Bend It like Beckham Essay – Kayla Winship

“Parents personal and religious beliefs effect an individuals life”

Bend it like Beckham created by Gurinder Chadha demonstrates how parents’ guidance and personal beliefs can influence the way their child turns out in the future and what career path that they will choose. However if their child has a dream or aspiration to do their own thing and make their own choices they will do whatever it takes to get it through to their parents even if it means breaking the most important rules that guide their lives such as the rules of their religion and culture. 17 year old Jess was brought up like any normal Indian girl with a loving family in suburban England. Growing up, the choices of her westernised lifestyle would create conflict with her traditional Indian religion and culture, Jess would develop a completely opposite idea to her parents in the way she was going to live her life, her parents want her to have a hard working, good paying job but all Jess wants to do is play professional football.

Every parent brings their child up with high expectations, but can these expectations jeopardise the way in which our child is brought up and change the way our children will choose their future careers. If a parent is always telling their child what they are going to do when they are older and don’t give them any freedom of choice just because the future profession is high paying and respectable the child may grow up to hating their chosen career and even their parents. “If you try pleasing them forever you’re going to end up blaming them”. The child may realise later in life that they could have followed their own dreams and still become financially stable whilst being in a profession that they would have enjoyed and this could lead them to harbouring thoughts of resentment against their parents.

Although sometimes children completely disregard what their parents say and follow through with there own dreams, some can’t like Jess because of her strict religion and family values; For example, her parents forbid her to play football because their religion forbids women from playing football, and also Jess stops playing because she doesn’t want to put shame on her family. ”What family would want a daughter-in-law who can run around kicking football all day but can’t make round Chapattis”. Like a good daughter she wants to make them proud of her but at the same time she wants to pursue her own dreams, and feels that if they won’t understand that then she’s willing to deceive them by sneaking around and lying about where she’s going and what she’s doing.

Indian culture has very strict rules or guidelines for woman. They are supposed to act lady-like, not show skin, know how to cook and clean, also you’re supposed to marry a nice Indian guy. Jesses parents expect all this from her and more, they also expect her to become a doctor or a solicitor and earn a lot of money so she can have a wonderful future, a future they missed out on but this is not what jess wants for her own future and knows that “I have to tell them now or I’m going to end up a solicitor bored out of my mind”. These days it’s very hard for an Indian girl to go against her family’s wishes and hundreds of years of tradition. Eventually Jess received a scholar ship to play football for a girl’s team over in America and it was then that Jess’s parents realised how much football meant to her and tolerated her as a footballer. “At least I taught her full Indian dinner the rest is up to god.”

So if you always try pleasing your parents, you’re never going to end up being happy with where you are in life. You should go your own way and pursue your own dreams no matter how much you earn from your chosen profession or what your parents say or anyone else for that matter. If a parent can see how much something means to their child they are likely to give in eventually. A parent cannot expect to control their child’s life forever; eventually they have to let them go their own way.