Shotgun Wedding Analysis
Shotgun Wedding by Bonnie Jo Campbell is a very touching story with a bit of humor in
it. Bonnie Jo Campbell is an American author but before she used to write stories she was a math
major with a master’s degree in math studies. The story is about an over protective older sister
that has to watch as her younger sister gets married. As she’s getting married she’s remembering
the times she’s had with her sister. The wedding takes a toll on the older sister because she feels
out of place at the weeding. Wearing a dress, shaving her legs, and even wearing makeup “The
change of my parents frightens me more than walking on carpeting in three–inch heals, and I’m
wishing that I carried my own weedy bouquet of wild phlox or had neglected to shave my legs or
had worn a neckless of stones, done anything that would make me feel like myself.” (Bonnie Jo
Campbell, 384). As a farm girl she’s not used to these things, but she’s doing it for her sister who
on the other hand, is a princess as said by her sister. On the other side her sister is not used to
manual labor as her older sister. She cares about her hair and her makeup and doesn’t like doing
any dirty work. Even her parents who are never in formal wear for anything not even their aunt’s
funeral are all dressed up. I will be analyzing the deeper meaning of the story and show what
message she’s trying to get across to her readers. The story shows how people who love you will
change for you. But if you love something you have to let them go.
The plot to the story is about the older sister and how she feels about her younger sister
getting married. She’s not used to the whole wedding style and getting dolled up for anything
she’s used to wearing flannel shirts and jeans, but she’s doing it because she loves her sister. As
she describes what’s going on during the wedding (Bonnie Jo Campbell, 384) she looks at her
parents who are also dressed up, who never dress up for anything. She describes how her sister
looks waiting to get wed and she starts to flashback. She talks about a time when she and her
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sister were alone in the house at the farm. She talks about how her father used to tell her to
always get the shotgun if you ever heard anyone outside. She remembers the time when her
father taught her to shoot she killed her first animal with that shotgun. She quickly grabs the
shotgun to see who it is. She wants to protect her sister she makes her way downstairs and hears
the intruder turning the knob on the door. She’s aiming the gun towards the door, then the
intruder cups his hands together and looks inside. She taps the gun to the window and the
intruder runs away. On page 387 she describes how her sister looks trying to compare her to a
very rare treasure “Hour after hour, while I keep watch, her princess hair curled onto her pillow,
and all night her long dark lashes rested against her cheeks, beneath eyes clenched firmly in
dreams.” (Bonnie Jo Campbell). She uses this to show how precious her sister is, and how much
she means to her. When her sister leaves off with her husband she can’t protect her anymore she
