Reactions to Mona Lisa Smile

I really liked Mona Lisa Smile. On the one hand I like the romantic notion of being apart of a school like Wellesley that has a strong tradition base that connects you to other women who have gone before you. I loved the beauty of the campus and buildings and even got a kick out of the opening ceremony. It seems that Katherine Watson might have also drawn to Wellesley for those same romantic notions. 

On the other hand those same traditions come with a cost. The cost of fitting into those  traditions is to squelch your own sense of creativity and uniqueness in order to fit into roles that have previously been set and expectations that have nothing to do with your own hopes and dreams. Joan’s editorial of Ms. Watson made it very clear that by challenging the girls to look beyond and consider something new, she was “disregarding the roles they (the girls) were born to fulfill”. In this case these roles were to marry and be housewives versus to further their own educations and have careers of their own. 

In the tension of tradition and expectation, Ms. Watson led by example, proving herself a great educator and mentor who was true to herself and compelled others to look beyond:  “To seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image”.  In this way she made the difference that she had sought to make when she arrived at Wellesley.