Reflective Response to "Interactions" (Unit Two, pgs. 65-144) (due 9/21)
What are the key themes in Unit Two: "Interactions: A Thematic Reader"? How are people using their relationships with different family members to define themselves? Which reading do you find unique in this aspect?
The key themes in Unit Two: "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" is dealing mainly with our relationships within our family. It explores how the environment and the type of families we have grown up in have had a great impact on how we define ourselves as a person today. In Alice Hoffman’s short story, “The Perfect Family,” the reader if given an illusionary impression that this woman grew up in your ideal perfect family. The story goes on to tell how in the fifties there was a black and white version of the perfect family. You needed to have the patch of lawn, the apple tree, the mother who never once raised her voice, three lovely children, and always a father who knew best. Families stayed married and everything was perfect. The only catch was that you couldn’t ask questions; you had to be content with how things were. However, things aren’t that simple they never are. Alice’s dad eventually divorced Alice’s mom and they were no longer your “typical” family. The author actually states it wasn’t until ten years after the divorce that she met a girl in the same situation. In the end Alice explains how just because she didn’t grow up with a father figure doesn’t mean that the families with fathers loved their children anymore than what her single mother loved her. It doesn’t make her family any less “perfect”. Alice finally states,” No one can judge,” and she realizes that a mothers kiss could cure a fever and that was enough for her. In Alice's eyes her family was perfect.
The key themes in Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader” are about self with family. The themes in which this topic encloses are how family values, beliefs, and norms define an individual. Family values, beliefs, and norms are important aspects of an individual’s identity because they will make a large contribution to the way a person will think and behave. For example, when a boy grows up fatherless, he might think that it is okay to abandon his children and abuse women. This belief is strongly supported in David Blankenhorn’s essay “Fatherless America.” On the other hand, this may cause a boy to be a great father and love his wife because he wants his children to grow up better than he did. Strong relationships are a cornerstone to a person’s development. A good relationship with one’s parents can lead to a successful and fulfilling life, while a bad relationship could lead to a life of trouble and mischief. One thing that I feel is an essential aspect to how a person develops is whether or not a child especially a boy has a strong, positive, and stern male influence in their life because I think they do the best job of instilling values that will last a lifetime. However, the aspects of an individual that matters the most are how an individual views their life and the ability of them to be influenced by their relationships. Some people can grow up in a strong and loving family and still end up a screw up. While someone who grows up in a broken home could end up to live an ideal life. Clearly, how a family effects an individual is a case by case basis. The two readings that I found to be very interesting are “Fatherless America” and “The Perfect Family” because they are opposing viewpoints on the same topic of a father’s importance to a family. “Fatherless America” argued that fathers are an important aspect to a child’s development. On the other hand, “The Perfect Family” stated fathers are not as important as people think to a child’s growth. It really made me think in a different way than I usually do because it was so strongly written. In retrospect, both stories made great points, but I personally feel a father is still a key part of a family and is important to a child’s maturity.
The key themes in Unit Two have to do with self-exploration through your relationships with your family and family members. The family and environment that a person grows up in can greatly affect the way that person defines themselves. Many people think that families should be ones that can be defined as “traditional,” with a mother and a father happily married who spend a lot of time with their children. However, in Robert B. Reich’s “The Incredible Shrinking Family,” he explains why this may no longer be true, and why families are getting smaller. Husbands are no longer the only ones working in the family, many women also have jobs too. Family members are seeing a lot less of each other because parents are consumed by their work, and even when they are together they seem preoccupied by their work. Parents are only worried about getting their children where they need to be, rather than spending time with them. Many children are left at day care while their parents are at work. Families eat together a lot less now compared to in the past, and in place might schedule meetings with their family to talk about each other’s schedules for the week coming up. Married couples find that they are too tired to be intimate together, and their love life suffers from this. In fact, less people are getting married and more are without children these days. The desire for large families just isn’t there anymore like it used to be.
In Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader,” the key themes include relationship and family. Self is defined through relationships in family. People define themselves through experiences in their family. They remember certain events in their lives that involve family members and how everything happened. Alice Hoffman’s “The Perfect Family” describes Hoffman’s life growing up. Hoffman’s parents got a divorce and her mother took care of her. At the time, it was uncommon and wrong to get divorced. Hoffman learned a lot from her mother, who worked at the Department of Social Services. Hoffman’s mother talked to young unwed mothers and women who were not allowed to make their own choices. Her mother took care of her and taught her that it is okay to have a family without a father. Hoffman’s mother told her that perfect families do not have to consist of both a mom and dad. From her mother, she learned that love is the most important part of a family. I agree with Hoffman’s story. A family does not have to have a mother and father to be perfect. The most important part of family is love.
