Graded response critique of a marriage proposal essay

Response-Critique of Alix Kates Shulman’s “ A Marriage Proposal” [ww—watch for this elsewhere, too] Shulman is best known for the novel “ Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen” and most recently, Shulman has written the award-winning memoir, “ Drinking the Rain”. She is an American writer of fiction, memoirs, and essays, as well as being an early radical feminist activist. She was one of the planners of the first national demonstration of WLM and she has written two books on anarchist-feminist and three children’s books. Upon researching this piece of writing I have found that there is a lot of controversy concerning the roles of men and women that have been set in place for centuries. In her methods of change, Shulman seeks to find peace in her newly chaotic life in the document,” A Marriage Proposal”, in which she provides valid arguments against the typical family household. [The intro should give more information about the specific article you’re discussing, and it should give an overview of your opinion regarding “ A Marriage Agreement”. The thesis needs to sum up your overall opinion of the article/agreement.

In the first portion of the article she describes her life with her husband before starting a family, then moves on to tell us [avoid “ you,” “ us,” “ we,” etc. ] about the burdens of being a full time homemaker. She describes the stereo typical life in that time period where the husband often worked late and spent little time at home, while she was at home taking care of every day chores as well as the taking care of the children. When her children had become older, she stated that she was, “ restricted to the company of demanding preschoolers and to the four walls of an apartment”.

As well as feeling the pain of raising two small children, she discusses the physical work of day to day housework and the scheduling conflicts. It was not until she “ had been with the children for six years” that she “ began to attend meetings of the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement in New York City”. Once she had started to go to the meetings she found that her situation was not that uncommon, and found other women in the same situation as herself. During these meetings she came to realize all of the minor details of motherhood and how her husband had little influence with the children.

After an arduous examination of our situation” she states that her and her husband began to agree on “ sharing the responsibilities” and making a written arrangement because “ old habits were too deeply-rooted”. This written agreement was about dividing the responsibilities equally and that they could make mutual agreements as long as they were still sharing a fifty-fifty schedule. In the wake of this agreement it meant that her husband had to change his job as well as taking on more family responsibilities. [The summary should be just one 5-7-sentence paragraph. Keep only the details that a reader must know in order to understand the article. Additionally, summaries require citations. ] In my own life experience, this was a representation of when I was very young, and at that time both of my parents worked full time. Even while my mother was working full time I remember her doing most of the housework, as well as taking care of my sister, my brother and myself.

In both cases of the Shulman household and as well as my own childhood household, a change was needed to have a stress free or lower stress level at home. It appears to me that she could have started to make some changes earlier in life than she had, by making a better schedule for the children and better time management. Yes it may be a little unfair that she had to leave her job while her husband continued to work; she could have used other resources for childcare and utilized examples of other mothers with much larger families. I came to the prediction that once the Shulman children became old enough to go to school she had time for the women’s meetings. She could have gotten a part time job instead of going to these meeting’s so her husband would not have to work as much and he could have spent more time at home as well as spent time with the children.

In my own life changing from being a full time worker and going back to being a full time college student has had me stressed out at times, but I am starting to use my time more wisely but being a procrastinator certainly does not help. From my point of view a marriage is already like a contract and she and her husband put a sub contract into place, which would only seem to complicate things even more. Some of the ways that they separated the fifty-fifty would never work in this time period, life has gotten more complicated with all the new technology and there are a lot more things that children are doing such as extracurricular activities. This written contract they had made up seems like the things that would go on during a regular marriage and family. Although she did not make very many points about her husband other than he worked a lot in the beginning, she could have gave a better explanation of what her husband did while he was at home after work.

Paragraphs should be just 5-7 sentences in length. Keep personal experience to a minimum (2-3 sentences at the most), and focus on Shulman’s article, instead. There should be several response paragraphs, not just one.

See the Paper 2 PowerPoint. By the end of the article she contradicts herself in that she helps her husband with housekeeping duties, “ knowing it is his responsibility” [Cite all quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and references to the article]. Being the breadwinner of a family may be important, but it is no replacement for time spent among a family.

As Shulman tried to make sense of the chaos that had begun to form within her life, she realized she needed structure. She was able to find structure with the agreements but unlike hers I believe that they can be written or verbal, and as in depth as anyone would like. From observing marriages between my parents, friends, and family, it is apparent that the art of compromise is vital in maintaining an enduring relationship. The marriage proposal that Shulman has proposed then is simply her way of compromise, and as long as it works for her, that is all that matters. Simultaneously hit “ ctrl” and “ enter” here Works Cited Shulman, Alix Kates. “ A Marriage Proposal. ” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth Edition.

Behrens and Rosen. NEW YORK: PEARSON/LONGMAN. 303-307 Print. “ Shulman, Alix Kates. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 31 Jul 2009, 01: 53 UTC. 2 Oct 2009 . [Remove hyperlink] Highlight your citations on this page, and then right-click.

Click “ paragraph. ” Under “ Special,” change the setting from “ none” to “ hanging. ” Click “ ok. ” GRADE: 77% GRADE: