Analysis Of Stone Soup By Barbara Kingsolver

To get a full understanding of family theory one must first have the understanding of what is theory. Theory is a systematic collection of concepts and relations. Family however can mean a broad range of things to a person. One person may consider family to be father, mother, sister and brother; however, to someone else family could be just one parent with one child; and to another it could their friends. Family systems theory however defines the family as a system. Family consist of interrelated parts, each impacting the other and adding to each other’s growth (or detriment) of the other. And because family is always changing, growing, self-organizing, and becoming accustomed to each other and the exterior environment (White & Klein, 2008). Now let’s take a look at the

No matter what background you come from or how you were raised, family is extremely important. According to Malinowski, “Family is a necessary institution for fulfilling the task of child rearing in society”(Conley, 2013). Society has come a long way when it comes to family and it is much different than it was in the 1950’s. Not all families are nuclear families. A nuclear family is having a mother, father, and children that are all biological (Conley, 2013). This kind of family is what some would call more “traditional.” Today in the twenty first century it is getting harder and harder to find families that have actually stayed together. There are so many different kinds of families in today’s society, and more and more families are becoming blended families. A blended family is when two families come together (Conley, 2013). Many families today have single mons, single, dads, and even same sex parents. Family is not always the people that live in the same house as you, family also consists of extended family. An extended family is a network that goes beyond the main “nuclear” family (Conley,

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.

As of 2015 the U.S Census Bureau revealed that approximately 116 million families are living in the United States. These families possess their own unique style, culture and set of beliefs. My family, consisting of my married parents and my older sister, are no different in the aspect that we too hold our own set of beliefs. The socially constructed term ‘family’ traditionally is defined as a unit that is related by marriage or blood, share financial responsibilities and care for any children/dependents (Lofquist et al., 2012). Growing up as a Haitian American, my ideas of what it means to be a family have been greatly influenced by my cultures and my religion. The Haitian culture greatly emphasizes family relationships and familial

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

Everyone has a family of some kind. It may be the parents and siblings they were born with, or it could be the gang of six biologically unrelated elite drivers with an affinity for robbing banks at high speeds from Fast and the Furious. Ultimately, family is what people make of it, and it can be the ‘traditional’ two parents, one brother, one sister, and a dog named Spot, or it could be a woman and the kid she was left with. The term ‘traditional family' refers to the socially expected behaviors of each given role (for example, a mother taking her kid to the doctor,) in the family. Members of a traditional family in this case are either maritally or biologically related. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees has many characters who would consider themselves, or be considered, part of different families. The Bean Trees addresses and deals with the fact that nontraditional families can be just as strong as what society has defined as a ‘traditional’ family.

She wants to reinstate the confidence in these parents to raise their children with bold and assertive nature, “Arguing about whether non traditional families deserve pity or tolerance is a little like the medieval debate about left-handedness as a mark of the devil”(305), adds Kingsolver to further establish this concept to both non traditional and nuclear families.

Barbara Kingsolver’s essay “Stone Soup” is about how a family should be like. The ideal family has a mother, father, sister and a junior. Kingsolver writes how she thought her family would be perfect. She says that people assume that children with divorced parents are unhappy. Single parents, gay parents, and remarried parents are not the ideal family but that is ok.

Growing up I believed that the three bears in the tale of Goldilocks were a family because they lived under the same roof and ate at the same table. I also believed that Barbie and her little sister, Skipper, were family because they looked alike, and that Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head were family because they were married. Now that I am grown, my understanding of family has matured, and many sources have helped shape my belief. Carol Shields points out in her article, “Family Is One of the Few Certainties We Will Take with Us Far into the Future,” that all around us there are different definitions and symbols of family (Shields 558). In short, a family does not have to conform to

Are mothers in prison not good mothers? Are all divorced families unhappy? Are these myths true? Myths are traditionally false beliefs or ideas. In other words, there are mothers in prison who love their children and there are divorced families who are better off separated. Many people believe in myths that cannot be proven. In the essay, “The Long Good-Bye: Mother’s Day in Federal Prison”, Amanda Coyne writes about her visit to see her sister at the Federal Prison Camp. She describes the environment in which the inmates live their day-to-day lives and even though these “convict-moms” are locked up and separated from their children, they still care and show them love (Coyne 56). In the article, “Stone Soup”, Barbara Kingsolver writes about how in today’s society a divorced marriage equals a “broken” family (66). She feels that even though a couple might be divorced, there can still be a “happy ending”. Both authors are able to dismantle these myths by

The circumstances in which the modern world faces are more unique and diverse than ever before. Slavery has been abolished, women’s rights have been achieved, depressions have been conquered, wars have been fought, minorities are lawfully considered equal, and gay and other martial freedoms are coming forth. The most logical circumstances have always been around and known to be true through nature. Humans are a social breed and strive for a sole companion but, none-the-less, we are animals designed to survive and re-populate. Our increased life expectancy and uncontestable ability to manifest our own happiness only provides more inconsistency when it comes to our families. We weren’t meant to be together for years and years, we were just meant to be together. Where the line is draw is left completely up to us as the individual. As Kingslover states, “If there is a normal for humans, at all, I expect it looks like two or three Families of Dolls, connected variously by kinship and passion, shuffled like cards and strewn over several shoeboxes.” In conclusion Barbara Kingsolver gets across that it is alright to be different in the field of family and that all families have skeletons in the closet may it be divorce, death, or even a gay member. It is what we do with these so called skeletons that create our true values. So let’s

Depending on their cultural background, many families will often have different understandings or ideas of what a family is and how it should be structured.

In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, talks about family of culture. “Maggie will be nervous after her sister goes: She will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister had held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her.” This means that Maggie is shy and quiet while also jealous of her sister Dee, thinking that Dee has always had everything. I can connect to this quote because there was many times where I got jealous of my sister because she had better things than me. “Instead, Mira married an Indian student in 1962 who was getting his business administration degree at Wayne State University. They soon acquired the labor certifications necessary for the green card of hassle-free residence and employment.” This means that she married someone with the same ethnicity as her, her sister did not. I know someone who did the exact same thing as Mira and Bharati. Overall family can affect how you view others in the world and how you view

The word “family” is often used in connection with a person’s ancestry. Most families are based on kinship. Members belong to the family through birth, marriage, or adoption. Family plays the most vital role in our daily life and family is the finest thing that you can ever desire for. It’s the family who assists their child in hardships of life and give affection no matter what happens. Human personality reflects on what his /her family status is and what their families have taught them.

”No one is ever born into Life alone. Everyone has shared the bond of family, at least at birth, and for many people it is a bond that will follow them throughout life. For many people it is the most important bond of all.”