The key themes to Unit Two: "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" deal with the family and how they relate to the self. People use many different characteristic to define themselves through their relationships. Some of the individuals use things like their heritage, experiences, ethnic background or lack thereof and others also use the relationships they have with a particular family member. The essay I read "The Perfect Family" by Alice Hoffman deals with a young person living in a home with one parent and despite this not being the norm for the time the home is still stable and her mother is able to keep everything going while also giving the child lots of love. I found the fact that at one time single parent homes were so abnormal and they carried such a large stigma with them. I grew up in a single parent household and my mother took care of three children by herself and to me it was almost normal as most of my friends also lived in single parent households.
In Unit Two:”Interactions: A Thematic Reader” the key themes are the relationships you have with your family and how your family has shaped you into who you have become. This unit includes stories on how certain experiences and “ways” of growing up with your family has defined yourself on who you have become. These stories range from conflicts with family, to different cultures of families, to race, and even deaths. My favorite story was “Sibling Imprints” by: Francine Klagsbrun it is about 2 siblings always competing against one another to see whose best. This story relates to my family because the whole life of my brother and I has been one big competition we never could agree on anything, for example, if my mom and dad told us to pick either go swimming or go play tennis we would both pick different things because we wanted to make each other mad. This is the biggest thing I remember about my childhood is fighting with my brother and I really regret it but we were kids and didn’t know better. In this story when the boys are grown up they realize that the fighting was useless because they never knew how much they meant to each other. I think siblings are the biggest part of growing up and having a brother has influenced my life greatly, just like the brothers in the story.
The key themes in Unit Two: Interactions: A Thematic Reader are the way you relate with your family and how your family defines you. Here you ask yourself who is your familyk, what roles you play in your family, what experiences you have you gained being apart of sucha tight bond with these members, and how in time, will you have two families? People in the chapter use their relationships with families to define themselves. In Kristin St. John's Adoption Should Be Color-Blind, a child with Native American & African American background had been adopted by white parents. Here, he felt a close connect with not only the parents but with other siblings as well, just as every family they had their arguments, jealousy, and special sibling bonds that form in every family. Not only did they aknowledge that the child was not their biological child but treated the child as if so. Later in life the child got into his heritage and background and was proud to be African-American. The parents even encouraged and pointed out people of color who played positive roles in life. In the end, the child had defined itself by the family and its heritage. It dealt with confrontations in college and what not but believes that love is color-blind. A family is family no matter what color. I found this reading unique because it shows that families may not always be biological but i believe it is defined by a close connection between people that you can rely on. Family has a different defition around the world, and it is nice to read a story that deals with the world today, having families of different color,no matter what the type of family, the love is color-blind.
The key themes of Unit Two are finding out who you are through your family and/or family backgrounds. I find the following readings to be a unique way that people figure out who they are through their relationships. In the piece A Daughter’s Journey, Sharon Liao is finding out who she is by seeing why her family seems so weird to her in America. In all reality she is really seeing how her family would act in China, where they lived for most of their lives. The trip to China really opens up Sharon’s eyes to see what the Chinese culture is really like. Sharon wishes that she could go back in time to really explore her heritage, instead of not listening to her parent’s advice. In Adoption Should Be Color-Blind, she gets to explore three different backgrounds. She is Native-American, African American and is adopted by a white family. She joins the NAACP and her white adoptive parents support her 100%, which makes her even more eager to explore her heritage. Kristin explains how she feels about having adoptive parents that are not from the same background.
The key themes in Unit Two based on self with family are discovering one’s identity based on experiences with family or just based on the relationship with family or a family member. People are using their relationships with different family members to define themselves by describing the relationship they had with someone in their family like a mother, father, sister, or brother. In “Hold the Mayonnaise,” by Julia Alvarez, she describes how the views of stepmothers by her family when she was younger impacted the way she viewed being a stepmother herself when she got older. This story also made me think about how the views we sometimes share with our family on certain things can impact who we are when we grow up. For example, I found this essay interesting because there are many negative impressions of “step moms” that we see in movies or books, etc. It never occurred to me how an actual step mom may feel if they were brought up thinking negative things about step mothers. It would be an odd situation because you may feel like you are automatically that evil person you thought a step mom to be, even though it is probably the opposite like in the essay when the girl tells her that it makes her feel weird when she does not claim them as her step daughters. A story I found that made me think was “Sibling Imprints,” by Francine Klagsbrun. Having an older brother with about the same age difference as the two in the story, I could relate to it very well. I can remember how everything was a competition between him and me because he could always outsmart me and out do me at everything. At the same time we don’t always realize how much we depend on our siblings. My brother and I used to fight just like those two in the essay all of the time on family vacations but when he went off to college things were different. We didn’t fight anymore, simply because there wasn’t the time, and now I hang out with him and his friends. I really liked the analysis in this essay because it got me thinking about my brother and me and about how even though siblings may fight a lot; they actually have the ability to understand each other better than anyone else because of the time they spend together.
