Interpersonal Conflict in Spanglish
Dolores Franquiz
COM200
Instructor: Katherine Tracy
September 30, 2013
The film Spanglish portrays many different interpersonal conflicts among the characters. Interpersonal conflicts is between two or more people it can be personal, an angry disagreement.
Conflict can involve emotions and feelings and in the film Spanglish both of these where discussed. (Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication; Kathy Sole)
The first conflict that is evident throughout the film was the language barrier and different cultural background. In the film one of the most noticeable conflicts occurs between Flor, the house keeper, and Deborah, the mother. The movie is constructed on the struggles of relationships, with others characters of the film and within themselves. Flor's personality and parenting methods conflict with Deborah's approach. This ...view middle of the document...
Deborah expects Flor to move into the beach house for the summer. Deborah did not consider the fact that Flor has a life outside of her job which is something that her mother, Evelyn, brought to her attention and Deborah just ignored. Deborah finds a neighbor to interpret Flor reveals that she would not be able to maintain the hours. This posed a conflict for Flor because she has a daughter, Cristina. Christina is invited to come stay with them and Flor reconsiders and decides to stay with the Clansky’s for the summer.
While living in their summer home in Malibu for the summer with the Clasky’s, Cristina impresses Deborah, who begins to treat her better than her daughter. Deborah takes Cristina shopping, getting her hair done, and even goes as far as getting her a scholarship to a private school, and showing Christina more love than she shows for her own daughter Bernice.
Flor becomes unhappy with the lack of, what she considers, disrespect that Deborah has displayed. Not asking for her permission, as Christina’s mother, to take her daughter out and buying her nice things is considered disrespectful in the Hispanic culture. Flor is afraid that Christina is being influenced by Deborah and she wants Cristina to keep in touch with her Mexican roots.
In the film Spanglish, Deborah Clasky was an emotional rollercoaster and this caused conflict with the people around her. One of the four factors that cause conflict that was evident is number four; one or more of the parties behavior, in this case Deborah, was affecting her relationship with others. The conflict was not handled harmoniously and the relationships Deborah formed were threatened.
The conflicts in the film could have handled differently by managing conflict and paying attention and modifying behavior, checking your perceptions with other people, practicing effective listening skills and using the skills of emotional intelligence tolerance and acceptance of others. (Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication; Kathy Sole)
Reference
Kathy Sole; Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication
