Nathan the Antagonist
Promising to love and be faithful to someone forever is a beautiful and respectable thing to do, although weddings are not always as simple as that. Wedding traditions are loaded with sexism, from the idea that the groom must buy her from her father, like property, to stripping her of her last name and individualism, weddings can go from “I do” to “I do obey” very quickly if the couple not careful. And why do people continue these traditions even after years of fighting for equality between the sexes? Because traditions are so deeply rooted in culture that people hardly even think about the meanings of what they’re doing. These sexist traditions set the tone of the marriage that will follow. In Barbara Kingsolver’s …show more content…
By not valuing the thoughts and ideas of the other members of the family, he unintentionally puts his family in danger. Nathan makes his wife totally submissive and unable to protect the family from his mistakes. If Nathan hadn’t made everyone in the village hate them and been there to protect his family, Ruth May would still be alive. Because of Nathan, his other daughters had to witness the dead of their child sister. Because of him “nothing would ever be alright again (367).” While the family is in mourning, Nathan takes this opportunity to try to baptize the village children, as if he could care less that his daughter is dead and that in a way it’s his fault. This last act of selfishness is what finally destroyed the family. His wife and living daughters leave him. Rachel is the best example of the effects of Nathan’s raising. Rachel is a gold digging self-absorbed manipulator who uses her looks as a meal ticket. First she pretends to love a man to get out of the Congo then becomes the wife of a diplomat that she leaves for her third husband who “at least had the decency to die and leave me the Equatorial (461).” Like Nathan Racheal has a goal to and will do anything to reach it, including stepping on others. "Your parents ' marriage affects your own relationships, providing a model for how couples interact and treat each other, (113)" says psychologist Elizabeth S. Thayer, PhD, coauthor of Adult Children of Divorce. "If that marriage falls apart-or was dysfunctional to begin with-it can have a profound effect on your views about love and commitment. (113)" Her father expected for all the women in his life to be dependent on him with no real independence. Racheal does this, but she’s dependent on several men throughout her life and copies the idea that marriage it’s ok that her marriages were loveless because she was reaching her
Promising to love and be faithful to someone forever is a beautiful and respectable thing to do, although weddings are not always as simple as that. Wedding traditions are loaded with sexism, from the idea that the groom must buy her from her father, like property, to stripping her of her last name and individualism, weddings can go from “I do” to “I do obey” very quickly if the couple not careful. And why do people continue these traditions even after years of fighting for equality between the sexes? Because traditions are so deeply rooted in culture that people hardly even think about the meanings of what they’re doing. These sexist traditions set the tone of the marriage that will follow. In Barbara Kingsolver’s …show more content…
By not valuing the thoughts and ideas of the other members of the family, he unintentionally puts his family in danger. Nathan makes his wife totally submissive and unable to protect the family from his mistakes. If Nathan hadn’t made everyone in the village hate them and been there to protect his family, Ruth May would still be alive. Because of Nathan, his other daughters had to witness the dead of their child sister. Because of him “nothing would ever be alright again (367).” While the family is in mourning, Nathan takes this opportunity to try to baptize the village children, as if he could care less that his daughter is dead and that in a way it’s his fault. This last act of selfishness is what finally destroyed the family. His wife and living daughters leave him. Rachel is the best example of the effects of Nathan’s raising. Rachel is a gold digging self-absorbed manipulator who uses her looks as a meal ticket. First she pretends to love a man to get out of the Congo then becomes the wife of a diplomat that she leaves for her third husband who “at least had the decency to die and leave me the Equatorial (461).” Like Nathan Racheal has a goal to and will do anything to reach it, including stepping on others. "Your parents ' marriage affects your own relationships, providing a model for how couples interact and treat each other, (113)" says psychologist Elizabeth S. Thayer, PhD, coauthor of Adult Children of Divorce. "If that marriage falls apart-or was dysfunctional to begin with-it can have a profound effect on your views about love and commitment. (113)" Her father expected for all the women in his life to be dependent on him with no real independence. Racheal does this, but she’s dependent on several men throughout her life and copies the idea that marriage it’s ok that her marriages were loveless because she was reaching her