Cultural Differences In J. And L.'s Marriage

J. and L.’s marriage is significantly influenced by one another’s culture. J. and L. have an extraordinarily typical marriage as defined by an American culture. Their cultural backgrounds are similar in many aspects of their life, but overall their marriage is defined by their small cultural differences from when they grew up. Both J. and L.’s culture is of a middle class, European decent, oldest child, and with a catholic upbringing. Similarly, they grew up a part of the 1960’s baby bomber revolution, which includes the large influx of babies born post World War II.

J.’s Cultural Background J. grew up the oldest of three in a rural neighborhood with his Mother and Father. His father worked at the WGN morning television and made enough …show more content…
and L. have a traditional American marriage what many would call a nuclear family. L. and J., having modern day beliefs of what a marriage should look like, married for the purpose of love and reproducing. Although, J. said he wished their life was more financially stable, his marriage is exactly how he believes all marriages should be. Getting their two children through college has put a stress on their marriage. J. being from a higher social status, although not by much, wishes he could provide more for his kids other than the basic needs. Economically their marriage makes sense both being from middle-class families and both working at Jewel when they met. Furthermore, like in other traditional American families, the man is the provider and head of the household. Whereas, L. works fewer hours than J. but does all of the chores around the house. Having few children, marrying for love, all match the expectations for the larger traditional American …show more content…
and L. settled down to have a family, after L.’s divorce, they were both older, in their early thirties, compared to when people in that time started having kids. Compared to both her own and J.’s mother L. started having kids over ten years later than they did. Besides from that, L. and J. raised their kids in a suburban neighborhood in IL. Unlike their major catholic backgrounds, L. and J. accepted the newer, modern trend of birth control. They still raised their two children catholic, putting them both in Sunday school. Neither attended catholic school, mainly because of the price. Without knowing it, they have patriarchal family values. When it came to raising the kids L. took time off of her job to stay at home with the children and J. worked the same amount to support the family. L. did not mind this at all though and loved being able to stay home with her kids all day. As the children grew up the family stopped going to church as often and now, for the most part, have stopped altogether after both kids left the house. Doing well in school was stressed by J. to both of his kids. He believed in them getting strong educations because without education it is hard to succeed in this world. His struggle as a child to do well influences his wish for his kids to achieve being