Example Of Essay On Promises I Can Keep

1. Author’s Objective

Research question

The goal of the authors is to paint a portrait of the lives of the low-income single mothers from the early days of their intimate relationships, through the pregnancy stage, birth, and beyond. The primary point that the authors make is that the women value marriage in contrast to prevailing notions since they do not enter into it lightly. This book serves as a crucial contribution to the burgeoning literature that frames family formation and marriage incentive debates. The book offers a perspective that has been missing from literature as it delves the sample women stories. The illuminating discussion is that the women wait to marry while they do not intend to have children yet.

Main Points

Chapter 1 informs of quick romantic relationships where a man woos a woman as they later have unprotected sex. Chapter 2 elaborates how pregnancy can quickly put a fledging romantic relationship into overdrive. Chapter 3 informs some of the reasons for relationship failure between couples. Chapter 4 explains the nature of marriage in low income households. The poor women often postpone marriage until they are financially stable. Chapter 5 asserts that single mothers have tenacity to raise their children amidst financial challenges. Chapter 6 depicts the slow role of fathers in relationships.

Evidence to Support the Main Points

The sociologists set out to discover why marriage becomes decoupled from childbearing among poor Americans. The authors conduct extensive interviews to take the audience to middle-class values in a world riddled with incarceration, drug abuse, and unemployment. The authors reveal that majority of children were the result of neither explicit planning nor contraceptive failure. Most of the conceptions are between two ends of the continuum that include planned and accidental.

Important Issues

Reason
In the social structure where there are limited opportunities for one to prove themselves through education, being a good mother is the most attainable way for a young woman to gain status within the community. While the mothers would desire to provide their babies with luxury, the standard for good mothering in the poor communities is to keep the children clean, fed, and well dressed. The young women tend to accept responsibility of their children while the men shy away since they do not meet the standards of marriage. The young women would rather live with their kids out of wedlock than marry to unfaithful, abusive, and addicted to drugs man.

Conclusion

American children tend to suffer more from family disruption in comparison to the rest of the world. United States has high divorce rates in comparison to other Western nations. The fragility of marriage and cohabitation implies that at the age of 15 only half of the children live with both biological parents. One factor that attributes to single motherhood is poverty while some believe lack of marriage policy rather than lack of skills is the major factor. Relationship skills training can serve as the solution of American family. The solution entails providing unwed parents with relational skills that can bring their dreams of lifelong marriage to fruition.

Opinion

I think the focus on a healthy marriage does little to improve the well-being of children. This is because half of the children that live in single parent households are in that situation due to parent divorce not because they failed to marry. Living apart from either biological parent hurts the children. For that reason, remarriage does not solve the problem for the child as those with stepfathers achieve very little and suffer more than those that live with single mothers. Other than sharp critiques in the marriage institution, most of male and female Americans desire marriage life and expect it to last a lifetime. They also plan to raise their children within marital unions. In reality, half of the recent marriages end in divorce where 30 percent of children born in marital unions expect to see their parents’ part before they reach adulthood.
2. Evaluation of Arguments

Strengths and weaknesses

Promises I Can Keep has statistical tables that examine demographic characteristics within communities studied. The bibliography is helpful to the people interested in the intersections of poverty, Marriage, and motherhood. The oral historians can appreciate the interview questions at the appendix. Through reading the book a reader will understand why mothers’ choice makes perfect sense in the world.
While the book gives voice to the life experiences and perspectives to low-income women they fail to show how to resolve the problem. Additionally as the authors state that the life chances of women may improve had they waited for children, they enter into drugs and depression that affect the life chances of their children. The book is puzzling since, while poorer Americans delay marriage until a later age, poor women still tend to have children and that issue has not been addressed conclusively by the authors.

Evaluation of Presented Evidence

The survey of the author shows that large numbers of unmarried are African Americans and Hispanics even when one takes into account the issue of demographics and income. Similarly, the divorce rates of African American are high than mainstream Americans or Hispanics. Marriage may never regain its status as people will continue to raise their children in wide variety of ways.

Clarity of Analysis

The book is a readable qualitative material.
Persuasiveness
The 162 women interviewed vary along numerous dimensions as their neighborhoods show distinct social worlds. Single women around the world live in subtle and striking commonalities.

Surprise

The prospects of poor women have little effect whether they have children or not. The author surprisingly shows that poor women consider marriage a luxury while they one day hope to attain. Failure to attain financial stability will not prevent them to have children. Even if a woman finds herself in a wrong match she is willing to bring a child into another relationship. On one hand, she hopes that the match will improve with the birth of the child. On the other hand, she thinks she might not have a chance to have a child or sustain a family. It is also surprising to note how much the poor people desire babies.
3. Further questions

Unanswered questions

Why do young single women keep getting pregnant and having babies?
What makes good mothering?
Can the government provide the solution for the ailing families?
Why do the poor have children at all while they struggle to support them?
Future Research Undertaking
In future, policymakers should develop policies and programs to improve the chances of the children and prevent early childbearing. It is the duty of social policymakers that have concern with the next generation to enhance the well-being of the family form. The policymakers must figure a way of making low skilled men safer for long-term relationships with women and children.

Recommendation

I recommend this book to young men in their twenties in the attempt to convince them to postpone fatherhood until they are mature and have responsible behaviors that will prove beneficial to the family life.