The key themes in Unit Two of "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" bring to light the way that individuals define themselves somehow based upon a relationship with a family member or loved one. People use their relationships with family members to define themselves in many ways, including the way they act, the way they view the world, and the way they carry themselves about day-to-day. A reading that I find truly unique is the story Adoption Should Be Color-Blind by Kristin St. John. In this story, the narrator tells the reader a story about trans-racial adoption. She was born to a black father and a part Native American mother, who was forced to give her up for adoption. The girl was then adopted by white parents, which at the time was frowned upon and still until this day is not a common practice. As a mixed-race child growing up in a Caucasian world, Kristin adapted to the “white” culture, and was generally accepted by her peers. Her parents were always very supportive of her, even when she got curious about her roots. Even though she was of a different race, he adopted parents took care of her as if she was their own. That example is what makes this story unique. This kind of thing is not very common practice, and when a story like this surfaces and turns out to be the way it is, it’s an awesome thing to see.
The key themes in Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader” deal with interactions between family and self. It seems like many of the authors are using specific events that have occured with their families to define themselves. The reading that I found to be the most interesting to me was "Mother, Father, Neighbor" by Sue Miller. I really liked it because it's a story that could really happen to anyone. We all have or will eventually have many of the same feelings as the author but she uses the tragic event of her mother dying to find positives. Miller was happy to know that she had spent her mother's last autumn with her and that she was able to strenghthen the bond that she had with her father.
There are many themes in Unit 2, but the key theme and main focal point is how relationships with close family members have affected oneself throughout their life. Reflecting on these relationships, one is able to more thoroughly identify who they are and realize how these specific relationships have impacted their actions and their overall life. In the story, “The Perfect Family”, by Alice Hoffman, she describes her life growing up. In the beginning, her life is said to be “perfect” and then the author went on to describe what the “perfect family” values were such as the neat patch of lawn and the three lovely children. Eventually, her parents got a divorce and now her family could have been described as “non-traditional”. During this time, Alice’s mother would do all of the fatherly figure things and people thought this was not right and that there should always be a good fatherly figure in a child’s life. After explaining what she went through while growing up, Alice knew and showed that a family doesn’t always need a fatherly figure to be “perfect”. The single mother who would raise the children might have a few difficulties doing so, but would be able to accomplish this task and love the children as much as a father would as well. This story showed how a person could think that their family is perfect in their own unique way. I agree with Alice in the fact that a family can consist of one single parent and the children can be given the same amount of love as if there were two parents supporting the family. I believe that an individual defines perfect in their own way and each person adapts to their surroundings.
The key themes in Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader” are our relationships within our family. This unit explores how our family and environment influences how we define ourselves as a person. Our family, environment and the way we were brought up can affect the way people would define themselves today. In the perfect world many would want what we call a “traditional” family. A family where there is a mother, father and kids. The mother stays home and takes care of the kids and house, while the father works an 8-5 job and supports the family. In Robert B. Reich’s “The Incredible Shrinking Family,” he explains how most families are “shrinking” in today’s societies. In most families today a “traditional” family is very hard to come by. More and more women are starting to work. Most families cannot just live off of one income. Parents are spending less time with their children and families are becoming more distant. Parents are so preoccupied with work that they forget to make time for their children. Fewer families are eating a sit down, homemade dinner together. The family’s schedules are becoming more demanding and busy, it has come to McDonalds drive thru dinners. Not only has the family as a whole become distant, the married couples find that they have no desire for each other anymore. They work all day and the run kids where they need to go that by the end of the night they are just tired and run down. Many couples note this kind of lifestyle and choose not to get married or even have children. The aspiration for large families is dwindling fasting. People are simply choosing smaller families. That is how we find our families to be shrinking.
