Barbara certainly did not marry Murray for money or status, but why did she marry him?
...anged when he was caught shoplifting, we may think that she was hiding her real feelings. She didn’t want to let anybody get to her heart and hurt her, the way her family did. By marrying Murray, who fell in love with her when he first saw her, she knows she has someone who will always be there for her and will take care of her family. So, as we see, Barbara married Murray because she needed a family. Second, Barbara married Murray because she always did the opposite of what people thought she should to do. As we know, she showed contradiction of society’s expectations when she told Murray that she “[refused] to ride on a float as the Downtown Merchants’ contestant for the Queen of the Dominion Day Parade” (108), although we were told that she was a “tall and well developed” (107) looker. Barbara also contradicted society when she answered with ‘what for?’ to the suggestion that she should get a degree since she was very smart. So, a girl who always did the opposite of expecting and who was a Delaney, who seemed to have “bad habits” (106) and were poor, didn’t deserve to marry a rich man like Murray. But she did. She married Murray as well because his “mother [wouldn’t] like” (108) a girl like her, with no manners and with a bad background. Furthermore, she married Murray because in those days it was the men who were the ones who controlled the family and the finances. But in the Zeigler’s family it is Barbara who was in charge and even controld her own husband, which is exactly the opposite of what the town expected. So, as we see, Barbara married Murray because she liked to oppose everyone’s beliefs. Third, Barbara married Murray because she liked it when someone worshiped her. Barbara got so much pleasure from using Murray as her own puppet because he was so in love with her that he couldn’t even express his own opinion and always sucked up to her. Barbara even benefited from Murray’s worshipping by flirting with Victor, the very attractive foreigner, in her own backyard in front of Murray’s eyes....