Comparing Flatland and Little House on the Prairie

Sadly, not all marriages have good endings. This could be caused by several reasons, such as falling out of love, neglect, or lack of communication. The latter is the main cause of the short story A Young Man’s Folly by Susan Michalicka. The story revolves around a modern family, where a boy tries to deal with the loss of his father leaving him. Michalicka conveys the message of: “Sometimes when you’re chasing something, you lose sight of what is really important” very well through the use of conflict, characterization and symbolism.

She also talks about how middle class parenting differs from the other social class. The middle class parents mostly dominate the lives of their children while the working class parents cannot concentrate that much on their kids. She also brought a name for this phenomena called “Concerted Cultivation”.

“Why Did I Get Married?” directed and produced by Tyler Perry is a movie based on four couples who take a reunion vacation to the Colorado Mountains in order to reunite with friends from college. On this vacation things didn’t go according to plan. Throughout the movie there was heartbreak, infidelity, suppressed feelings, conflict, and secrets raging throughout each of the couples’ relationship in some aspect. With these unfortunate events occurred at various times throughout the film it cause their trip to evolve from a place to relax, enjoy friends, and time off from work into an emotional and tense atmosphere with the involved couple seeking validation from the other couples on the reason why their marriages are the way they are. Even though the movie ended on a good note in their celebration of Janet Jackson’s character (Pat) receiving an award one of the marriages did not survive. This couple’s relationship will be my focus for this paper.

Once the fundamental problem of the marriage was introduced and the family began to realize that each had a role in a family system that was failing, many changes began to take place.

As a matter of fact, juveniles rebel when parents divorce. Psychologist have been studying the break-up of the family and single parents, especially in the cases of single

The typical worries of the lower classes display the struggle of their lives, which is a

This story has happy and sad moments in the past with their family. Another thing this short story showed was that the dad made some things that he almost left his family for. Finally, he teaches his daughter about his young love and how it almost caused his family to fall apart. He foreshadowed that he rushed his love and went into marriage way too quickly and almost ruined his life. He told about the relationship between him and his wife and how they were in love at first sight.

The author’s family is very similar to other two parent, child rearing families other than the decrease in socialization from living in a very rural community where there are no other children to socialize with. The family assimilates into the community well as the author is involved with teaching classes to the local first responders and the family is very close to the few neighbors that they have. The family manages daily living one day at a time by working as a team and dividing the household tasks between the author and her husband, for example if the author cooks the husband does the dishes and vice versa, this generally works out well however there is usually friendly arguments about who gets to cook. The roles have had to get a bit more flexible with the author now attending school and household tasks have moved down the priority list a notch. Marriage, parents, and lover relationships are all viewed as a team effort with lots of give and take and a strong emphasis on compromise. For birth control the author’s husband has a vasectomy. The family copes with stressful life events by communicating; one strength that the family utilizes well is incorporating

As children we look up to our parents as role models, it is universal that we have the need to have them in our lives, to feel loved by them. They are the people who should be responsible for our upbringing and in molding the way we are to be as adults. The role of a parent is not just providing food and shelter but also providing a good example. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. There are parents who for one reason or another are not there for their children, parents who do not set the right example to their kids. In the story "Reunion" by John Cheever we see a perfect example of how a father does not step up to his role as a parent and the effect it has on his son. We see the need of

As a very young child, Allison lived in a strict, conservative home with morals and a firm belief that once married, always married; divorce is simply giving up and not giving your all. She lived in a home that went to church every sunday,in addition stayed to themselves about personal conflicts like any conservative family would ordinarily do. As time went on those morals started to fade. What was once a happy marriage turned into an emotional, high-strung marriage. Allison, being so young, didn’t remember much of what happened, nevertheless she knew that matters were changing. Ironically, the conservative family with morals divided, leading to the start of a brand new life Allison could never be prepared for.

This conflict between mates leaves the child feeling at risk of losing one or both parents. Children see themselves as the only pain relief or distraction for their parents. Kids feel over whelmed, especially if addressing their own need is seen as misbehavior.

Since the early ages of the world, there has been a prevalent disparity between low-, middle-, and high-class families. In the colonial era, there were farmers and the gentry; in the present day, there are fast food workers and lawyers. The gap between the different classes is still apparent in today’s world. There are many disadvantages that the initial has compared to the latter, like lesser opportunities to get jobs or the inability to provide for the family. Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” conveys that a family’s poverty level can affect the wellbeing of the parent and the children.

     Adolescents also develop mixed emotions and have mood swings, which makes the relationship with their family members difficult to maintain. Males have a difficult time dealing with fact that they are lacking a father figure. They sometimes feel as if they were betrayed and no longer loved by him. This rejection from their father adds to the difficult time for adolescents. The are continuously wishing for a reunion of their parents. In some cases, harsh feelings and negativity are displayed towards the mother because of the father missing. Females, on the other hand, lean toward their friends as support figures. They try not to allow the divorce to bring them down. "They were happier and also more likely to view the divorce as an improvement to their family situation prior to the separation," (Dufour, p.10).

Children often interpret that parents chose to separate and leave, while they eventually understand that death was not the child’s responsibility” (Bullcock 47). Whenever a parent remarries and other children are involved, the children can feel hatred to one another because their parent remarried. Siblings, step siblings and half siblings can push each other’s buttons for their emotions.

What is the modern family? Today the modern family is completely different then what it was twenty years ago. Today, it is more common to have a family with divorced parents, before divorce was seen as unacceptable and a disgrace to the family, but in today’s society, it is more acceptable, and common. Divorce does not just affect the two married people, but it also affects any children they may have. To fully understand how divorce affects children, one must the history of divorce, the changes in the child’s or children’s life, and the effects those changes may bring.