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White Oleander a 1999 Janet Fitch novel, is the self-narrated story of a young girl, Astrid Magnussen, who in the beginning of the book, lives with her very beautiful and narcissistic mother in Los Angeles. Astrid is an only child and never knew her father. She worships her self-absorbed mother, who takes very little interest in the girls’ personal life and is anything but a good role model. Astrid’s biggest fear is abandonment. When her mother is arrested and sentenced to life in prison for killing her cheating boyfriend, Astrid is placed in a series of foster homes by child services, none of which provide a stable role model or put Astrid’s needs first. The story graphically details Astrid’s time in each foster home, each of which …show more content…
needs either help looking after other children, extra income, or emotionally stabilizing the parent. Throughout her time in foster care, Astrid remains in contact with her incarcerated mother, which does very little in helping her adjust to the challenges of surviving in an indifferent world. Ultimately, Astrid breaks the toxic bond her mother holds over her and learns how to be independent. Section 1: Topic Selection The stereotypical family has changed significantly since the coined phrase ‘nuclear family’ came into existence over six decades ago.
Originally, the nuclear family consisted of a married man and woman along with their biological children living under the same roof. Today, the structure of a family involves a variety of models with great diversity. “Over the past three decades, the number of children born out of wedlock…tripled from 10% to 33%...10% live in patchwork families and 15% live with only one parent. Every fifteenth child…raised by grandparents” (Stanglin, 2017). By 2030, forecasters predict 40 percent of families will consist of only one parent (Stanglin, 2017). Other factors effecting members of a family unit are incarceration and foster care. According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2016) policy report, “5 million children have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives” (p. 1). When the mother is incarcerated, most children end up in the foster care system. The foster care system has a total of nearly 428,000 children on any given day. The traditional nuclear family has transformed to include other definitions of membership, what a family unit looks like, and numerous factors influencing group changes along life’s
path. To be an effective human service professional, it is paramount to gain a broad spectrum in the evolving and new modern-day family topography and composition. White Oleander (1999) provided many aspects of the current family system I am unfamiliar with. I wanted to learn more about single-parenting, the foster care system, and how a child deals with different life issues under extreme situations. Throughout my life, I never personally encountered any of these circumstances. White Oleander (1999) gave me the opportunity to explore the foster care system along with a child’s perspective, feelings, and struggles they may encounter in a foster home environment. Additionally, I aspired to learn how a child may deal with an incarcerated parent, emotionally and socially, knowing that many children deal with this situation during their childhood years. To become a multifaceted human service professional, exposure to today’s family structure, lifestyle, challenges, and hardships is paramount. White Oleander (1999) allowed me to have a glimpse into these topics and so much more.
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
If we take a minute to explore Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Human Ecological Theory, we can see that the intricacies of family are deeply imbedded in the center of the Microsystem around which, all other systems stem. The Microsystem is the underpinning of the Chronosystem, the way in which environmental effects develop over time; also the way transitions, such as divorce, affect the individual’s growth and development (nacce.org). The nuclear family, consisting of he father, mother and at least one child (Sigelman & Rider 2009) is not always what we think about when the topic comes to family. In today’s world, with divorce and remarriages, there has been a shift in how we as a society define family. It has become more per...
Over the past decades, the patterns of family structure have changed dramatically in the United States. The typical nuclear family, two married parents with children living together in one household, is no longer the structure of the majority of the families today. The percentage of single-parent families, step-families and adopted families has increased significantly over the years. The nuclear family is a thing of the past. Family situations have tremendous influence upon a child’s academic achievement, behavior and social growth.
In school social circles, I always find myself "The Token Black Guy." I thought of this term for my role after viewing an episode of Scrubs on TV. I started thinking about the small number of black students at my school. It is something I have always turned a blind eye to.
As a result of her mother’s incarceration, Astrid is thrusted into a myriad of unmerited situations- the foster homes. One evil stepmother leads to another in this tale of adversity and just when Astrid’s prospects brighten under a shining sun, the clouds roll in and it begins to rain. “White Oleander” is a Cinderella story with all the ingredients of misery and misfortune but the wrong ending.
