Tallys Corner
Tally's Corner Chapter 4 Essay
Marriage, a sacred union in which two hearts join as one. The foundation of marriage can be summarized as love, trust, honor, respect, and hopefully monogamy. Chapter four of the text focuses on marriages among Streetcorner men. Their distaste for the sacred union becomes apparent in this chapter. The men express their experience of coercion into getting married and their thoughts on why marriages fail. As Liebow pens their justifications he provides the reader with his own explanation on the demise of matrimony among these men.
Liebow states the “public fiction of coercion” is these men pronounce publicly they are being forced into marriage, when in fact each married man willingly agreed to their nuptials. The corner men unanimously didn’t understand the purpose of getting married if it was not being forced. As the married men told their stories of their enforced nuptials, Liebow proved each wrong with the example of how they were giving an option. For example Robert reason of marrying Siserene was because of the competition from another man who was willing to marry her and take her away from Robert. When in fact Siserene had already declined the other man’s proposal and was residing with Robert when he asked for her hand in marriage. Another case would be Leroy and Charlene. Leroy stated that his was under the pressure of Charlene’s mother, the social worker, and the women at the clinic to marry Charlene during her pregnancy. While it is a fact that they did pressured him, Charlene herself offered to delay the wedding. This was to give Leroy time to contemplate the possibility of marriage until after the baby was born to be free of any feeling of obligation. Even the notion that men are forced into marriage because of premarital pregnancies is semi true. Majority of these men had children by woman whom they did not marry prior to their marriage. Other men on the corner had children by women that they supported
Marriage, a sacred union in which two hearts join as one. The foundation of marriage can be summarized as love, trust, honor, respect, and hopefully monogamy. Chapter four of the text focuses on marriages among Streetcorner men. Their distaste for the sacred union becomes apparent in this chapter. The men express their experience of coercion into getting married and their thoughts on why marriages fail. As Liebow pens their justifications he provides the reader with his own explanation on the demise of matrimony among these men.
Liebow states the “public fiction of coercion” is these men pronounce publicly they are being forced into marriage, when in fact each married man willingly agreed to their nuptials. The corner men unanimously didn’t understand the purpose of getting married if it was not being forced. As the married men told their stories of their enforced nuptials, Liebow proved each wrong with the example of how they were giving an option. For example Robert reason of marrying Siserene was because of the competition from another man who was willing to marry her and take her away from Robert. When in fact Siserene had already declined the other man’s proposal and was residing with Robert when he asked for her hand in marriage. Another case would be Leroy and Charlene. Leroy stated that his was under the pressure of Charlene’s mother, the social worker, and the women at the clinic to marry Charlene during her pregnancy. While it is a fact that they did pressured him, Charlene herself offered to delay the wedding. This was to give Leroy time to contemplate the possibility of marriage until after the baby was born to be free of any feeling of obligation. Even the notion that men are forced into marriage because of premarital pregnancies is semi true. Majority of these men had children by woman whom they did not marry prior to their marriage. Other men on the corner had children by women that they supported