Mail Order Brides By Marie Belleau

Arranged Marriages have been around since time can remember. An arranged marriage is a marital union between a man and a woman who were selected to be wedded together by a third party. Historically, arrange marriages were the main way to marry. In certain parts of the world, it is still the primary approach. There are two types of arrange marriages. The first is a traditional marriage where the children can, with strong objections, refuse to marry their soon to be spouse. In a forced marriage, the children have no say in the matter. Bread Givers shows an excellent representation of the pressures on children from their parents to be married against their will.

In “For Love and Money”, by Deborah Pruitt and Suzanne LaFont, the authors study the relations between Euro-American women and the Jamaican men they have romances with while on vacation. As opposed to the ‘sex tourists’ of the Dominican Republic, the romance tourists pursue more than just sex, they desire an emotional connection. Often one that continues after their departure from the island. An important similarity between the ‘sex tourists’ of the Dominican Republic, and the ‘romance tourists’ of Jamaica, is the unequal power dynamic inherent in the relationship. The female romance tourists are typically wealthier than the men they patronize.

Arranged marriage is found in various cultures and countries around the world, including Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East; having an arranged marriage is thought of as an Afghani tradition and has been a part of life for many families. The practice of arranged marriage has advantages and disadvantages; it can create more family power and give more financial security. Sadly being forced into a marriage can disrupt the independence of the engaged, most women stop their education when they become engaged resulting in many women being illiterate. This makes it impossible for them to be successful without depending on their husbands. Arranged marriage is found in many cultures throughout the modern world, though in a lot of cases it results in a happy family it can also be very limiting on women and often girls are married before they can give consent.

In contemporary society, weddings are no longer just ceremonies intended to unify two people in love. Instead, couples now take the event as an opportunity to display their financial status by throwing extravagant ceremonies and parties. There’s an expectation for a “big, white wedding,” and much of what that entails derives from the portrayal of weddings in mainstream media, and films in particular. A foundational element of the “white wedding” image is the heterosexual couple—the bride and the groom. But as the world grows more accepting of same-sex couples, the belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman is being tested. The film Jenny’s Wedding (2015) examines the tensions that arise when an orthodox family, with their narrow

“Single, Female, Mormon, Alone” Sometimes finding love as an independent, Mormon woman is hard. Nicole Hardy, the author of “Single, Female, Mormon, Alone”, knows this all too well as she describes in her story. Hardy had abstained from sex for much of her life as she was of the Mormon religion which required her to wait until marriage before having intercourse. She lacked in sex and relationships as she was too independent for the “provider” Mormon men that looked to give their wives’ lives meaning.

Americanization is a process immigrants and first-generation American children encounter when shocked with the potent culture and mannerism of American society. In Abraham Cahan’s short story “The Imported Bridegroom,” Americanization and its various influences of different people are highlighted. Within the story, the audience is introduced to Flora, a first-generation Jewish American who is heavily influenced by the luxurious aspect of the American Dream and projects this romantic and unrealistic goal onto her future ideal husband, leading to her unhappiness. On the other hand, Shaya, an immigrant from Pravly, evolves from reading Jewish books and prayers to all sorts of higher Gentile books, including philosophy and mathematics.

A picture bride. The ideal idea of woman created by looks and age, specifically for a man overseas. The book, Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida follows the life of Hana, a picture bride from Japan. As Hana and her husband Taro experience life together, the newly wed couple struggle to live in an America filled with racism and prejudice against people of a different skin color. Hana’s fight for acceptance within her community and even her own home reveals the difference in cultures between the two countries. With strong roots in her Japanese culture, living and raising a child in America proves difficult. Hana’s own relationships with her husband and child are strained because of decisions she makes, and it is up to her to attempt to repair them. The desire for acceptance in her community and own home drives Hana, while she struggles with balancing a mix of Japanese and American culture while raising a child, which in turn lead to a relationship that is on the brink of failing with her husband and daughter. A desire for acceptance follows throughout the novel, while differentiating cultures lead to tense family and community conflicts. When combined with a relationships falling apart, the novel paints a picture of these themes from start to finish.

