Shotgun Marriage Paul Bantolinao Summary

Karen Desuyo

Sosc 13 (7:30-9:00) PM

In “Shotgun Marriage : It’s After Effect and Stability”, Paul Bantolinao aimed to understand the nature of Shotgun marriage and as to why this kind of method occurs on teenagers. He tackles on the stability and the after effect of shotgun marriage where he lays out good and supportive use for shotgun marriage and the downside to it. He focuses mainly on early teenage pregnancy as the prime reason for which it only gives the readers or audience a single point of view on the topic. It also lacks the innate worldview or generalized orientation as to why shotgun marriages exist.

Shotgun marriages does not only happen to teenagers alone, but for adults and other people as well, regardless of their age. Since shotgun

In one part of his work and I quote “Early marriage really does not pay off since it wrecks every teenager’s life that they cannot have fun related to their age and even if they go out, there’s no denying it that society surely will judge and say something about teenage parents walking around town.” Yes, early marriages will surely deprive the teenagers of their natural flow of development as stated in his rationale and be forced to take responsibility of the risk-taking behavior they just committed through premarital sex. But he talks about the opposite as well, and this time, more encouraging as I quote “Teenage parents who decided to marry have more likely had a bigger chance of survival than those who decided not to marry.” Which begs me to question the purpose of his work, yes, to create awareness among the community, but he also stated that : “This could be helpful to each individuals especially teenagers to have knowledge and become wise enough to perform such actions that may not lead to any trouble.” What trouble is there that awaits to those who chooses to marry or not to marry ? Bantolinao could have weighed out the pros and cons of marriage to help guide the teenagers of their choices in the