ipl-logo

Family In I Am The Messenger

1025 Words5 Pages

Family is a word familiar to all, but understood by few. It is arguable that there is no factor more influential in one's development than their family. Indeed, families should not only provide a safe haven, but they should also instil morals and beliefs into their offspring. However, a negative family environment can have a detrimental effect in the mentality of an individual. For this reason, families should take appropriate measures in order to create a caring and supportive environment. What makes the roles of families even more important is that they provide the structure and foundation of today's society. In "I am the Messenger", novelist Markus Zusak illustrates the importance and influence of families on an individual's behaviour. …show more content…

Bev Kennedy throughout most of the novel serves as a hindrance, and a symbol of failure in Ed's path. However, the reason behind her displacement of anger towards her son is not known until she is confronted by him. Ed says, "'Why do you hate me so much?' Flatly, simply, she answers. 'Because you remind me of him.'" (243) Evidently Bev Kennedy is not the ideal loving wife, or mother. In the latter third of the novel, it is told that the roots of her hate towards him stems from her anger and disappointment at his father. Beverly Kennedy's husband had made promises of a better future for her, but had wasted away his life as a drunkard and left her in that mess of a town. Understandably, for this reason, she turns out to be the nagging, demanding person she is portrayed as. What other people fails to see is that she is a person with her own desires, and aspirations. she was let down by her husband results in her dysfunctional relationship with her children, mostly Ed. She had dreamt of living a better life, in a better place, but she never makes it. Hence, she takes her anger out on her husband for failing her, by mistreating her son. What frustrates her even more is that her son seems to carry on his father's legacy. This shows that she loves him more than enough to want him to have a better future than she did. Not to mention, Audrey whom Ed

Show More
Related

Character Transformation In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

1284 Words | 6 Pages

Also, now that she realizes what she could have done all along or what her parents could have done I do believe that this makes her sort of resent her parents in a way because of how she looked back on her life before.. (INSERT QUOTE HERE) But because she soon after starts to work on her novels specifically about her life and how she grew up it further shows her character as a person and how she finds this as a way to sort of cope or really just own up to herself and everyone else about who she really is inside. Not only this but that there are more to people than how they appear to be, we can never truly know someone or assume the way someone lived based on how they've found their

Read More

Analysis Of The Talking Cure By Margaret Talbot

560 Words | 3 Pages

With the author’s writing strategy of giving out many different examples it helps people see how families from each different social class effect their children’s

Read More

Salvage The Bones Adversity Quotes

1206 Words | 5 Pages

These problems have negative effects because they create conflict and stress from scarcity, yet are also positive because it allows the family to learn to be closer, suggesting adversity can happen anytime and is a powerful factor in a family’s life.

Read More

The Boat Alistair Macleod Summary

692 Words | 3 Pages

When her only son was going to school , she said; “ I never though a son of mine would choose useless books over the parents that have you life”(Macleod 18). It shows how the mother was putting so much pressure and guilt

Read More

What Is The Theme Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

1274 Words | 6 Pages

Family as the environment that people

Read More

Governness In The Turn Of The Screw

234 Words | 1 Pages

Her pride and her claim over the children is motivated by her envy of their stauts in society. The

Read More

The Role Of Family Roles In Ovid's Metamorphoses

1351 Words | 6 Pages

In a family there are many different roles; there's the role of the mother, the father, the child, the grandparents, then there’s the brothers and sisters. Every single one of those roles has different responsibilities. The father, according to most of society, is supposed to be the breadwinner for the family. However, nowadays the mother is actually quite capable of being the breadwinner just as much of as the father. As they work to show their children what it is to be an adult they are teaching them as well on how to be an active member of society.

Read More

Examples Of Family Systems Theory

1589 Words | 7 Pages

There is a growing complexity and diversity in families. Family systems theory provides a foundation for analysis of such complex and diversified families, making it easy to understand for effective therapy (Zastrow &

Read More

College Admissions Essay: The Importance Of Education

546 Words | 3 Pages

I was born in Anderson, Indiana, the first child and only daughter to a northern Pennsylvania-bred father and a southern-Louisiana mother. My family, and specifically the backgrounds of my parents, has had a profound impact on the person I am today. From my father, I inherited a strong work ethic and a determination to accomplish whatever I set out to do. My father was a teacher for many years and he instilled in me the importance of education and life-long learning. As a result, I’m still taking college courses and always looking to learn new things.

Read More

Sociological Imagination Is A Personal Family Issue

1000 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction There are many different types of cultures in society around the world, all with their own individual accepted ways of behaviour, some cultures might be familiar and others might seem strange to us. Cultures have their own set of norms to control acceptable behaviour. If we as fellow human beings all took the initiative to understand each other’s cultures, it might not seem that strange to us anymore and it is possible that we could help others in a way that is acceptable to the society in which we live in. The aim of this essay is to discuss, using a view based on the sociological imagination, whether a unique personal family issue can be related to an issue in society.

Read More

Postmodern Approach To Family Therapy

1568 Words | 7 Pages

Families are said to constitute realities in which most of one’s attributes are constructed, based on the family interactions, beliefs, values as well as the behaviours that are seen in the specific families one is brought up into (Archer & McCarthy, 2007). However, even though most of one’s personal characteristics may be heavily influenced by their families; people do have a sense of individuality that makes them unique from any other person in the family (Becvar & Becvar, 2013). Therefore, one may argue that it is these differences that may cause misunderstandings in families.

Read More

On Going Home Joan Didion Analysis

1447 Words | 6 Pages

The life she has between her child and husband is different than the one with her mother, father and brother. She says her husband doesn’t understand anything that goes on in her family. For example, she says “Nor does he understand that when we talk about sale-leasebacks and right-of-way condemnations we are talking about the things we like best, the yellow fields and the cottonwoods and the rivers rising and falling and the mountain roads closing when the heavy snow comes in.” (Didion 2) So

Read More

Poem Analysis Of Choices By Nikki Giovanni

1101 Words | 5 Pages

The reality of the situation was that she had no control over her father’s death. There was nothing or no way that she could have prevented the events that took place. Although she was extremely angry with the situation at hand she learned that she had other things to be grateful for. She wanted people to know that even though something or someone has passed away you can’t stay stuck in the state of depression forever. You have to step back and look at your life because the reality is, life still moves on.

Read More

Critical And Significant First Step In The Social Work Process

2396 Words | 10 Pages

The theory looks at many aspects of the family such as atmosphere, constellation, and goals, plus, respect is given to both children and adults. In this system interventions are suggested for children and adults. The limitations of the Family Systems Theory are, too much is focused on homeostasis at the expense of change and patterns at the expense of unpredictability. Moreover, on the system at the expense of the individuals.

Read More

Sociological Perspective Family

1672 Words | 7 Pages

It also keeps kinship intact (2002). A child’s identity is based on ethnicity, race, religion and social class and is ascribed at birth through the family. Families permit the transmission of wealth and status from parents to children. According to the American functionalist sociologist Talcott Parsons, the family’s main functions are ‘primary socialisation and personality stabilisation’. Primary socialisation is the processes in which children learn the cultural norms of the society they are born into.

Read More

More about Family In I Am The Messenger

Related Topics

Open Document