Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth was written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro in 2006. The film takes place during the final years of the Spanish Civil War. During the film you can see how woman play a major part in this film. Woman in the film were viewed by society as less than males. Women were supposed to cook, clean, give birth, and take care of the children. Men were seen as superior. Men were the one's who brought home the food, and went to war. Woman did as they were told. Woman weren't allowed to ask questions but to just obey men, and be loyal to men.
      The Spanish Civil war was caused by two sides trying to take control of Spain, the nationalist and loyalists. The nationalists were aristocrats, military leaders, Roman Catholic, and were also members of the Falange Party. The Falange Party was at the time supported by Nazi Germany. The loyalists were supported by the Soviet Union. They were liberal, socialist, and communists. There were also other causes that led up to the Spanish Civil war. There had been a long period of decline since the Spanish empire. Little progress had been made, and had fallen behind in the industrialization process. The democracy in Spain had brought corrupt government. There was also deep division in Spanish society. They Spanish army were always interfering with the government. The army was concerned with the possibility that the communists would takeover.

   Woman in Pan’s Labyrinth were shown as low class women. The film portrayed their purpose was to give birth, cook, clean, and watch the children. Throughout the film you saw the woman were in the in scenes where they were cooking, cleaning, or take care of the children. Ofelia's mother was putting the general in front of her own daughter. She wanted the daughter to respect the man as her father but in reality he was her stepfather. Everything Ofelia's mother did was to satisfy the father of her son. She wanted Ofelia to stop believing in fairy tales because it upset the general. But I began to wonder if this is what woman really did during a drastic time like the Spanish civil war.

  As I began to do research I found out that woman played a major impact during the Spanish civil war. “Women helped collectivize the nation's infrastructure and mobilize relief efforts to nearly every facet of Spain's culture. The Mujeres Libres was the most powerful of women's groups that organized during this time, focusing on the equality of men and women. Lucía Sánchez Saornil, secretary general of Spain's version of the Red Cross, joined with Amparo Poch, director of social assistance at the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance established in Barcelona what became known as the Mujeres Libres, an organization that fought for women's rights.” (Chavis, 2012) Women were inspired by the Mujeres Libres began to create organizations that would benefit the nation as a whole. Woman during the Spanish civil war were beginning to be recognized by society as powerful woman.

    I have come to the conclusion the Spanish civil war helped society see that woman are strong individuals. Mujeres Libres made a major impact on the view of woman. Although the movie portrayed woman as being housewives, it interesting to find out that they were anything but housewives. We don't really hear about the Spanish civil war but for it to one of the bloodiest war I am now able to say that I have learned into deeper detail about the Spanish civil war. Pan's Labyrinth was an amazing movie. I enjoyed it, even though it had captions. I'm usually not interested into fairy tales but this movie did an excellent job at capturing my attention through out the entire more. I would recommended this move to anyone.

Citations

Ø  Chavis, Jason. "Women of the Spanish Civil War." eHow: Discover the expert in you.. ehow:Discover the expert in you.. Web. 22 Oct 2012. http://www.ehow.com/about_4579767_women-spanish-civil-war.html.

IMDb, . N.p.. Web. 23 Oct 2012. .

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Renia Singleton 10/23/12