I think that the key themes in Unit Two: Interactions: A Thematic Reader deal with your family and how you relate to them. It also talks about how it is possible to relate differently with certain members of your family. The unit breaks down how growing up with this group of people shapes and molds the person you are. For me, my family is the biggest influence in who I am. In the story “A Parent’s Journey Out of the Closet,” Agnes Herman has to cope with the fact that her son is gay. Since this type of term was not accepted in a polite society, it was hard to embrace. I think this only brought the family closer. By Jim explaining his sexuality to his mother and father, they were able to see that he is still just a regular person. They were able to understand being of the homosexual nature and then finally came out to their society.
The key themes in Unit Two: Interactions: A Thematic Reader are the way you relate with your family and how your family defines you. Here you ask yourself who is your familyk, what roles you play in your family, what experiences you have you gained being apart of sucha tight bond with these members, and how in time, will you have two families? People in the chapter use their relationships with families to define themselves. In Kristin St. John's Adoption Should Be Color-Blind, a child with Native American & African American background had been adopted by white parents. Here, he felt a close connect with not only the parents but with other siblings as well, just as every family they had their arguments, jealousy, and special sibling bonds that form in every family. Not only did they aknowledge that the child was not their biological child but treated the child as if so. Later in life the child got into his heritage and background and was proud to be African-American. The parents even encouraged and pointed out people of color who played positive roles in life. In the end, the child had defined itself by the family and its heritage. It dealt with confrontations in college and what not but believes that love is color-blind. A family is family no matter what color. I found this reading unique because it shows that families may not always be biological but i believe it is defined by a close connection between people that you can rely on. Family has a different defition around the world, and it is nice to read a story that deals with the world today, having families of different color,no matter what the type of family, the love is color-blind.
i believe the key theme is how you get along with your family. Also your relationships with different memebers in your family. I thought "the perfect family" by Alice Hffman was a great story. Basically itd about how you think life is perfect until the parents get divorced. Then the mother basically has to take over the role as the father. This means the family became non-traditional. I really enjoyed this story because I always had a traditional family so i never understood the struggle it is to be part of a non-traditional family. This story shows that no matter what type of family your patrt of it makes tou the person that you are today
I think the key themes in Unit two of "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" is how the relationships and experiences with different family memebers shaped the lives of the author. in Mother, Father, Neighbor, the author uses the experience of moving out and feeling like she's a stranger when she comes home to visit and not being close to her family to define part of who she is. One fall her parents rented a house in her neghborhood and they became neighbors, they spent a lot of time together and found a new kind of relationship as neighbors. It made them closer and made them enjoy eachothers company more because they could retreat back to their own home at any point in time and didnt have to be around eachother non stop.
Unit two goes deeper into exploring the self. It concentrates on how one’s family affects one’s self. The stories I read were Brothers by Brett Lott and The Old Man By Larry L. King. Lott defined himself through his relationship with his brother. He compares that relationship with the relationship his own two boys has. I couldn’t relate myself to this story really because, even though I do have a brother who I have a good relationship with, I don’t kids of my own and that is sort of the basis of the essay. I can, however, relate to King’s story. He writes about his father being very traditional and how, throughout his teenage years, he and his father would argue constantly. My father wasn’t quite as strict as his but we still went at it in my teenage years. I think that a typical relationship with teenagers and their parents. To put it lightly teenagers suck! Parents are just trying to look out for what is best for their children and teens don’t want anything to do with it. It takes time apart from them to really understand that they were right.
The key themes in Unit Two have to do with self-exploration through your relationships with your family and family members. The family and environment that a person grows up in can greatly affect the way that person defines themselves. Many people think that families should be ones that can be defined as “traditional,” with a mother and a father happily married who spend a lot of time with their children. However, in Robert B. Reich’s “The Incredible Shrinking Family,” he explains why this may no longer be true, and why families are getting smaller. Husbands are no longer the only ones working in the family, many women also have jobs too. Family members are seeing a lot less of each other because parents are consumed by their work, and even when they are together they seem preoccupied by their work. Parents are only worried about getting their children where they need to be, rather than spending time with them. Many children are left at day care while their parents are at work. Families eat together a lot less now compared to in the past, and in place might schedule meetings with their family to talk about each other’s schedules for the week coming up. Married couples find that they are too tired to be intimate together, and their love life suffers from this. In fact, less people are getting married and more are without children these days. The desire for large families just isn’t there anymore like it used to be.
The main theme to Unit 2 is how we define ourselves based on our relationships with family or certain family members. Through experiences and events with other people, that can influence and change who you are in the long run. I really enjoyed the story "A Daughters Journey". In this story, Sharon Liao and her family travel to China to further understand her family, and families in general. In the end she grew to understand and accept her family even saying "I am very lucky".
