Hierarchical Family Structures In Kingsolver's The Congolese

In Reymundo’s family, there are two familial based issues related to the family’s functioning as a system. The first issue is family abuse and neglect. Reymundo was abused and neglected by his nuclear family continuously and regularly. This led Reymundo to be co-dependent and to act out in his environment. The second issue is the role of Reymundo’s mother. Reymundo’s mother showed a lack of parenting

“The longer she lives in Kilanga, the clearer Orleanna's vision becomes” state's Ognibene in her essay, in reference to orleanna's realisation that her husband is controlling and toxic. Kingsolver has shifted the “Missionary” role from Nathan to Orleanna, by shedding light on the misdemeanors of Nathan’s ways, and the purity of Orleannas.

how Nathan’s neglect of his family affected Orleanna greatly. “ For six years, from age nineteen

The reader senses that she is passive, guilt-ridden, and weak. Orleanna has only ever been a wife and mother, and it limited her. Being the wife of a preacher, that himself is full of guilt, left her a very strict way to live her life. Orleanna followed Nathan’s instructions, set the example of his teachings, did what was expected, and never spoke against anything he said. Orleanna constantly felt guilty.

Throughout the novel, Nathan exhibits cruelty towards his family and the villagers. Cruelty is a direct antonym of Love. Looking back to the Bible, Paul states in a letter to the: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love ( New International Version, 1 Corinthians 13:13).” While Nathan may be spreading faith and hope, because of his cruelty, he is certainly not showing love, which according to scripture is the most important. Instead of loving his wife Orleanna, Nathan rebukes her many times for no reason and even acts out in physical cruelty by roughly batting Orleanna away as she tried to nurse his wounds. Nathan’s actions are again hypocritical and go directly against the Bible says. Paul, in another letter, writes “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25). Ultimately Nathan is not able to convince any of the villagers to be baptized because he has not showed love and therefore not God to them. John, another apostle, states to a church that is struggling with false prophets: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”(1 John 4:8). One may conclude from these verses that even though Nathan Price may have some knowledge of the Bible, he truly does not know God,

Orleanna’s place in society is to play the “preacher’s wife” and to just shadow her husband from place to place. Even when Nathan is going to move to Africa, she packs up her stuff to follow him because that was her place in society. However, once the family arrives in Africa, her connection with her husband, although previously broken, altogether falls apart. He starts ordering Orleanna around more than usual and just downright acts mean to her and the girls. Kingsolver demonstrates this when Nathan says, “Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes. It’s hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in a wreck the shoes” (Kingsolver 1.8.7). The external conflicts Orleanna confronts are cooking a decent meal for her family, caring for her children, and surviving herself, while also dealing with internal conflicts such as ultimately leaving Nathan. The atmosphere that she lives in is not helping because at the time in Africa, women had little to no rights and men had no respect for the women. The people in the Congo look down on the Prices at times for not having a strong man in the household. Kingsolver says, “It troubles Leah that people thought our household deficient because we lacked a bákala mpandi- a strong man- to oversee us” (Kingsolver 3.4.8). This enabled Nathan to remain a strong figure in telling Orleanna what to do and gives her more chores while he was out doing more important things such as “sav[ing] Africa from evil”. All of this builds up to Orleanna’s inevitable departure after the last straw: Ruth May’s death. In The Awakening, Edna does not fit in with the Creole society that she marries into but is forced to, again, put on a face and pretend to enjoy

There was never a need for love, just his acceptance that she was his best offspring. In the middle of the rainy season, the family’s unwanted parrot yells out a curse word, causing the father to blame the children. Yet, Leah is not focused on saving her family, but rather craves “...to be father’s favorite,” (66), leaving the rest of the family to fend for themselves. Leah only sees her family as competition to her father’s affection, manifesting her desire to be loved in one person. At this moment, Leah is never truly happy. However, as their time in the Congo is extended for, at the time being, indefinitely, her value of Nathan falters with the lack of trust in his ideas. She gains this need to think on her own, to find her true self. Leah goes so far as to tell Anatole once, “‘I love you,’” (311), and even goes as far to have four children with him, named “Pascal, Patrice, Martin-Lothaire, and Nataniel,” (497). While it was never a shock to the reader that Anatole and Leah would marry, this dramatic irony was the clever method Kingsolver used to foreshadow the mental change that would take place in Leah. In fact, by giving up the worst part of her childhood family, Leah found the inner need to start her own family. Only by throwing away the familiarity and security of Nathan was Leah able to realize that she was never meant to be an exact copy of her

