Impurity and Marriages: A Reader Response Study of an American Marriage

Abstract

Every society's basic concerns revolve around marriage, which call for both mental and physical coordination to ensure a long-lasting chain of relationships. Responsible actions and a good outlook enable people to participate in society and make marriage effective in many ways. Couples' deliberate behavior and pervasive social phenomena are to blame for the disruption in marital matters. An American Marriage (2018) by Tayari Jones is the subject of the current study, which explores marital problems. Reader-Response Theory (RRT) by Rosenblatt (1978) and Fish (2000) is used for the textual analysis of the novel to determine the marital concerns highlighted in the narrative. RRT bases its interpretation of the texts on the reader's experiences, goals, attitude, and preexisting theologies. RRT expands the text's essential elements by manipulating new meanings that are not contained in the text. The study's main goals are to identify the social vices, behaviors, and ambitions of the characters that fall victim to problems and have an impact on the marriage features depicted in the book. The methodology used to manipulate the objectives is qualitative and descriptive in nature. The study's findings indicate that while male members of marriages frequently leave responsible and constructive behavior in favour of sexual lust and freedom of action, this leads to the breakdown of marriages. The findings also demonstrate that women have stronger intentions than men to preserve the marital union since women's gender demands "protection and loyalty," which are typically not met by male members, leading to the breakdown of the union. Keywords: Freedom, Marriage, Pleasure, Responsibilities.