Literary Analysis of "The Wedding Dance"

In this story, the opposing forces I saw were not Awiyo and Lumnay, but rather them

against their tradition. According to the story, if a man does not have a son, he is considered

inferior to others in the community. It can be seen in the part where Awiyao tenderly said, "Lumnay, if I
did this, it is because of my need for a child. You know that life is not worth

living without a child. The man mocked me behind my back. You know that." Indeed, it is

not a case of not loving Lumnay- he does-but because he perceives the need for a son in order

to be taken seriously as a man. Both blatantly question what society demands of them, and

both believe that the system is flawed. The difference is in how they attempted to fight the

system. The story shows how culture can take away people's consciousness and free will. Due to the
cultural pressure, he did not even consider that it could have been him who had

fertility problems. Instead, society compelled him to establish that his wife was sterile and

forced him to leave Lumnay, no matter how much he loved her. Furthermore, the narrative portrayed
how society pressures women to carry a child. Lumnay was a good wife, and her husband praised her for
her strength in farming and

diligence in housekeeping. However, because of her inability to produce a child, all of her

good traits as a woman were cast aside, and in the end, his desire to marry again triumphed. It

is sad that even in today's society, women are being killed for not being able to bear a child, and many
of them are physically and mentally abused by their husbands for that. Do people

marry and have sex to have children? Most likely, yes. Perhaps an emphatic yes. Because

otherwise, there would not have been such mounting pressure on women to bear a child. Although
women have the innate ability to bring new life into the world, they should not be

coerced to do so. It is the woman's choice if she wants to have a child or not because she is

the one who will carry it in her body. They should not be constantly undermined by society's

inability to separate women and motherhood. Childbearing should be a joyful and natural

experience, a testament to love and a happy partnership. Why does society need to intervene

at all?