Random Family Is A Complex Web Of Diversities And Inequalities Essay

What is a family? As a young child, Kingsolver played in her room with a toy set called “The Family of Dolls”, which served as the perfect example of what a “real” family is: “four in number, who came with the factory-assigned names of Dad, Mom, Sis, and Junior.” She always ended up comparing her family to this perfect idea of a family that she played with. As a grown-up Kingsolver went through divorce herself, creating a “broken” home for her child. Kingsolver experienced the abnormalness and society’s ideals pushed through her head. But although her family was

All of these little details contribute to Kingsolver underlying message of the varied kinds of families that exist, and the importance they play. Ryan acknowledges that Taylor has always known that a father and mother and 2.3 children don't necessarily make a family (80). Taylor recognizes the existence and importance of makeshift families, and knows what can be gained from the love of others. Kingsolver repeated theme of the extended family and how it benefits and helps one grow, is evident throughout her novel. She uses Taylor to illustrate her belief in Socrates idea of the communal family, and how it is often the best thing for the upbringing of a child.

Family is one of those words that have a significant meaning to various individuals. Family may be viewed one way to an individual and another way to someone else. Family consists of those who have played a particular role in one’s life, whether it is positive or negative. In this paper, I will assess Reymundo’s family both nuclear and extended and speak of how his family has become significant in his life and how they have played a role in his decisions. I will also speak of my personal reactions to the story as well as address ways that as a social worker I could work to impact the gang problems in Orlando.

In this section the author talks about the way of conducting the study which is the basis of this book. She has chosen a total of twelve families including six white, five black and one interracial. All the families had children who aged from 9-10 years. She visited these families at least twenty times in a time span of a month and spend time around the space where their everyday lives evolve.

The first eight chapters we reviewed from the book Public and Private Families: An Introduction gives us a foundation in comparing and studying the family from a sociologist’s view. Written by Andrew J Cherlin, a Sociology Professor at Johns Hopkins University. As a class we discussed several key points taken from these chapters and reflected how these concepts pertain to our life whether it be our family directly or observations of other family dynamics. I found Cherlin’s first chapters to be easy to follow and pertinent to the study, he goes into detail regarding his views and offered several suggestive ways to research and study in depth more if the reader so chose to do.

In today’s society, family is often attempted to be organized within a social structure. Within this structure family typically is consisted of mom, dad, daughter, and son. However, many families do not fit into this configuration. These families may include same sex couples, separated or divorced families, extended families, or even blended families. Even though these families may be happy and healthy, to many they are not considered real families. Going along with the topic of imperfect families, both Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Rodriguez try to break down the traditional family structure through their writing. While Kingsolver’s “Stone Soup” and Rodriguez’s “Family Values” explore the ideas of different family structures and traditional American values, “Stone Soup” breaks down what an actual family is like while “Family Values” expresses the value of family in different cultures.

People often think of family as positive, loving, and with no flaws. However, there is almost a stereotype that all families love each other and there aren’t problems or challenges in a family. Sometimes families put people through challenges and some families aren’t “perfect”. In the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jolly has two kids and goes through challenges with her family. Most careful readers can see how Jolly has these challenges with her kids and how she is far off from the “perfect” family. She goes through many of these challenges in life and finds a way to overcome them. Jollys family shapes her identity because the challenges she faces ends up making her stronger. Jeremy and Jilly challenging her, LaVaughn helping her out, and her past family all shape her identity.

In Tattoos on the Heart, the reader accompanies Father Gregory Boyle throughout a series of heart-warming conversions he conducts through his interactions with numerous gang members in the Los Angeles projects. Likewise, J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy constructs a memoir of his tumultuous upbringing in the Midwest as well as of his familial roots in Kentucky. A commonality throughout the novels is the poverty faced by members of these communities and how it contributes to the conflicts that drive the plot. The topic of poverty, its causes, and possible solutions has always interested me a lot due to a concept of the Lottery of Birth, which is a philosophical position that comes up frequently in my debate competitions. Basically, where we are born, in terms of one’s position and class in society, is arbitrary; I did not choose to be born in the socioeconomically comfortable neighborhood of Massapequa Park. This is a perpetual unfairness to which there is no solution, but there has to be some action that can alleviate the suffering of the over three billion people worldwide who live on less than three dollars a day (DoSomething.org).