To start off for Orleanna, she gained a less oppressed and more powerful voice throughout the story. In the beginning of the book, she was continuously bossed around by her husband Nathan - as were all of the girls, this change can also be related to each and every one of her daughters - and simply agreed with whatever he said to avoid any conflict that would happen if she did not. It is easily distinguishable in that she did conform to whatever her husband told her to do, as there were common scuffles that were avoided by her sitting down and keeping her mouth shut. The entire situation of

A relationship between a father and son can have a decidedly profound impact on each other’s lives. Whether this relationship is bifurcated, the psychological effects of having an intimate or inadequate parenting skills can have a nurturing or depriving effect on a child's personality from birth all throughout adulthood. This relationship although sustained has the potential to be either beneficial or untenable. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we see a breakdown between a father and son relationship which created a very detrimental effect. The carved figure of a son that Okonkwo had predicted was erased due to his egoistic character and his terrible parenting skills.

Step-mother is an example of using her power in an immoral way and also shows her bad side through how she abuses Adeline. “You are to stay in your room without anything to eat until your father comes home” Niang is corrupted by her power as she forces Adeline to stay in her room and starves her. Niang uses her power to physically and emotionally hurt Adeline. “You don’t deserve to be housed and fed here”. This shows that Niang does not care for Adeline at all because the imperative language and alliteration of the ‘d’s’ illustrate that she wants Adeline to beg and starve in the streets.

In O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the setting contributes to the reader's understanding of Bailey's out of tune family. We can assume the story took place in the post-war mid century era given the fact that O’Connor wrote this story in 1953 and when the grandmother says, “the way Europe acted you would think we were made of money” (O’Connor). During the 1940’s and 1950’s the backbone of the American dream was “hard work, family values, and hope” (Desmond). Families from back then were big on respect and took family time seriously. When comparing a traditional mid century family to Bailey's family there is a distinct difference that allows us to label them as a dysfunctional family. Although we do not get a look into the family's work ethic, we do get a close enough look to see their lack of family values. Throughout the story there are several times where the family reveals that they are clearly flawed with the words they choose to say or simply with their actions.

Alina’s family has many strengths and weaknesses. An important portion of family dynamics is caring. Wits present with strong bond and the appreciation that every family member has for each other. Alina is the central person that provides a lot of affection to her children as well as her husband. She always wants everyone to be happy. Also, everyone in this family have each other back. For example, when Alina was diagnosed with the breast cancer, everyone was supportive and wanted to provide help. For Alina, it was a devastating situation; she was going through emotional rollercoaster. However her family did not give up on her. Together as a time they helped Alina to go through

Rwanda, the landlocked “land of a thousand hills” is one of Africa’s smallest countries. Rwanda is situated in the Central African Great Lakes Region, close to the equator. It is not a large country; it is around 10% smaller than Belgium. Rwanda is a lush country, covered in numerous hills. It is quite fertile by African standards, and there are many swamps, lakes, and rivers.

“For Better For Worse” is a short story detailing the blurred familial lines between financially supporting someone and legitimately supporting them. It also shows how the harms of having a weak parental figure can harm a child. To employ these themes, the story uses selection of detail, allusions, and symbols.

The way the author constructed the issue of families was characterization so you get the idea of each member of the family so that helps show the difference between the stereotypical families in the past and the present. Families in the past were different to the one’s in the present because the father was the most dominate because they were the ones that earn the money and they were the ones who were portrayed as being brave. The mother was