focus on the family book review

focus on the family book review

The Importance of Family in Literature: A Critical Analysis of Family Dynamics in Popular Books

1. Introduction to the Significance of Family in Literature

Families are complex institutions; they are, depending on one’s viewpoint, either the bedrock or the whipped cream on top of society. It is all well and good to say that families are made up of specific members or that kinship is a symbolic system of ties, roots, and descent, but the complexity of family is most evident when members attempt to keep the system together. Families may have as their goal the nurturing of children, or economic production or provision, or perpetuation of the family line, or addressing the needs of adults in the community and emotional support of its members. However, both within families and in the society within which they are embedded, differing values and lifestyles, and messages on how these should be expressed, are continually changing.

Families play an enormous role in a great deal of literature, and perhaps it is an acclaim to our society that despite our overwhelming fascination with them, they remain a force to be reckoned with. Crises of family life and family relations are an old truism in popular culture as well as fiction and literature aimed at children and teenagers. Readers and viewers have much to say about family values, relationships, and parent-child conflicts revealed in a way that is truthful, honest, and emotional, where they experience it together with the likable protagonists. However, it is worth considering the function of these truisms in modern-day narratives, particularly when one considers that the story, no matter what its form or length, seems to work particularly well when it uses a familiar situation, theme, or issue as its starting point.

2. Analyzing Family Relationships in Classic Novels

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play demonstrates the psychological hardships family can cause. Shakespeare delves into the mind of his character, transforming Hamlet’s metaphysical musings and abstract generalizations into things that are possible to be seen and overheard. Hamlet’s family becomes the props for Shakespeare’s understanding of the world around him. The father, brother, and mother provide the basis for all of Shakespeare’s works and are no less present in one than in the other. The dynamics of the characters are often twisted together to create a lot of inner turmoil. This struggle is mostly shown in Hamlet, as well as his family, who interact with him. The generational set, however, works as an attribute of Hamlet’s body as we often see in the soliloquies. The men who seek revenge, the women living their lives in the badlands, the social system that seeks to maintain a character’s fear and which paralyzes him in a potential life through the creative process.

Literature is one of the most versatile types of writing and can therefore help to erase the lines of diversity over time. Classic novels show the power of family dynamics through the lens of time. For example, in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, the protagonist’s thoughts about her family are a consistent topic shared with Karenin and their son, reflecting the importance of family to society. While the novel discusses the lives of society’s most elite and their desires to become private individuals who are able to express their inner thoughts away from public judgment, it also delves into the thoughts of an individual who wants the same freedom but is unable to because of her family duties and obligations.

Looking at the family dynamics throughout classic novels and literature, it is not difficult to see how prevalent family is in society. Family is one of the most important facets in our lives, and for most people, it is the most important.

The importance of family in literature: A critical analysis of family dynamics

3. Exploring Modern Depictions of Family in Contemporary Fiction

Depictions of family within literature have always been an important point of exploration for many writers. The purpose of this exploration can vary greatly. Sometimes familial relationships are used in order to shed light on a particular aspect of human behavior or specific character trait. Other times it is representative of the structure of the home dynamic or some other portion of the sociocultural landscape. Regardless of its application, the relationship has remained a relevant and favored context of research put forth by some of the world’s most highly regarded storytellers. It is our hope these findings will grant better insight into the study of literature, especially that of modern-day writing which can easily be construed as an accurate reflection of ourselves.

Much as literature has struggled to keep pace with changing artistic, cultural, and ideal landscape, so too have depictions of family proved problematic. While writers have always worked to create meaningful connections between their characters, linkages today seem more fraught with cultural implications than before. This section closely considers four significant cognitive factors restrained within popular sources of modern family dynamics in an effort to better understand the contractual obligations subject to contemporary familial relationships.

4. Impact of Family Themes on Readers and Society

So what good is reading if it doesn’t help one to learn and grow? Through exploring family dynamics in literature, young readers are preparing themselves for their roles of the future and for marriage and parenting, in some cases. In this day and age, children grow up to have many careers and wear many hats, but first and foremost, when they become adults, they will/should take on the role of parent. The only thing that all parents of a specific time and group of society in any period of time have in common is that they are parents over the same time span that their child is a child. We tend to model ourselves around people we know or have access to, and many children have exactly that problem. There are parents and teachers, but they may not be the people that are going to influence children to take on those future roles.

We can attribute a number of things that we believe and behave the way that we do to the experiences we have with our families as children and to what we read and watch in which family is a recurring theme. Parents help mold us from the time we are still in our mothers’ bodies; so very basically, we are what our families make us. Because of this, young readers often look to the way family is portrayed in literature to find parallels to their own lives and to model themselves upon as they grow from children to adults. This makes family themes in literature very important because children might not have access to the same types of role models that they can regularly find in literature; further, literature themes concerning family and their relationships with each other play a role in how society shapes and teaches its young as well.

5. Conclusion: The Enduring Relevance of Family in Books

Tudor admires how Austen creates compelling family dynamics and relationships within her novels and explores domestic life in a context that is accessible and believable to readers wherever they are, despite the events of the story taking place over two centuries beforehand. Tudor’s admiration reveals the importance society holds on the intrinsic notion of family and the bond and sense of identity it creates or imbues. Kearns acknowledges that the timelessness of literature’s appeal lies in its status as a conduit for philosophical inquiry into the patterns of the human condition. Kearns asserts that literature “provides a snapshot of places, moments, and themes,” specifically those themes pertaining to moral dilemmas, questions of character, and dysfunctionality that could lie within the private portal of a family unit. It would certainly seem that throughout the ages, family has been the proverbial backbone to the values literature has reflected and the concepts which readers have been drawn to. As Kearns writes: “Dysfunction within the family unit is one of my favorite topics in literature and a theme that seems of enduring, popular interest to my students.” Fifty years after the publication of such memoirs as Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, memoirs and family sagas exploring poverty became immensely popular, especially through the turn of the millennium. Family as both a theme and an art within literature certainly seems to be of immense interest to a mass audience, suggesting that the familial bond matters greatly within literature across genres and cultures.

Kearns asserts that literature is filled with dysfunctional families for many reasons, and indeed, readers are met with countless listicles and articles about works of fiction that deal with complex familial dynamics. It would certainly seem that throughout the ages, family has been the proverbial backbone to the values literature has reflected and the concepts which readers have been drawn to.

Tudor posits that Jane Austen’s enduring legacy lies in the way she wrote families. Tudor admires how Austen creates compelling family dynamics and relationships within her novels and explores domestic life in a context that is accessible and believable to readers wherever they are, despite the events of the story taking place over two centuries beforehand. Tudor acknowledges that the literary world is filled with families because such an essential part of the human experience is exploring where we come from.