Catherine Newman Essay

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Teresa Garza 1/20/13 English 101 Essay 1 After reading the story, I Do. Not.: Why I Won’t Marry, by Catherine Newman I felt both confused as well as against some of her views on marriage. Newman’s story focuses on the life-long commitment of marriage and her contradictions she has towards many aspects of what marriage is. She describes how her own experiences with gay and straight relationships affect her views on marriage, as well as her feelings on what marriage symbolizes. Newman is frequently asked over and over again why she isn’t married to the father of her child whom she lives with. My feelings when she describes what is going on as she is asked lead me to believe she wants to be married. I believe a couple who lives together with children should be married. When Newman says, “I probably cried when the bride kissed her parents” and that she is “eating the entrée I checked off months ago” I feel she doesn’t just like weddings but wants one of her own. I believe that these are common feelings for any girl at a wedding, especially those that want their own. Newman claims her reasons for not being married are “all only partly true and shot through with contradiction” (61). A contradiction she has with marriage is what she explains it to be, “marriage is about handing the woman off, like a baton, from her father to her husband” (61). Men are continually thinking about owning the greatest “possessions” (wives, money, etc.) and Newman refuses to be viewed in such a way. In my opinion I don’t believe that women are handed over as some kind of object, I think it should be viewed as if the couple now hold every “possession” as one since their married. With that being said I see marriage to be more of a joining of two people rather than one person getting another. She also brings up the fact that she has a form of attraction for other women. This

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