The key theme in this unit is how relationships in our family create who we are today. The way your family acts is usually the way you grow and model yourself. In your family there may be one person that you wish to become more alike, so you then create the same goals, ideals, and values as this person. The reading that I find this most interesting is the “Lott” story. Two brothers that become closer as they grow up. I can relate this to myself because my brother and I never really saw the world the same. But as I grow older, him and I have become better friends and try to model ourselves after one another.
The key themes in unit two are issues with: sexuality, parents, adoption, race, and fitting into society. They are using their relationships with their family to define themselves as normal and just like everybody else. They could not understand why people were having problems with them. I find Adoption should be color-blind to fit these aspects.
The key themes in Unit two are relationships dealing with and within family. It's mainly about your what you think of your family. also how you define your family and the traditions your family haves.it also deals with your role in the family, and what effects have it had on you. people are using their relationships with people to define themselves and also to help bring out their character. The story i felt that was unique is A pARENTS JOURNEY OUT OF THE CLOSET. i LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT'S LIKE YOU COULOD NEVER FEEL THE FEELING A PARENT HAS WHEN THEY FIND OUT THAT THEIR CHILD THAT THEY HAVE RAISED TURNED OUT TO BE GAY. sometimes i think some parents become ashamed because they feel as though its their fault and no one really has answers for their children coming out the way that they did. I also feel it was very intamate because how many parents are that open and comfortable with their child being a way that they dissapprove of?
Unit two deals with relationships with family members and the affects it has on people as a whole individual. It shows how people who grow up in certain backgrounds can grow up to be the exact opposite of what society expects of them. Some people go against the grain even though their environment is teaching them to follow certain rules or be a certain way. Some families have to learn how accept them and learn how to deal with it. A lot of people don’t know how to come out and let society know who they are because they are scared to be who they are. These stories explain just that. Sometimes we are different than what our parents or environment is. That’s where open minded comes in. People learn to cope with the different aspects of different lifestyles or customs that people have whether it be religion, background, race or color. Life is all about learning and becoming diverse. if everyone was the same it would be boring. I think this unit shows that a lot. Some of the stories are daring, almost shocking. I love it!
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The key themes in Unit Two: "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" is dealing mainly with our relationships within our family. It explores how the environment and the type of families we have grown up in have had a great impact on how we define ourselves as a person today.
In Alice Hoffman’s short story, “The Perfect Family,” the reader if given an illusionary impression that this woman grew up in your ideal perfect family. The story goes on to tell how in the fifties there was a black and white version of the perfect family. You needed to have the patch of lawn, the apple tree, the mother who never once raised her voice, three lovely children, and always a father who knew best. Families stayed married and everything was perfect. The only catch was that you couldn’t ask questions; you had to be content with how things were.
However, things aren’t that simple they never are. Alice’s dad eventually divorced Alice’s mom and they were no longer your “typical” family. The author actually states it wasn’t until ten years after the divorce that she met a girl in the same situation. In the end Alice explains how just because she didn’t grow up with a father figure doesn’t mean that the families with fathers loved their children anymore than what her single mother loved her. It doesn’t make her family any less “perfect”. Alice finally states,” No one can judge,” and she realizes that a mothers kiss could cure a fever and that was enough for her. In Alice's eyes her family was perfect.
The key themes in Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader” are about self with family. The themes in which this topic encloses are how family values, beliefs, and norms define an individual. Family values, beliefs, and norms are important aspects of an individual’s identity because they will make a large contribution to the way a person will think and behave. For example, when a boy grows up fatherless, he might think that it is okay to abandon his children and abuse women. This belief is strongly supported in David Blankenhorn’s essay “Fatherless America.” On the other hand, this may cause a boy to be a great father and love his wife because he wants his children to grow up better than he did. Strong relationships are a cornerstone to a person’s development. A good relationship with one’s parents can lead to a successful and fulfilling life, while a bad relationship could lead to a life of trouble and mischief. One thing that I feel is an essential aspect to how a person develops is whether or not a child especially a boy has a strong, positive, and stern male influence in their life because I think they do the best job of instilling values that will last a lifetime. However, the aspects of an individual that matters the most are how an individual views their life and the ability of them to be influenced by their relationships. Some people can grow up in a strong and loving family and still end up a screw up. While someone who grows up in a broken home could end up to live an ideal life. Clearly, how a family effects an individual is a case by case basis.
The two readings that I found to be very interesting are “Fatherless America” and “The Perfect Family” because they are opposing viewpoints on the same topic of a father’s importance to a family. “Fatherless America” argued that fathers are an important aspect to a child’s development. On the other hand, “The Perfect Family” stated fathers are not as important as people think to a child’s growth. It really made me think in a different way than I usually do because it was so strongly written. In retrospect, both stories made great points, but I personally feel a father is still a key part of a family and is important to a child’s maturity.
