There are several similarities between, M. Butterfly and SSTLS, such as the themes of love, gender, and ethnicity.
The movie and the novel both talks about a love story between two individuals who were very different from one another, coming from very different cultures and backgrounds but. It shows how love can be very complicated and hard to understand but at the same time, it creates a bond that can only be shared between them. In SSTLS, Eunice is having a hard time figuring out what she really feels for Lenny but she still has a connection with him that is different with other people, allowing her to open up to him and express her feelings. In M. Butterfly, Rene falls in love with Song and has a strong bond with his "butterfly" that he was willing to leave his wife and wait for Song to come back even though he was abandoned.
Throughout M. Butterfly and SSTLS, it reveals to the audience the hierarchy of men over women and some stereotypes. In the novel, Eunice's family was being abused by her father and is under his control because they see him as the man of the family. Just like the novel, the power of the men over women was emphasized especially in the scene where they talk about how the men knows how the women are supposed to be like that is why men play the parts of women in the plays. Another stereotype is the weak and submissive view of women. Song, who was pretending to be a woman, tells Rene how women are there to please the men and how Song's character was gentle and not aggressive. Eunice and her family are allowing her father to abuse and beat them up and not stand against him just like when they were being scolded by their father the day Lenny ate with them.
There is also a huge emphasis on how different ethnicities are being stereotyped and how each country are more concerned about their own well being instead of working together. In SSTLS, Eunice's family emphasizes on the importance of having really good education, just like many other Asian families and how many people see Asians as having a lot of money even though it is not always true. It was also mentioned that the only reason why other countries are still trying to help U.S. because they did not want all their investments to go to waste, only concerned about their own and not there to help out of their own will. In M. Butterfly, China and U.S. were in conflict and was even willing to have Song, a man, pretend to be a woman and deceive Rene to make him fall in love with him, just to be able to attain information about what the other country is doing.
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