Authors Gaile Parkin and Mary Pearson focus their novels, Baking Cakes in Kigali and The Adoration of Jenna Fox, on the significance of family. In both novels, love and family are key elements: in Baking Cakes in Kigali, the main character, Angel, loses both her daughter and her son, while those around Angel are stepping up and protecting their families; in The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Jenna’s family members show their love for Jenna by breaking the law to save her life. Both novels demonstrate that family is important to all people; family can support and protect a person or even give someone courage to move on after her family is gone. In Baking Cakes in Kigali, Angel loses her daughter, Vinas, and the loss of her daughter leaves an empty hole in her heart; however, it is this hole in Angel’s heart that allows Angel to make room for someone else in her life, but in order to include someone new in her life, Angel must first acknowledge the real reason behind her daughter’s death so that she may accept it and move on. Angel was lying to herself about her daughter’s death: [Her] daughter wanted to die. She took those pills to suicide herself. (Perkin 247) Although losing her only daughter is challenging for Angel, she finally feels relief when she comes to terms with reality and exposes the truth about Vinas’s death, and by finally admitting to the reality of her daughter’s death, Angel is able to have a clearer mind and progress in life and help Leocadie, who has no mother to be with her for her wedding. By embracing the truth about Vinas’s death, Angel finds the courage to say, “Leocadie, it is not true that you have no family, because I’m going to be your mother for this wedding” (148). Thinking of Vinas gives Angel enough... ... middle of paper ... ...talian villa and wine” (189) to help her only daughter, Claire, and therefore, Jenna. Both Lily and Claire are admirable mothers, who would run to the ends of the earth for their daughters; these two mothers illustrate just how deeply a mother can love her daughter and how a mother does all in her power to protect her children. Gaile Perkin’s Baking Cakes in Kigali and Mary Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox demonstrate how family can protect, support, and encourage an individual. Family is a principle aspect of a person’s life, and a loving brother or mother or father can greatly impact a person’s life. A family can encourage someone to help others or even save another’s life. It is evident, therefore, that family is a crucial element for human life; the world would be miserable if there were no loving families to care for each other and support each other.
Born in 1959, author Debra Oswald began writing as a teenager. She rose to prominence with the debut of Gary’s House where it was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award. Many of her works features abandoned and neglected children that grow into adults to fight their own demons in the past. Oswald writes about the importance of a family’s psychology, both real and surrogate. In Gary’s House, Gary had a bad relationship with his father that lead to neglection and eventually hate but when Gary himself becomes a father he disregards his past to provide for his future child. This is the author’s intention of representing how important family is.
A misconception that we often have about family is that every member is treated equally. This fallacy is substantially portrayed in Alistair Macleod’s short story, “In The Fall”. Typically speaking, in a family, the Mother is the backbone for kindness and provides love and support with no unfair judgements. However, when we relate to the portrait of the Mother in Macleod’s short story, we perceive the portrait as a self-centered woman whose affection is only shown upon what interests her. The Mother’s unsympathetic persona is apparent throughout the story as she criticizes all that holds sentimental value to her husband and children.
Family was a place of gathering where people met to eat, drink and socialize. The people in the story were also religious as shown by Mrs. Knox as she prayed for her family. The narrator described th...
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go,"-Hermann Hesse. Regrettably, in this point of view, Jenna Fox's father, Matthew Fox, was incapable of staying strong. In the novel, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox has woken up from a coma caused by a gruesome car accident, an accident in which she was told to have caused. Later, Jenna begins to pick up and put together the puzzle pieces of her own life, including how the way she is being kept alive is illegal. Putting these puzzle pieces together allowed her to realize why she was different and the truth about the accident. Jenna's parents, Matthew and Claire Fox decided to take advantage of Matthew's expertise and replace
Cather and Fitzgerald regard keeping a close family in integrity as a success. In their perspective, the traditional gender role-playing,
The relationship between a mother and her family is one of strength and commitment. A mother will go through long anything to make sure her family is safe. In 1982, in Lawrenceville Georgia, Mrs. Angela Cavallo saved her son, Tony Cavallo,who was pinned down by his Chevrolet Impala. The Chevrolet slipped off his car jack and fell on Tony. Angela was able to lift the car and then provide CPR for her son and saved his life. Family is the most important thing, and Ma demonstrates her maternal characteristics throughout the book to show that sticking together saves families.
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
Currently, families face a multitude of stressors in their lives. The dynamics of the family has never been as complicated as they are in the world today. Napier’s “The Family Crucible” provides a critical look at the subtle struggles that shape the structure of the family for better or worse. The Brice family is viewed through the lens of Napier and Whitaker as they work together to help the family to reconcile their relationships and the structure of the family.
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
A breathtaking saga of a young girl’s tragic memories of her childhood. As with Ellen, Gibbons’ parents both died before she was twelve-years-old, forming the family. basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and actions of Ellen. The simplistic and humble attitude that both Gibbons and Ellen epitomizes in the novel is portrayed through diction and dialogue.
Relationships are often difficult and messy, especially in the world Tayari Jones presents in her 2011 novel Silver Sparrow, chronicling the lives of the two daughters of bigamist father James Witherspoon. Jones depicts the complicated the world of Dana Yarboro the secret daughter, her father’s attempts to hide her from the prying view of the world and her refusal to stay hidden. While Chaurisse Witherspoon the public daughter James proudly presents to the world for all to see, enjoys the luxury of suburban life. Throughout the novel Jones’ character, Dana tries to reconcile how she can be part of her father’s family, but not truly a part of his life. While Chaurisse moves through the world with blissful ignorance of the secret life that lay
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
...e dysfunctional families we are all familiar with -- the overcrowded, meddling, abusive, alcoholic, substance controlled individuals that can make family life miserable and destroy the self esteem of the children they control. These families become encapsulated unable to function within the norm of the general population. Their children face the same trouble dealing with peers and finding their place in the world – because they haven’t been given the tools with which to work out their problems within their own family much less the rest of the world. In essence, it does take a village to raise a child – but it also helps if all of the tribe members have the child’s best interest at heart.
Everyone is born into some form of family, with the family taking the responsibility of nurturing, teaching the norms or accepted behaviors within the family structure and within society. There are many types of families, which can be described as a set of relationships including parents and children and can include anyone related by blood or adoption. Family is the most important, “for it is within the family that the child is first socialized to serve the needs of the society and not only its own needs” (Goode, 1982).