Family Roles and Family Rules in the Movie Meet the Fockers
Paulette Erwin
University of Pacific
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the family roles and family rules of the Focker Family and the Byrnes Family in the movie Meet the Fockers. It provides examples of family members roles identified in the movie. It also gives examples of each family’s spoken and unspoken family rules.
Family Roles and Family Rules in the Movie Meet the Fockers
The movie Meet the Fockers demonstrates two families that are experiencing a change to their family systems. As the families prepare for the marriage of Greg Focker to Pam Byrnes they each react to the change in various ways. Their responses to the marriage is later compounded
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But Greg and Pam discover that their parents rules no longer completely apply to them and explain to their families that they will have there own set of family rules. The Byrnes family has several unspoken rules that define the family’s approach to relationships. Some of their spoken rules include “Muskrat” which in the Byrnes family means don’t tell. The Byrnes family system is structured and they hold family conferences to discuss issues. Each family member is expected to respond in a certain way to the father but this rule changes for Pam as she prepares to get married. They do not openly express affection and are guarded about discussing family business. In comparison to the Focker family that have several spoken rules that include having open communication about all areas in life. The Focker family members are expected to show affection towards one another. During the movie Greg shares with his mother that Pam is pregnant but asks her to keep it a secret from his dad. Later in the movie when Greg finds out his mother has told his dad about the pregnancy he does not react to his secret being told because the Focker family has an unspoken rule to not keep secrets. Putting the two families together reveals how opposite each family system operates but by the end of the movie they have created a new rule to except each other’s