Family

Growing up, my family has always been there for me. Whether it be when I needed emotional support or help on a homework problem, I knew that I could always count on them. Reading about these dysfunctional families in Maus, The Bluest Eye, and The Glass Castle was kind of an eye opener for me. I always knew that I was fortunate to have such a loving family, but I never really grasped just how detrimental not having a functional family can be. In Maus, Art "can't even make sense out of [his] relationship with [his] father" (Spiegelman) which highlights the lack of communication and understanding they have with each other. The fact that Art has lived his entire childhood without getting to truly know his own father is almost unimaginable to most of us, yet it happens to children all the time. A broken family in The Bluest Eye can be seen in the relationship between Geraldine and Junior. She "did not talk to him, coo him, or indulge him in kissing bouts" (Morrison) because she only met his physical needs. Any love she had was only towards her cat. Because Junior never received any emotional love from his mom, he ends up hardened and           cold-hearted. Junior is just one example of the emotional impairments caused by a lack of a loving family. In The Glass Castle, Jeanette and her siblings realize that the ways of their parents are very different from the path that they want to follow. This causes a sort of rift between them that doesn't ever get completely resolved. The difference in their beliefs is why her mom thinks she is "fine" and that Jeanette is "the one who needs help" (Walls). Although Jeannette ends up with the life she wanted, her path to get there was very rocky due to the different values she had with her parents. After reading these three novels, it really puts into perspective how fortunate I am to live in a "normal" family and how little these issues are talked about in school.