Annette Lareau, author of Unequal Childhoods Class, Race, and Family Life, revealed her research findings in this enlightening text featuring twelve socially, economically, and culturally diverse families having a child nine to ten years of age respectively in their nuclear family unit. These families were garnered from the author’s coinciding study comprised of eighty-eight children. Lareau, along with her research assistants, visited each family approximately twenty times. Visits included time spent within the home, as well as family events, school functions, doctor’s visits, structured activities, shopping trips, and church services. Wide-ranging contexts allowed researchers a unique opportunity to observe and record a multiplicity of interactions within each family unit.

The Moore family is a family that is made up of three generations, starting with the grandparents, parents, along with the children. The Moore family also consist of multiple racial groups, such as African American and Caucasian that causes divided within the family because of the cultural differences within each group. The Moore family is made up of Jessica, Caucasian mother, Ed, African American father, Derrick, adopted African American son, Terrence, Jessica’s biological biracial son, and Debbie, Ed’s biological biracial daughter. With the listing of the both husband and wife along with the children, it is clear that this family has encounter a few life transitions, trajectories, cohorts, turning points, and life events. Understanding life course perspective will assist with understanding the family dynamics that are displayed within the Moore family. Life transitions, trajectories, cohorts, turning points, life events, along with other terms will be defined and discussed to fully examine the Moore’s family behavior and life events that guided their family’s development. With all of the issues that the Moore family has encountered both Jessica’s and Ed’s marital problems may be seen as the core of their family’s dysfunction, therefore, this will be explained under the life course perspective.

     The African-American family is defined as networks of households related by blood, marriage, or function that provide basic instrumental and expressive functions of the family to the members of those networks (Hill, 1999). It is one of the strongest institutions throughout history, and still today. Family strengths are considered to be cultural assets that are transmitted through socialization from generation to generation and not merely adaptations or coping responses to contemporary racial or economic oppression (McDaniel 1994; Hill 1999). This definition is contrary to the belief that the Black family is an adaptation to harsh conditions, instead of an ongoing establishment. Hill (1999) discusses

The reader cannot help but feel the burden the daughter will be sharing with the mother. And while the plight of the mother is real, the reader cannot ignore how the isolation and loneliness of this type of community, or lack there of, has effected Tome's judgment in mothering.

In every home, there is a different definition of family and how family should treat each other. Two short stories were read by an author named Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. It was about a dysfunctional family who encounters a criminal named “The Misfit”. The grandmother which is the main character is very judgmental towards others and sometimes her own family at times. This story starts off with a disagreement on where to go for a family trip, but they decide on going to Florida for the family trip after a while of arguing. On this trip, it showed what type of family they are. They talk about everything with one another as well as bicker and fight but at the end of the day, they are still family and love each other. They come together the most in panicking situations such as the accident and waiting for a car to help them. The point of this paper is the theme of family. Specifically, family is a theme in this short story because it depicts a dysfunctional family; the family you see on a crazy television show and can’t get enough of because they’re funny but also they have serious moments. There 's the two troublesome and annoying kids, the hot-headed dad who tries to maintain control of a situation and fails, the wife busy attending to the baby, and the grandmother, who 's a case all to herself (and also the main character). Though the story starts out seeming like a comedy, it takes a serious turn when the family encounters a criminal, who kills them

Race and class can play powerful roles in people’s family experiences. Race is defined as a socially constructed category of individuals who share common inborn biological traits (Newman 2009). Class is defined as groups of people who share a similar position in society based on their wealth and income (Newman 2009). Social class and race shape family lives in many ways, which in return reproduces class and race inequalities. In Annette Lareau’s study of families, she uses real stories of real families to show important social patterns.

Often when people decide to have children, they think of their circumstances whether they are fit for it or capable of raising a child. For some people they have no control and in this case Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” is a crucial example of the struggle she faces growing up in poverty. Jeanette Walls was not only faced with living under the conditions of poverty, she also had to deal with the chaos and neglect from her parent’s lifestyle. Although Jeanette Walls parents were irresponsible and selfish one thing Jeanette’s Walls parents managed to do right was instilling good qualities and well-raised independent adults. Not only did Jeanette Wall’s suffer drastically from poverty, she had to deal with the constant battle of