Arranged Marriage: Then vs. Now
I decided to do my first project on arranged marriage, back when it started to become a normal thing and comparing it to where it is today. I take all 3 of the offered Apollo classes, so I did something for all 3 subjects for this project.
English
For English, I interviewed members of my family that have had arranged marriages, are of marrying age, or will be getting married somewhere in the near future. I asked different questions to different people based on their ages, experiences, and I compared them to my own thoughts and opinions if I were in those certain circumstances. I interviewed my grandmother, aunt, and mother, whohave all had arranged marriages. I interviewed my sister in law who had a love marriage, and I interviewed my two sisters who are not married yet but older than I am by a good amount.
Quotes from the interviews:
"Western ideology tmakes arranged marriage negative. Parents moved here and white culture never saw it before, very western look, divorce rates are higher in love marriages, 90 day fiance is making fun of our culture." -Dilina Patel
"I think people have a negative view of arranged marriage because we live in a society that arranged marriage is not a part of their culture. This means that it lies outside of their comfort zone and beliefs, which automatically makes it seem weird or bad. A lot of people do not realize that arranged can even be your parents setting you up (thinking of marriage) but you have the right to say no. Also, many Americans believe in independence and think highly of freedoms of everything, and they might feel any kind of arrangement takes away their freedom. "- Anisha Patel
"Met one time and the wedding was planned, he came to see her in a waiting room along with other male suitors. She didn’t talk at all, the parents of both sides did most of the talking for both the bride and the groom. No further questions were asked."- Kanta Desai
Quotes from the interviews:
"Western ideology tmakes arranged marriage negative. Parents moved here and white culture never saw it before, very western look, divorce rates are higher in love marriages, 90 day fiance is making fun of our culture." -Dilina Patel
"I think people have a negative view of arranged marriage because we live in a society that arranged marriage is not a part of their culture. This means that it lies outside of their comfort zone and beliefs, which automatically makes it seem weird or bad. A lot of people do not realize that arranged can even be your parents setting you up (thinking of marriage) but you have the right to say no. Also, many Americans believe in independence and think highly of freedoms of everything, and they might feel any kind of arrangement takes away their freedom. "- Anisha Patel
"Met one time and the wedding was planned, he came to see her in a waiting room along with other male suitors. She didn’t talk at all, the parents of both sides did most of the talking for both the bride and the groom. No further questions were asked."- Kanta Desai
Art
For art, I decided to compare the outfits of Indian weddings today to weddings back then. I looked at pictures of my grandmother, aunt, and sister in laws in their traditional wedding garment and compared them and extracted certain parts that make them similar and different. I also researched what the colors on the outfits symbolize and how outfits are different in Indian weddings today.
Social Studies
For social studies, I decided to look at my life would be in different years if I had three different choices: no choice, choice, and abandoning my family. I skipped through the years because some years are more drastically changing than other years that are common and just thrown in there. I compared when arranged marriage first started to where it is today and in what ways it's changed and stayed similar.