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Intercultural Marriage Essay example

Good Essays

Caroline Hwang made the point in her essay "The Good Daughter" that as a first generation American her parents expected her to marry a Korean man. Hwang decided to only date the non-Korean men which she knew she could "stay clearheaded about” so she could fulfill her parent’s wishes and bear children that looked Korean.
In the essay “Your Place is Empty" by Anne Tyler the decision to marry within cultural boundaries was not made. Hassan (a young doctor who took up practice in America) decided to marry Elizabeth (a very American girl). Hassan’s mother decides to take a trip to America and stay as a house guest. The cultural gap between Mrs. Ardavi and Elizabeth as mother-in-law and …show more content…

This caused minor difficulties while doing laundry. Mrs. Ardavi had to used a special rack which she ran under water in the shower (because Elizabeth assembled it) to do her laundry.
Hilary is another matter altogether. Hilary is only three years old and doesn’t understand why her grandmother acts so differently. At most times she doesn’t even seem to care. Though she is not Muslim or full blooded Iranian Mrs. Ardavi still had no problem treating Hilary as if she was Iranian and a part of the family. Hilary seemed to be the largest commonality between the women. The scene in which Hilary seemed to bring the women closer the most is when Mrs. Ardavi first arrives and asks to see her. The smells “of milk and rubber, and talcum powder, smells she would know anywhere. Even in the half-light from the hallway, she could tell that Hilary was beautiful. She had black, tumbling hair, long black lashes, and a skin of a tone they called wheat-colored, lighter than Hassan’s.” In this part Mrs. Ardavi shows that Hilary is not part of any real category yet, not Christian or Muslim so she may be considered an innocent still. The issue of Hilary’s status as being clean or unclean is just not discussed.
Hilary was also the main subject of some of the disagreements between Elizabeth and Mrs. Ardavi. The methods of child rearing that Elizabeth used on Hilary were at times quite different from those which Mrs. Ardavi had at one point used on her own sons or sometimes suggested.

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