The Bling Ring, written by Nancy Jo Sales is a true story that uses interviews, court records and news stories to explain the events that occurred in 2008 and 2009 in Calabasas, California. The book analyzed the teens before their crime began, talked about their individual burglaries, and eventually explained how the gang of teenagers and young adults finally got caught. These upper middle class young adults and teenagers burglarized many of the Hollywood elite’s vacant homes. Some might say that they did it carelessly. These young adults felt little to no fear of being caught and would often even brag about their accomplishments to their peers. Eventually, this bragging ended up being their demise. At a social event, another partygoer

Scamming these victims by promising them a better life and telling them this job will be a great opportunity is another way the traffickers pull women into their business; this act of fraud seems to be the biggest way traffickers are able to get their victims to come work for them. The last way to get women to fall prey to their business is coercing them into it. The victims who enter these types of jobs are often told they have a debt that must be paid off and while they are there working for these people the debt continues to raise because of the money the owners use to feed, transport or give them security. Even though these fake businesses are taking place in the United States it does not mean that the workers being forced to stay there are American citizens; most of the time they are immigrants. since the workers sometimes are immigrants that gives another advantage for the traffickers and business owners to use against the victim, telling them that if they do not work for them then they will be shipped back to their country where they will then again have to struggle for work.

The story of “ St. Lucy’s Home for Girls” by Karen Russell introduced a girl named Claudette and followed her through her life during school. The author wrote about her learning how to be civilized. She talks about Claudette’s transformation from her old culture to her new culture. The transformation is put into five stages. The stages represent emotions that Claudette and the other girls would feel during these courses.

“But I can’t tell you how to live” (Weber, 19). In most cases, we decide to live the lives we want to live. You can decide to listen to yourself and ignore everyone else, or you can listen to everyone and not do what you want to do. In the book, In Cheap We Trust by Lauren Weber, She starts off by talking about how she was raised by a cheap father who was so proud about being cheap. Since Weber grew up that way, that trait followed her all the way into her adulthood. But here is the catch, she is only cheap about certain things. For example, she writes

Men see the mail order brides as women that will do anything to make themselves marketable enough to gain citizenship and money, therefore they know they could easily get ride of her and acquire a new wife. There has been four recent cases of American men murdering their mail order bride (Frater). One of the most well known cases is that of Anastasia King. She was a woman from Kyrgyzstan who was found brutally strangled and buried in a Washington state grave site in December of 2000 (Frater). Allegedly her husband, Indle King, wanted another bride and was unwilling to pay for a divorce so he and his house tenant proceeded to pin her down and strangle her with a necktie (Frater). It was later learned that he had also physically assaulted a previous mail order bride. These women enter new relationships almost completely blind sighted and as a result of this stereotype they may not always be safe ones.

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

young woman who are hoping for a better life, have an unstable home life, are isolated from family, lack employment opportunities, have limited education level, possess a history of abuse, have undocumented status, addiction, disability, and suffer poverty, illiteracy, or some combination of these characteristics. An example from the US Department of State “Trafficking in Persons Report 2013”; Liliana was unable to find a job in El Salvador when she decided to leave the country in search of work. A family “friend” promised to take her to the United States, but instead took her to Mexico. When Liliana discovered that she had been tricked, she ran away and ended up in an area where other migrants like herself were waiting to go to back to El Salvador. One day a group of men invited her and the others to join their organisation, the Zetas, a notorious drug cartel. They said they would give her work and feed her. When she joined them, she was forced into prostitution - tricked for the second time. Liliana was drugged on her first day and woke up with a “Z” tattoo brand. She was forced to take drugs and was never allowed to travel unaccompanied. After three months, her aunt in El Salvador paid for her freedom and she was freed. With Liliana’s help, her traffickers were brought to court, but were inexplicitly acquitted. This example links to the pattern in that woman in poor countries are far more willing and eager to believe false job opportunities out of desperation for a

The Bride Price is a novel written by Nigerian writer Bunchi Emecheta, which addresses the problems of women in post-colonial Nigeria. Published in 1976, it illustrates the life of the Odia family and the hardships that they go through. Bunchi Emecheta is successful in portraying the difficulties that women faced in that time and place. The protagonist, Aku-nna Odia, is an unmarried teenage girl who is kidnapped by Okoboshi Obidi 's family and forced to marry him. Later in the novel, she is “rescued” by Chike, a man that she falls in love with and marries. She is not supposed to be with Chike because it is shameful to her family because he is a descendent of slaves. Aku-Nna later dies in childbirth and Chike is left with his baby, Joy. One of her last statements is that only in death will she win her freedom. Although this novel is a fictional story, Emecheta weaves in semi-autobiographical elements and situations. She illustrates the theme of male