The key themes in Unit Two have to do with self-exploration through your relationships with your family and family members. The family and environment that a person grows up in can greatly affect the way that person defines themselves. Many people think that families should be ones that can be defined as “traditional,” with a mother and a father happily married who spend a lot of time with their children. However, in Robert B. Reich’s “The Incredible Shrinking Family,” he explains why this may no longer be true, and why families are getting smaller. Husbands are no longer the only ones working in the family, many women also have jobs too. Family members are seeing a lot less of each other because parents are consumed by their work, and even when they are together they seem preoccupied by their work. Parents are only worried about getting their children where they need to be, rather than spending time with them. Many children are left at day care while their parents are at work. Families eat together a lot less now compared to in the past, and in place might schedule meetings with their family to talk about each other’s schedules for the week coming up. Married couples find that they are too tired to be intimate together, and their love life suffers from this. In fact, less people are getting married and more are without children these days. The desire for large families just isn’t there anymore like it used to be.
In Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader,” the key themes include relationship and family. Self is defined through relationships in family. People define themselves through experiences in their family. They remember certain events in their lives that involve family members and how everything happened. Alice Hoffman’s “The Perfect Family” describes Hoffman’s life growing up. Hoffman’s parents got a divorce and her mother took care of her. At the time, it was uncommon and wrong to get divorced. Hoffman learned a lot from her mother, who worked at the Department of Social Services. Hoffman’s mother talked to young unwed mothers and women who were not allowed to make their own choices. Her mother took care of her and taught her that it is okay to have a family without a father. Hoffman’s mother told her that perfect families do not have to consist of both a mom and dad. From her mother, she learned that love is the most important part of a family. I agree with Hoffman’s story. A family does not have to have a mother and father to be perfect. The most important part of family is love.
The key themes to Unit Two: "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" deal with the family and how they relate to the self. People use many different characteristic to define themselves through their relationships. Some of the individuals use things like their heritage, experiences, ethnic background or lack thereof and others also use the relationships they have with a particular family member. The essay I read "The Perfect Family" by Alice Hoffman deals with a young person living in a home with one parent and despite this not being the norm for the time the home is still stable and her mother is able to keep everything going while also giving the child lots of love. I found the fact that at one time single parent homes were so abnormal and they carried such a large stigma with them. I grew up in a single parent household and my mother took care of three children by herself and to me it was almost normal as most of my friends also lived in single parent households.
In Unit Two:”Interactions: A Thematic Reader” the key themes are the relationships you have with your family and how your family has shaped you into who you have become. This unit includes stories on how certain experiences and “ways” of growing up with your family has defined yourself on who you have become. These stories range from conflicts with family, to different cultures of families, to race, and even deaths. My favorite story was “Sibling Imprints” by: Francine Klagsbrun it is about 2 siblings always competing against one another to see whose best. This story relates to my family because the whole life of my brother and I has been one big competition we never could agree on anything, for example, if my mom and dad told us to pick either go swimming or go play tennis we would both pick different things because we wanted to make each other mad. This is the biggest thing I remember about my childhood is fighting with my brother and I really regret it but we were kids and didn’t know better. In this story when the boys are grown up they realize that the fighting was useless because they never knew how much they meant to each other. I think siblings are the biggest part of growing up and having a brother has influenced my life greatly, just like the brothers in the story.
The key themes in Unit Two: Interactions: A Thematic Reader are the way you relate with your family and how your family defines you. Here you ask yourself who is your familyk, what roles you play in your family, what experiences you have you gained being apart of sucha tight bond with these members, and how in time, will you have two families?
People in the chapter use their relationships with families to define themselves. In Kristin St. John's Adoption Should Be Color-Blind, a child with Native American & African American background had been adopted by white parents. Here, he felt a close connect with not only the parents but with other siblings as well, just as every family they had their arguments, jealousy, and special sibling bonds that form in every family. Not only did they aknowledge that the child was not their biological child but treated the child as if so. Later in life the child got into his heritage and background and was proud to be African-American. The parents even encouraged and pointed out people of color who played positive roles in life. In the end, the child had defined itself by the family and its heritage. It dealt with confrontations in college and what not but believes that love is color-blind. A family is family no matter what color.
I found this reading unique because it shows that families may not always be biological but i believe it is defined by a close connection between people that you can rely on. Family has a different defition around the world, and it is nice to read a story that deals with the world today, having families of different color,no matter what the type of family, the love is color-blind.
