Marrying Absurb

A detailed Summary of Marrying Absurb

In "Marrying Absurd," Joan Didion describes her feelings toward Las Vegas thorugh her description of "quickie" Las Vegas marriages. Even though she never says her feelings towards marriages directly, Didion conveys her feeling of contempt toward them through her descriptions and tone.

She starts out by first describing the reason for the increase in Las Vegas marriages. Due to a Presidential Order that said that August 26, 1965 will be the last day in which a man can improve his draft status by getting married. In Las Vegas the requirements for marriage are minimal at best. All that is needed is for the bride to swear she is eighteen, the groom to be twenty- one or have parental permission, and five dollars for a license.

Didion goes on to describe how Las Vegas marriages have taken away the special meaning a marriage and a wedding ritual has on a person. She first quotes the comments of a justice of the peace who got weddings down to five minutes a couple, turning an intimate moment into a task that should be done as soon as possible. She then describes the advertising that a person se

Didion first shows her feelings toward Las Vegas and Las Vegas marriages through the quotes of justice of the peace Mr. James A. Brennan whose comment creates a distasteful irony. He says that he could have married all the couple "en mass" but "they aren't cattle [and] they expect more from a wedding." However, earlier, he mentioned he got "[each wedding] down to three to five minutes." His second comment describes the false intimacy that a Las Vegas wedding tries to show. Through that comment, Mr. Brennan makes it seem like that Las Vegas has weddings that hold a torch to a traditional wedding, but his first comment shows how Vegas weddings are really like. By getting weddings done in that short amount of time, Mr. Brennan makes a wedding seem like a task that must be done as soon as possible instead of a joyous occasion that is supposed to last forever. Through Mr. Brennan, Joan Didion begins to destroy the notion that Las Vegas weddings are a respectable way of getting married.

In her essay, Joan Didion contrasts the normal image of a wedding to that of a Vegas wedding. Through her de

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Approximate Word count = 740
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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