A Family Apart Analysis

In Joan Lowery Nixon’s “A Family Apart”, the Kellys are brought apart when their mother ( known as Ma) sends them out far away from their home in New York to the West, because she can’t provide what they need. Of course, the children don’t understand this, but
Frances Mary Kelly (the oldest) was the most aggressive about the situation. Her mother told her that the choice she made was a sacrifice. Frances did not exactly understand what her mother was talking about. This is a story that is told about Jeff and Jennifer’s ancestors.

In the begging, Jeff and Jennifer (brother and sister), are talking about missing home. The reason why they came to Missouri was for their mother to get closer to their grandmother. They both

Then she saw a greasy china plate that had bread crumbs, cheese and sausage. The pungent of cheese made her stomach grumble. The man was very rude and insulted her because she couldn’t read. Then Frances headed home and on her way, she bumped into a girl with a nice, green, winter coat. She imagined her Ma in that coat, twirling around with a smile on her face. The girl’s mother said a rather offensive sentence about Frances and walked away with her daughter. When she and her Ma got home, it was almost dark outside. Frances saw something suspicious, her brother(Mike), shouldn’t be out at this time. Once they got inside, Frances and her mother tucked in all the children and went to bed themselves. Frances was still wondering about Mike, “What was he doing?” She fell asleep falling wiry of her younger brother. When she up, they had breakfast, and headed to their jobs. Frances was still wondering what Mike had done. “Was he stealing? No, their Da(father) had taught them better than that before he fell ill and died. She had never seen her mother cry until then. Later that day, she overheard Mike fussing with their younger brother (Danny) he said, “I wanna go Mike, please let me go!” For he admired the elder very much. “No, don’t follow me.” Mike answered sternly. Then Danny went home upset. When Mike started to move in the alley,

Peg and Danny were the first ones to get adopted by a man and his fragile looking wife. They said they would love to adopt the whole family, but they didn’t have enough money. The next one to be adopted was Meghan (the middle child) she was the closest to Frankie(Frances). Almost all of the children were gone except for Mike, Petey, Frankie (Frances), and a few other children. Frances (Frankie) was mistaken when she thought the married couple that wanted to adopt her(him) and Petey only wanted Petey. She said then said sorry but Petey and I go together. The couple then smiled and said that they wanted the both of them. Mike was the last one until this family that looked unfit to have any children came and adopted him. They all gave their goodbyes and they had each others addresses so they could write letters to each other. When Frankie(Frances) got to their home they were amazed. It looks so beautiful, an open field, trees, and a big house. What’s not to love! But, they still missed mom. They later had a feast with the neibours and when they were cleaning up, Frances(Frankie), almost got caught. She was washing the dishes very good and a woman said “I have never seen a male do a woman’s job so well!” She(He) responded “I say it doesn’t matter the gender, as long as it’s done right.” That lady then said Frances is a soft boy to someone else and smiled. He(She) had to be more careful. A few