The key themes of Unit Two are finding out who you are through your family and/or family backgrounds. I find the following readings to be a unique way that people figure out who they are through their relationships. In the piece A Daughter’s Journey, Sharon Liao is finding out who she is by seeing why her family seems so weird to her in America. In all reality she is really seeing how her family would act in China, where they lived for most of their lives. The trip to China really opens up Sharon’s eyes to see what the Chinese culture is really like. Sharon wishes that she could go back in time to really explore her heritage, instead of not listening to her parent’s advice. In Adoption Should Be Color-Blind, she gets to explore three different backgrounds. She is Native-American, African American and is adopted by a white family. She joins the NAACP and her white adoptive parents support her 100%, which makes her even more eager to explore her heritage. Kristin explains how she feels about having adoptive parents that are not from the same background.
The key themes in Unit Two based on self with family are discovering one’s identity based on experiences with family or just based on the relationship with family or a family member. People are using their relationships with different family members to define themselves by describing the relationship they had with someone in their family like a mother, father, sister, or brother. In “Hold the Mayonnaise,” by Julia Alvarez, she describes how the views of stepmothers by her family when she was younger impacted the way she viewed being a stepmother herself when she got older. This story also made me think about how the views we sometimes share with our family on certain things can impact who we are when we grow up. For example, I found this essay interesting because there are many negative impressions of “step moms” that we see in movies or books, etc. It never occurred to me how an actual step mom may feel if they were brought up thinking negative things about step mothers. It would be an odd situation because you may feel like you are automatically that evil person you thought a step mom to be, even though it is probably the opposite like in the essay when the girl tells her that it makes her feel weird when she does not claim them as her step daughters.
A story I found that made me think was “Sibling Imprints,” by Francine Klagsbrun. Having an older brother with about the same age difference as the two in the story, I could relate to it very well. I can remember how everything was a competition between him and me because he could always outsmart me and out do me at everything. At the same time we don’t always realize how much we depend on our siblings. My brother and I used to fight just like those two in the essay all of the time on family vacations but when he went off to college things were different. We didn’t fight anymore, simply because there wasn’t the time, and now I hang out with him and his friends. I really liked the analysis in this essay because it got me thinking about my brother and me and about how even though siblings may fight a lot; they actually have the ability to understand each other better than anyone else because of the time they spend together.
The key themes in Unit Two of "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" bring to light the way that individuals define themselves somehow based upon a relationship with a family member or loved one. People use their relationships with family members to define themselves in many ways, including the way they act, the way they view the world, and the way they carry themselves about day-to-day. A reading that I find truly unique is the story Adoption Should Be Color-Blind by Kristin St. John. In this story, the narrator tells the reader a story about trans-racial adoption. She was born to a black father and a part Native American mother, who was forced to give her up for adoption. The girl was then adopted by white parents, which at the time was frowned upon and still until this day is not a common practice. As a mixed-race child growing up in a Caucasian world, Kristin adapted to the “white” culture, and was generally accepted by her peers. Her parents were always very supportive of her, even when she got curious about her roots. Even though she was of a different race, he adopted parents took care of her as if she was their own. That example is what makes this story unique. This kind of thing is not very common practice, and when a story like this surfaces and turns out to be the way it is, it’s an awesome thing to see.
The key themes in Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader” deal with interactions between family and self. It seems like many of the authors are using specific events that have occured with their families to define themselves. The reading that I found to be the most interesting to me was "Mother, Father, Neighbor" by Sue Miller. I really liked it because it's a story that could really happen to anyone. We all have or will eventually have many of the same feelings as the author but she uses the tragic event of her mother dying to find positives. Miller was happy to know that she had spent her mother's last autumn with her and that she was able to strenghthen the bond that she had with her father.
There are many themes in Unit 2, but the key theme and main focal point is how relationships with close family members have affected oneself throughout their life. Reflecting on these relationships, one is able to more thoroughly identify who they are and realize how these specific relationships have impacted their actions and their overall life.
In the story, “The Perfect Family”, by Alice Hoffman, she describes her life growing up. In the beginning, her life is said to be “perfect” and then the author went on to describe what the “perfect family” values were such as the neat patch of lawn and the three lovely children. Eventually, her parents got a divorce and now her family could have been described as “non-traditional”. During this time, Alice’s mother would do all of the fatherly figure things and people thought this was not right and that there should always be a good fatherly figure in a child’s life. After explaining what she went through while growing up, Alice knew and showed that a family doesn’t always need a fatherly figure to be “perfect”. The single mother who would raise the children might have a few difficulties doing so, but would be able to accomplish this task and love the children as much as a father would as well.
