A Complicated Kindness Analysis

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The Influence of Storge Klisa Feng From Greek origins, storge can be defined as a natural affection between family, friends, and the community. This innate bond allows for understanding, compassion, and attachment between people. This concept of storge can be seen in Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness, as the teenage protagonist, Nomi Nickel, undertakes the responsibility of restoring her family and friend’s happiness and hopefulness through small acts of kindness. Ultimately, the force of storge influences Nomi and her family to rekindle the happiness of the citizens in the Mennonite community, which suggests the transition of the citizens’ characters from static to dynamic. Nomi describes the Mennonite community, East Village, as a dreadful and horrendous environment where death is emphasized in most situations, which results to the community deteriorating in brokenness and misery. Their dictating religion influences the citizens to “be cheerfully yearning for death and in the meantime, until that blesses our day, our lives are meant to be facsimiles of …show more content…

“Can I get you an extra blanket, I asked. Lydia like extra blankets because she feels cool breezes all the time. Sometimes she...moves her bed as far away from it as possible.” (33). Nomi tries her best to make sure that Lydia is comfortable because she knows that Lydia is having a hard time battling her illness and that not everybody in the hospital is treating her well. Getting Lydia extra blankets and moving her bed around are little actions that can simply be done but it makes her really happy. There is often no one else in the hospital that can help her because they are busy with other patients. Lydia is happy that someone is there to help her and care for her. This also shows that the storgic bond between the young ladies have the power to inspire Nomi to take the effort to accommodate

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