Personality Quiz - Lydia and Lily

[Mrs. Patterson]

Lydia: Jim
Lily: Lena

Please describe and defend your character's view on the following issue (in the first or third person, as you prefer):

The value of marriage

Direct support from the book would greatly strengthen your description and defense.

[Lily]

Marriage. Everyone always seems to talk about marriage when it comes to young girls. I suppose marriage is appealing to some girls. Especially if their husbands are rich with good looks to boost, then the rest of their lives would be already laid out for them. They would live a comfortable and carefree life. However, I do not ever want to be married. Marriage means being tied downed to a man forever. He will expect things from me and it could be things that I am totally against. I suppose that men are all right. They are great as a friend, but it could never be more. I do believe that as soon as I marry a man, he will become extremely disagreeable and begin to tell me what to do. He will tell me what I should do and what would make me look foolish. Eventually, he will have me stuck in a house with nothing to keep me company as he freely go out during the day. I do to mind making a fool out of myself. In fact, I want to be foolish since I am still young and I don't want to worry about anyone while I am acting out of line. I want to live a free life. I do not think that I could ever feel lonely. I have spent my whole life helping my mother take care of the little ones. After all my chores, I still had to look after the cattle. I never had any time to myself. I used to lug water to my house at night so the young ones could take baths. I rarely ever could myself. That was why I was so dirty all the time. Even when I took a bath, I would have to sleep next to sibling that had not taken a bath recently.  Now, I want to relish in all the free time that I have everyday when I close up my business. I want to enjoy this freedom. I do not want to raise a family. (P. 72) I have had plenty of experience at that already. A husband would mean having to watch out for the little ones someday. Having a husband would mean giving up the business that I have come so far to achieve.

[Lydia]

Through my own experiences, I have come to the conclusion that marriage is not always the best option. As a young man, I romanticized women. I loved the idea of them, rather than who they actually were in everyday life. To me, girls like Antonia and Lena were interesting and somewhat mysterious. I once said, "Her warm, sweet face, her kind arms, and the true heart in her; she was, oh, she was still my Ántonia!" (135)  Now that I am older and married, I realize that I prefer friendships with women instead of romantic relationships. When I first met my wife, she seemed so adventurous and spontaneous, but now we essentially live in separate worlds. She has her hobbies and I have my job, and the excitement from when we first met has died out. Despite the problems with my marriage, I have kept my romantic nature. I still think about the wonderful and hardworking country girls from my boyhood with fondness, especially Antonia.  I  personally do not value marriage, and I consider it more of a social obligation.  When I found out that Antonia had a child before she was married, I was upset because I believed in the traditional lifestyle of getting married and then having children. In this case, marriage was necessary to protect her honor.  Even though marriage has not enhanced my life, I think that it can work for some people, Antonia being an example. She eventually married Cuzak, and the marriage and her children has brought her happiness and fulfillment. Overall, I like to view women in a distant and idealistic sense rather than experience them in a real, everyday way through marriage.