When you ask people for their opinion on the definition of a family, the first definition that comes to mind is the nuclear family. Some people would agree with the notation. However, others have a different interpretation of the definition. The definition that should describe a family is a group of people that loves each other and where someone can share their good and bad times. With the definition of a family being a group of people that cares for each other and can be there in the time of need, it is opposite of the well-known nuclear family. A nuclear family consists of 2 parents and offspring living under the same roof. But that is not always true. Some families have two dads or two moms. Others might only have one of them. Some …show more content…
In the short poem “Aunt Ida Pieces a Quilt”, by Melvin Dixon, we see a family that is in tears because one of their family members passed away with AIDS and they family was heartbroken. Together, each family member helped each other out and the aunt built a quilt that has all the objects sewn to the quilt that represents the child. They help each other out so that person doesn’t get lost with grief and depression from losing a family member. Everyone supports each other and they all pull through the rough times that life gives to them.
In a family, there are different roles that everybody does. For example, there is always at least on person caring for the kids in the house. There is someone that cooks the food and cleans the house. There are adults that are in charge of the house and kids who listens to them and do chores. Usually in a nuclear family, the mother stays home and cook while the father is the only one that goes outside and into his company. The children goes to school and stays outside until it is dusk, then coming inside the house for dinner. All of these roles is what most people think all white families do. Just like Gary Soto in “Looking for Work”, when Soto was 9 years old, he sees on the television a white family that has contrasting traditions than Soto’s family. Wanting to be like the whites, Soto is determined to change his family. During summer, Soto sees the “comfortable lives of white
What is family? According to our class notes, "two or more persons joined together by bonds of sharing & emotional closeness who identify themselves as being part of the family," stated by Friedman. Friedman's definition of the family is displayed in the movie, The Notebook. An assessment of the family unit is seen throughout the movie setting and story.
Families, as units, are extremely complex and vary drastically from one another. A person might be under the impression that his or her own family is nothing special, especially if they are accustomed to their family’s routines. After analyzing my own family through the sociological lenses of an assortment of scholars, it is now clear that it is not as simple as it seems. Sociologically analyzing my family through the divorces that have occurred in my life makes it clear that divorce can have an impact on a variety of family dynamics, such as my parents and their jobs and domestic duties, the amount of involvement they have with their friends and family, as well as my financial dependence on my parents.
Everywhere around the world, in every different culture, people are grouped into families. The word family can be defined as a group of people bound together over time, because of mutual consent, birth and or adoptions/ placement or simply people who consume responsibilities for one other.
Family. A word that has about as many meanings as there are stars in the sky. Can family truly be defined, or is it merely interpretive? According to Seccombe, family is a relationship by blood, marriage, or affection, in which members may cooperate economically, may care for children, and may consider their identity to be intimately connected to the larger group (Seccombe 4). Although I do agree with the above explanation of family, I believe that it is inadequate in that it only supplies a framework of family rather than the duties and purpose. To me, family is a unit of individuals, related or not, that symbolize and exude comfort, solace, and support through all the trials and triumphs life throws our way.
“Aunt Ida Pieces a Quilt” is a poem about an elderly woman who is stitching a quilt in memory of her great nephew, Junie, who has died of AIDS. It is a remarkable poem about a close knit family who comes together to help each other during hardship. Like “An Indian Story” this poem speaks of long family traditions and illustrates the importance of family. “My mama and my mama’s mama taught me”, says Aunt Ida (49). The two writings are also similar, in that, the main maternal figure also makes sacrifices for her family. This is illustrated when Aunt Ida helps sew a quilt for her family even though, as she describes, “My eyes ain’t good now and my fingers lock in a fist, they so eaten up with arthritis” (49).It is evident throughout the text that this family spends a great deal of time together and have a very strong bond.
For over centuries, the term family has been specifically used to mean a group of people that consist of two parents and their children. The word is originally from the Latin word Familia, which means household or family. Although this word is known all over the world, it can have a different context to each person. In the United States alone, family can be referred to two adults and their children, a single-parent household, extended relatives, and a structure of more than two parents. Despite how the family structure may look like within a household, it plays a major role in life, either directly or indirectly.
A nuclear family is a family composed of a married father and mother and their children. This type of family became increasingly popular following the industrial age in the 1900s. The nuclear family soon became the norm as people transferred from large kin groups to smaller independent families (Pulsipher, 2015). This posed a problem in the beginning because close relatives no longer played a role in raising children and no longer had anyone to look after them in old age as they did when kin groups were common. However, as time went on, nuclear families faced challenges and soon began to fallout as a result of changes in couples.
According to the dictionary family is a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. Or family is from the descendants of a common ancestor. According to society family is a group, it can be related are not. My definition of family is anyone who is there for you through good and bad, someone who always have your back no matter what. Family is not just blood. However some of the best families are the ones you are not related to.
I define family by a group of people that communicate on regular basic, care for each other, and love each other unconditionally. I think that I was able to construct that definition when I realized that my “relatives” weren’t related to me at all. And then realized I talk to the people who I was related to all more than the people who were considered “blood”. I’ve never been to a family house where I have considered them perfect, every family has their personal issues as well as their own strength.
The poem “Aunt Ida Pieces a Quilt,” by Melvin Dixon, imagines what the life of a religious woman who has been encouraged to make a memory quilt of a family member (Junie) who passed away due to AIDS. Junie was a young man, who loved to sing in front of the church and was good at it. Aunt Ida always has made quilts at a young age and when she was done she would secretly her name in red in the back of every quilt (because each one is important to her). She worked hard on Junie’s memory quilt and she forgot about her arthritis when quilting. She didn’t make quilts for a long time before she made the one for Junie’s memory. Aunt Ida talks about how her mom and grandma taught her and it stayed with her until she was older and moved up north with
According to the Dictionary of Contemporary English, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, formed by a father, a mother and children. On the other
Determining family structure and dynamics as well as defining the family is a complex process. Personally, I come from a very traditional family. Much like the assumptions made by the students in the article Defining Family: Young Adults’ Perceptions of the Parent-Child Bond by Mellisa Holtzman (2008). This is what comes to mind when most people define family; a nuclear family, with married parents, and biological children. However, a family is a complex system and can take on many different forms.
There are many different definitions about what the family is. Different theoretical positions influence these variations. For example, the functionalist sociologist George Peter Murdock defines the family as “a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain
A family can be defined in many ways, but the common denominator in all is the love and fulfillment one gets by being surrounded by family members. Families can sometimes be at odds with each other, but the strain of this type of relationship usually creates an upsetting feeling to the people involved. People want others to rely on, talk to, do things with, share, love, embrace, and be part of. No matter what the family dynamic is the qualities the word family has will remain the same, as time goes by, and life evolves once again for every person living their
According to Swartz and Scott (2009), family is defined as a group of people related to each other by blood, marriage, adoption or being sexually open in a relationship. The