treat like a god because in the Siam culture the King is treat like a god, everyone have to venerate the king by kneel down in front of him and it was not allowed to anyone to look at him at the eyes but for Anna the king was an important person who deserved respect and her way of showing was making a bow and talk to him looking straigh to his eyes because for her not looking to a person when they were talking was unrespecful. We will write a custom essay sample on Anna and the King or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Anna and the King talk to each other and she told him that she denies to kneel down in front of him because this was not her culture and that she was a guest so she just will made a reverence to show her respect to him, and the king agree with the condition that her head should not be over his head. Other cultural difference that they experience was when Anna found a Slave outside chained because she has been punished for trying to buy her liberty, she didn? like this and she went and talk to the king about this injustice, but for the king this was a normal thing and she explain to him that people shouldn? t be slaves because they are human beings just like any other person, when the king heard Anna reasons he decided to talk to the owner of the slave and give the slave her liberty. Another cultural difference is what happened with Tuptim the favorite concubine of the king who was already engaged when brought to the court. The King is kind to her, but shes too unhappy and at last runs away, disguising herself as a young man and joining the monastery where her fiance, Khun Phra Balat, lives. She is tracked down and brought back to the palace, imprisoned, and initially caned along with her Balat. Although the King intended to mitigate the severity of the final charges, Anna, in front of the entire court, insists that the King be merciful, severely limiting the Kings ability to sanction a lesser punishment out of political and cultural concern that it would appear as though he had been lenient because of Annas insistence; Tuptim and Balat are beheaded in front of the entire court, despite the well held belief that the sentence is monstrously unfair. Besides this differences Anna respects but doesn? t share the same idea of how Siam men treat the women because women cannot decided with whom she would like to get married, they cannos express her opinion or ideas about a situation or topic and also cannnot decided what they want to study if the husband do not allow her to do it. Also she had a problem with Prince Chulalongkorn was because he said to her that because she doesn? t have a husband explains her strong personality ideas and ways of her expressions this is why Louis beat the prince saying that he was insulting his father memory. Other difference is that the occidental custom is that men should be monogamous this means that men should only have one wife, insteads of Siam polygamous custom that the King have an Harem with all of his wifes and concubins. Among other differences that do not take much imporatnce in the movie are the religion because everyone in Siam practice buddism and Anna and Louis were Cristians, the Siam food because they have to get used to tha type of food, and the clothing although they never dressed like Siam people. At the end of the movie Anna and the King fall in love but they also understand that their love cannot be posible because of their differences, but both learn new and interesting things and how to understand the different cultures, personalities of each other