Cleave

2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Apparently this whole rib story is some sort of justification for a son abandoning his parents when he gets married.

But this interpretation (the one offered by this verse) is not really justified by the preceding verses.  If Adam had no parents, how can we read anything from his story into a relationship between a son and his parents?  If this verse starts "Therefore" and draws a conclusion from the last few verses, it should be: "Therefore shall a man refuse a nice goat, so as to marry his elbow."

If we look past the parts about marrying your rib, we can perhaps learn something here of the author's culture.  This verse suggests monogamy, family homes, children leaving to marry.

Some people claim that they believe the Bible is literally true.  Apparently their experience of marriage involves actually fusing together the flesh of spouses; that is the literal interpretation of this verse.

By the way, "cleave" is one of those bizarre English words which is its own opposite; it can mean either "split apart" or "join together".  So, a son will cleave himself from his parents before cleaving to his wife.