As a European immigrant in the USA, I have encountered many new cultural phenomena in the last 4 _ years that have challenged me to perceive who I am differently. This experience has been even more polarized by the fact that I have lived most of that time in Los Angeles, a melting pot to be reckoned with. Coming to America, I expected these adaptations to my Irish self but the intensity of becoming cognizant of my label of 'whiteness' has mocked the limitations of my anticipations.
Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different structure due to social and racial values or economic constraints. The 1950’s also brought about a change in technology that brought the world to everyone’s homes and gave people plenty to think about.
Do you know what the American Family is? I don’t. American families have changed dramatically over time. The “Nuclear Family”, which is defined as containing a man, woman and their children,was and is regarded as a basic social unit; the seed of ‘The American Family Tree”. But over time this has evolved and modernized into different meanings concerning how people view the traditional American family. The ways the traditional family has modernized include, Stepfamily, Single Parent Family, Same Gender Family, Childless Family, Divorced Family, and many more. These few different types of family systems show how peoples definition of a family in the past and current years in America have changed. The origins of the continuous branching family
A person grows up in the shadow of her parents or guardians, and eventually she comes to a point in her life where she wants to break free of their influence and explore her own identity. The path of finding one 's self-identity is to find descriptive characteristics, qualities and abilities that enable one to define oneself. In the novel, White Oleander, by Janet Fitch, the main character, Astrid, was separated from her mother, who has been convicted of murder, is put in to the foster care system. As various guardians take her under their wings and teach Astrid their ways, Astrid attempts to find her identity. One can say self-identity always arises from a reaction to the prominent cultural and social influences in one 's life. In the following paragraphs, we support our argument by considering Astrid 's mothers chains on her
The myth of a nuclear family can be discouraging to modern society. For example, Gary Soto essay talks about a nine year old mexican boy wanting his family to be like the “perfect families” on television. He wants his family to sit at the dinner table eating turtle soup while they all get dressed up. His family laughs in his face because the ideals that are portrayed on
The term “nuclear family” refers to “the part of a family that includes only the father, mother, and children” (Miriam-Webster, n.d.). In comparison, William Bennett, author of “Reversing The Moral Collapse of the American Family, The Broken Hearth” defined the nuclear family as “a monogamous married couple with their children” (2001, p. 12). I agree with both definitions, but choosing Bennett’s definition as the key to rebuilding a troubled society.
During the 1950’s the misconception that the nuclear family, which presumes that a self-supporting unit composed of two heterosexual parents legally married and engaging in separate masculine and feminine family roles was predominant and ideal (Palczewski & DeFrancisco, 2014). Understandably, looking at what a family looks like and means now from this perspective could lead one to believe that the American family is deteriorating, however, this is a result of the golden age view about the nuclear family and was never a reality (Afifi, lecture). The American family is not deteriorating, the common understanding of what a family looks like is changing due to the increase of diversity, dependency on discourse based communication, and an emphasis
Not even 100 years ago the ‘normal’ family was a nuclear family. This consists of a married couple with children. Now, because of declining marriage rates, increasing divorce rates, singletons, single parent families and many other factors, what is considered to be the ‘normal’ family structure has changed. Whereas before, a nuclear family was virtually the only family structure that existed, now there are several different structures that are becoming increasingly common. Some of these include a blended family, extended family or same sex parent families.
In the last few decades, family structures and patterns have drastically evolved. Previously, there was little diversity in the way families were structured and in family dynamics. For example, the majority of families consisted of a married father and mother, as well as children. The father was the economic provider for the family, while the mother cared for the children. Recently, family structures have evolved. For example, families now consist of same-sex couples, unmarried couples, couples with no children, single-parent families, divorced families, families with adopted children, etc. Sociological theories such as structural functionalism and feminism can help to answer the question of whether or not changing family structures are negatively
Over time, the modern family model has changed in a variety of ways; when it comes to families, the social norms are greatly different than they were only a couple decades back. With these changing times, it makes it harder for there to be a definite definition as to what a modern family truly entails. The following subtopics are all responsible for this changing modern family model: