A father, a mother, and two children. They all live in a small town farm house. A professor and a news anchor. They smile, sometimes they even laugh. They pronounced their love for each other in public. What seemed to be an ordinary life and a respectable marriage was torn apart under the protective covering they hid behind. Fixation, lovability, qualities of a lifelong marriage, and revealing their true feelings lay unsettled. To dissect Brad King and Diane Newton King’s relationship, one must first know who they are beyond the surface. Diane Newton King grew up in an alcoholic home with not much love or support, but that did not deter her. She had ambitions at a young age and knew what she wanted. Diane could be described by some as self-obsessive. She sought out perfection from herself and from others. Diane needed to do whatever it took to get the right image, the right attention, the right story. When spoke of, Diane would be either …show more content…
He was a hard-shelled man who did not express many lovable emotions. Brad was married once before to a woman, Gail, whom he had a child named Alyssa with. Brad was a police office for about 16 years, learning the ins and outs of the criminal justice system. He had a degree in Education, hoping to one day teach which was a passion of his. After teaching a few classes various places, Brad was able to teach at his Alma matar, Western Michigan University, in the criminal justice department as an adjunct professor. Brad was not always the easiest person to try and understand. “Without question he was a player. I would go a step further. I thought he was pretty good at, at kind of catering to her, and playing her in some respects” (P. 306 T). He didn’t mind having extra time to himself. He would sit, having alone time when not at the University during the day. Maybe he wanted to keep his alone time in the house, getting rid of the attention seeking wife and finally having that attention on
People described her as a self centered prima donna, and a person who constantly searched for
Degradation of family values is seen in the area of marriage. "Until recently, marriage was largely thought of as a noble relationship" (Bennett pg. 108). It seems lately though, the idea of traditional marriage has become viewed as silly or obsolete. Writing in the September 20, 1993 issue of Time magazine, essayist Barbara Ehrenreich uses the breakup of the supposedly "picture-perfect" marriage of actors Burt Renolds and Loni Anderson to say that we expect too much from marriage and ought to revise the system and our expectations of it. Ehrenreich goes on to offer a
Boston King and Joseph Brant disagree with the ideas expressed by Paine and the Adamses to a large extent. In Thomas Paine’s document, he expresses his distaste for the current leadership system, where the top positions are simply assigned to those who are lucky enough to be born into royalty. Paine suggests that it would be most beneficial for colonists to be governed by representatives and not by merely one king, who is also susceptible to tyranny, evil and making mistakes, just as all other men.
Television psychologists and pop culture self-help gurus tell us that marriage is hard work; marriage is compromise; marriage is a choice between being right, and being happy. All of these statements are true. What these experts don’t tell us, however, is that marriage is also about putting on blinders, or looking on the bright side, or one of a hundred other trite phrases to explain the art of self-deception. In marriage, there are times when we may find it necessary to look the other way from our spouse’s faults or indiscretions, in the interest of self-preservation. For if we examine these problems too closely, our darkest, most secret fears may come true. Therefore, it can seem easier to focus on the positive. In her poem “Surprise,” Jane Kenyon uses denial, selective perception, and fear of betrayal to illustrate the self-deception that can occur in marriage.
Leroy and Norma Jean in the short story, “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason, are a married couple, and they experience a series of events, which shapes them and determines there future. The final setting, Shiloh, works well to highlight the battles of war to the battles between Norma Jean and Leroy. Throughout the story Mason is focused on the persistency of grief, the instability of gender roles, along with the distance and lack of communication separating Leroy and Norma Jean from each other. Mason illustrates how marriage can be a struggle striving to work out to the very end.
In Mark Cox’s “Joyland”, Cox uses juxtaposition and symbolism to underline how infidelity exposes the complex relationship between the fantasy and reality of what it means to maintain a healthy marriage. The narrator of the poem is observing the behaviors and setting of a man and his wife while on a mini-golf course, shortly after the man cheated on his wife. In the first stanza of “Joyland,” the narrator introduces the mini-golf course that the man and his wife are playing at: “Here, between teen lovers spooning each other ice cream, / and the press of a five-putting family of four”(1-2). Cox uses imagery and juxtaposition to highlight the contrast between the fantasy and reality of loving another person. The narrator describes “teen lovers”
The main idea she imparts is that disillusionment caused by brief courtship leads to disappointment, loss of love, and ultimately, divorce. By utilizing Suzie and Peters’s brief, nine month courtship, Pratz exemplifies her main point. She states, “the disappointment eroded their love and affection, which soured their perception of each other’s personalities, creating feelings of ambivalence” (Pratz 67). Pratz also creates parallels between her own failed marriage and the failed marriage of Suzie and Peter. By drawing connections between the recurring idea of a short courtship and divorce, Pratz adds personal experiences and ultimately discredits her point; she adds bias as to if Huston’s claim is true because she was personally impacted and has experiences that coincidentally
“Why Did I Get Married?” directed and produced by Tyler Perry is a movie based on four couples who take a reunion vacation to the Colorado Mountains in order to reunite with friends from college. On this vacation things didn’t go according to plan. Throughout the movie there was heartbreak, infidelity, suppressed feelings, conflict, and secrets raging throughout each of the couples’ relationship in some aspect. With these unfortunate events occurred at various times throughout the film it cause their trip to evolve from a place to relax, enjoy friends, and time off from work into an emotional and tense atmosphere with the involved couple seeking validation from the other couples on the reason why their marriages are the way they are. Even though the movie ended on a good note in their celebration of Janet Jackson’s character (Pat) receiving an award one of the marriages did not survive. This couple’s relationship will be my focus for this paper.
In both Judy Brady’s “I want a wife” and Rebecca Curtis’s “Twenty Grand,” the reader is given a glimpse into the lives of two families living in different worlds but sharing many similar situations. Both families in the two-story show the environment that they are living in. Through the author’s use of irony, repetition, and tone, it becomes clear that I feel more sympathy for the mother in the story “Twenty Grand”.
In review of “What Shamu Taught me About a Happy Marriage” Amy Sutherland writes about the struggles of her marriage in an article, and what she decides to do to while taking techniques of animal trainers and their pet students.
Paul Newman once said, “People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked” (74). There is no such thing as the perfect relationship, however, being involved in a healthy relationship is essential for a person to feel valued, safe, and happy. Unfortunately, in the situation of Kelly Sundberg’s personal essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour,” include extreme examples of unhealthy relationships. The essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” shares painful experiences of Sundberg’s physical and emotional abusive relationship with her husband Caleb, while “The Story of an Hour,” shares a rare reaction of a married woman, Louise Mallard, who explores her emotions cautiously when hearing about the death of her husband. Each woman faces their own prison created by their husbands. The two marriages represent the figurative meaning of doors being locked in a marriage. Both pieces of literature convey the theme of confinement by using the literary devices of foreshadowing, imagery, and conflict.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” examine the complex relationship between a husband and wife. The two works take two different approaches to convey the same message: Marriage is not a fairytale, it requires sacrifice and unselfish behavior in order to work. Relationships are difficult to begin and harder to maintain. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and Aylmer and Georgiana are two relationships that shatter the surreal perception of marriage and expose readers to the raw truth, marriage is not a fairytale.
Marriage is one of the most revered institutions in most societies. Often a momentous event, most couples who choose to get married look forward to their wedding day and spending the rest of their lives together. However, the honeymoon phase of marriage may have the tendency to fade over time, and relationships that were once strong and loving may become strained. In the short story Birthday Party by Katharine Brush, a particular instance of such a weakened relationship is highlighted as the observer in the story witnesses a married man and woman celebrating a birthday in a restaurant. Through the use of vivid description and powerful word choice, Brush effectively comments on the concept of marriage and relationships and emphasizes their romantic impermanence and sometimes inevitable deterioration.
When most people get married, they go into the marriage with the expectations and hopes that everything will go as planned, that they will always get along, and that the responsibilities will be evenly divided between both spouses. And for two working spouses who have children, they share the expectation that no one parent will be more of a caretaker than the other. Eric Bartels, a feature writer for the Portland Tribune in Portland, Oregon, feels as if he has personal experience as to what it is like to be on the receiving end of his wife’s irrational—or at least in his eyes—anger. Bartels informs his readers of the anger his wife projects
Throughout this article Brady uses ethos, logos, and pathos to illustrate her opinion that the wife does too much in a family. Brady connects with her audience by relating to what was expected of them back in the 1970’s. She states reasons to why she wants a wife and lists what she says a wife would do for her. Lastly, Brady connects emotionally to her audience by