“Marriage: An Effective and Sacred Bond”

James Q. Wilson and David Popenoe, both current writers, are advocates of social welfare. These two writers express their concerns about the current standards of society. However, each has his own way of devising his thoughts, as Wilson becomes critical and opinionated; on the other hand Popenoe transforms his writing into a problem-solution piece. Wilson, the writer of “Cohabitation Instead of Marriage,” talks about the drawbacks of cohabitation and the significance of marriage. His writing consists of criticisms and a comparison-contrast type of technique. Conversely, Popenoe, who penned “Seven Tenets for Establishing New Marital Norms,” discusses in a sequential order that has seven different steps/beliefs that discuss ideals of marital gender-role prospects and how marriages could be maintained. Both writers, though, provide strong arguments to support the meaning of marriage.

Wilson acknowledges that many people nowadays prefer the aspect of cohabitation. His writing is based on the comparison of cohabitation and marriage, yet he favors more on the marriage aspect. Cohabitation is seen to be an alternative to being single and when “the couple has no wish for child

Marriage is the crucial topic that both writers argue for and use outside references to support it. They perceive it as a more cohesive way of sustaining a family. Wilson identifies the importance of marriage as a solution instead of cohabitation. According to Wilson, complexities are more present in cohabitation than marriage, especially with the fact of divorce and child-rearing. In cohabitation, the custody will be decided on the parent that is ought to the responsibility. In a marriage, the decision is derived through a written law and will emanate from an official judge.

Popenoe sets up his line of reasoning through a chronological method. He discusses ideas, solutions, and suggestions on how to maintain a marriage in contemporary society. His sequential steps can be compared to the biological stages of a developing individual. The biological stages are infancy and childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Infancy and childhood is relevant to how we learn and become used to the commonalities of our expected roles (“Girls as well as boys should be trained according to their abilities for a socially useful paid job or career” (page 368)). Adolescence can be then compared to his idea of marrying late in life, a time of discovering ourselves and to engage in the process of cohabitation. Cohabitation prepares for marriage late in life. Adulthood is, in that case, would be connected to the actual marriage. This is the time when we take on our expected roles into a serious level and be able to establish and preserve a family ("… and during the parental years expressive freedom for adults must be curtailed in the interest of social values, especially the welf

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