Skip to main content

Tradition or Convenience?


Tradition has been such an integral part of society.  It brings people together and enforces values, morals, and customs from one generation to the next.  Every family has a tradition, whether it be flying to Florida for spring break or having a get-together for Thanksgiving.  Marriage is one custom that has a certain tradition to it.  For example, the bride always wears a white dress with a veil and tosses the bouquet behind her to a crowd of single women.  These are all traditions of marriage, yet the tradition of marriage is completely lost and withered in Las Vegas.  In Joan Didion’s essay “Marrying Absurd” she attacks commercialism and criticizes the impulsive nature of America’s youth.  Didion states that Vegas “seems to exist only in the eye of the beholder,” revealing that although the idea of wearing a “light satin Priscilla of Boston wedding dress with Chantilly lace insets” may sound absolutely fantastic, it lives only in their minds.  Marriage is supposed to be a meaningful event, celebrating with your partner and loved ones, but this aspect is removed with the pure goal of performing a service and collecting a quick buck.  Didion writes that there are “nineteen such chapels that offer better, faster, and more sincere services than the next.”  The irony in this is that there is absolutely nothing sincere about an “eight dollar” service that lasts barely five minutes.  Only in Vegas would you be able to find marriage 24 hours a day, with Elvis marrying you. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Polite Speech

We tend to say things we do not mean in order to make ourselves appear as a good person, like “let’s keep in touch” and “it’s nice to meet you.”   It is not always clear whether we are actually pleased to meet someone, or just do not want to come off as rude.   In the course of saying things we do not truly mean, the expressions that we use become meaningless.   As a society, we care too much about the way others perceive us.   We would rather say something such as “how are you” instead of being transparent.   We create this fake, forced, first impression because we are trying so hard to appear “perfect.”   We then continue being “polite” because we do not want to be labeled as a bad person.   However, we are labeled as a good person if we say, “sure, we can definitely meet up,” even though you most likely won’t.   I am not saying we should stop being polite because it is something we do everyday and it would be silly to stop doing it. ...
2 comments
Read more

Because Of Him

Everything we ever did was for him.   While we were robbed of our girlhoods, everything was gifted to him on a silver platter.   Our lives revolved around him, constantly.   When he was tired, we made his bed.   When he was hungry, we cooked for him.   When he was bored, we entertained him.   And what do we get in return for our constant beck and call? Nothing.   We get nothing.   She is the most educated out of all of us, but she cannot work because of him.   We make fake flowers for a living.   She obtained a job as a maid in order to escape from them.   She met a man and secretly held a relationship with him, but it was all destroyed because of him.   It was the only thing that allowed her to escape but men like him destroyed her freedom.   We kept it locked inside for too long, and now we revolt.   He barely remembered that day; the most important one.   The day I found the twig with the maple leaf...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trail of Tears

  When trying to find an episode of the American Life, I wanted to find a story that was not at the top which would have probably been already picked, so I chose the Trail of Tears. In the episode, two Cherokee sisters Sarah and Amy Vowell recount their experience of driving through the Trail of Tears. Another reason I chose this particular episode is that Native American and Indigenous history overall greatly interests me and have not been educated on the Trail of Tears all that much. I can say without hesitation that the American school system has failed me in the way that I learn more about my country’s history in my AP English class than history at all. I also believe that I should not have to wait until college to hear the real, raw story—the story that Sarah and Amy know all too well. One thing that I learned from this episode is the horrific events that Sarah and Amy’s ancestors had to experience has resulted in generational trauma, yet they are conflicted. They feel a nee...
Post a Comment
Read more