Premartial Sex and Forced Marriages

In modern society, premarital sex has become acceptable for young couples. Some couples use birth control or condoms while others have unprotected sex. In many cases, unprotected sex can lead to unexpected pregnancies. For example, every year around one million accidental pregnancies occur among young females. These pregnancies force young couples to get married which result in heartbreak.

One young couple who had unprotected sex would be Lexie Darnell and Jeremy Marsh. These are the main characters in Nicholas Sparks’s novel At First Sight. This couple met at a bar and had a “one night stand.” A few weeks later, Lexie returned to Jeremy’s Manhattan apartment to tell him that she is pregnant with his baby. Lexie grew up in a little town of Boone Creek, North Carolina. There, people were not accustomed to seeing a single mom. Shocked, the couple decided to get married believing it was the only sanitary thing to do. However, having met for only a little period of time, Jeremy was convinced that “marriage was a big step for any couple, let alone a couple that barely knew each other” (Sparks 21). Therefore, Jeremy and Lexie started off their relationship in baby steps. They met each others parents but made sure that they didn’t know that Lexie was pregnant. “If they found out she was pregnant, well now they’d understand. They’d make the assumption that Jeremy was simply marrying her for that reason” (21). At first, he was, he had always wanted a child. However, when the couple got to know each other more and Jeremy moved to Boone Creek to be with Lexie they began to love each other. Soon enough, they embarked on their new life together with much love and enthusiasm buying a new home, a new car, planning their wedding and even buying baby clothes and furniture together. However, they’re marriage hit the rocks when Jeremy saw Lexie with another man named Rodney. Lexie and Rodney were holding hands while sitting in front of the beach shore. At first, Jeremy released the sight and never asked her about it nor did she tell him anything about Rodney. Soon after, Jeremy caught Lexie at Rodney’s house. Furious and heartbroken, Jeremy could no longer trust nor talk to Lexie and the couple ran into numerous verbal arguments a couple months before their marriage.

The unexpected pregnancy that led to a troublesome marriage between Lexie and Jeremy exhibited in this novel is prevalent in reality. A Teen Magazine featured one fifteen year old female teenager named Regina Helen whose parents were forced into marriage.

“My parents had sex before they were married. Their unprotected sex led to my mother becoming pregnant. They didn’t get married to each other because they truly loved each other and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, they got married because of my unborn brother. They assumed that my brother would have a better life if his parents were married. Unfortunately they were dead wrong…when I grew up I always remembered my parents