This story showed how a person could think that their family is perfect in their own unique way. I agree with Alice in the fact that a family can consist of one single parent and the children can be given the same amount of love as if there were two parents supporting the family. I believe that an individual defines perfect in their own way and each person adapts to their surroundings.
The key themes in Unit Two: “Interactions: A Thematic Reader” are our relationships within our family. This unit explores how our family and environment influences how we define ourselves as a person. Our family, environment and the way we were brought up can affect the way people would define themselves today. In the perfect world many would want what we call a “traditional” family. A family where there is a mother, father and kids. The mother stays home and takes care of the kids and house, while the father works an 8-5 job and supports the family. In Robert B. Reich’s “The Incredible Shrinking Family,” he explains how most families are “shrinking” in today’s societies. In most families today a “traditional” family is very hard to come by. More and more women are starting to work. Most families cannot just live off of one income. Parents are spending less time with their children and families are becoming more distant. Parents are so preoccupied with work that they forget to make time for their children. Fewer families are eating a sit down, homemade dinner together. The family’s schedules are becoming more demanding and busy, it has come to McDonalds drive thru dinners. Not only has the family as a whole become distant, the married couples find that they have no desire for each other anymore. They work all day and the run kids where they need to go that by the end of the night they are just tired and run down. Many couples note this kind of lifestyle and choose not to get married or even have children. The aspiration for large families is dwindling fasting. People are simply choosing smaller families. That is how we find our families to be shrinking.
I think that the key themes in Unit Two: Interactions: A Thematic Reader deal with your family and how you relate to them. It also talks about how it is possible to relate differently with certain members of your family. The unit breaks down how growing up with this group of people shapes and molds the person you are. For me, my family is the biggest influence in who I am. In the story “A Parent’s Journey Out of the Closet,” Agnes Herman has to cope with the fact that her son is gay. Since this type of term was not accepted in a polite society, it was hard to embrace. I think this only brought the family closer. By Jim explaining his sexuality to his mother and father, they were able to see that he is still just a regular person. They were able to understand being of the homosexual nature and then finally came out to their society.
The key themes in Unit Two: Interactions: A Thematic Reader are the way you relate with your family and how your family defines you. Here you ask yourself who is your familyk, what roles you play in your family, what experiences you have you gained being apart of sucha tight bond with these members, and how in time, will you have two families?
People in the chapter use their relationships with families to define themselves. In Kristin St. John's Adoption Should Be Color-Blind, a child with Native American & African American background had been adopted by white parents. Here, he felt a close connect with not only the parents but with other siblings as well, just as every family they had their arguments, jealousy, and special sibling bonds that form in every family. Not only did they aknowledge that the child was not their biological child but treated the child as if so. Later in life the child got into his heritage and background and was proud to be African-American. The parents even encouraged and pointed out people of color who played positive roles in life. In the end, the child had defined itself by the family and its heritage. It dealt with confrontations in college and what not but believes that love is color-blind. A family is family no matter what color.
I found this reading unique because it shows that families may not always be biological but i believe it is defined by a close connection between people that you can rely on. Family has a different defition around the world, and it is nice to read a story that deals with the world today, having families of different color,no matter what the type of family, the love is color-blind.
Orginally typed by Zara.
i believe the key theme is how you get along with your family. Also your relationships with different memebers in your family. I thought "the perfect family" by Alice Hffman was a great story. Basically itd about how you think life is perfect until the parents get divorced. Then the mother basically has to take over the role as the father. This means the family became non-traditional. I really enjoyed this story because I always had a traditional family so i never understood the struggle it is to be part of a non-traditional family. This story shows that no matter what type of family your patrt of it makes tou the person that you are today
I think the key themes in Unit two of "Interactions: A Thematic Reader" is how the relationships and experiences with different family memebers shaped the lives of the author. in Mother, Father, Neighbor, the author uses the experience of moving out and feeling like she's a stranger when she comes home to visit and not being close to her family to define part of who she is. One fall her parents rented a house in her neghborhood and they became neighbors, they spent a lot of time together and found a new kind of relationship as neighbors. It made them closer and made them enjoy eachothers company more because they could retreat back to their own home at any point in time and didnt have to be around eachother non stop.
Unit two goes deeper into exploring the self. It concentrates on how one’s family affects one’s self. The stories I read were Brothers by Brett Lott and The Old Man By Larry L. King. Lott defined himself through his relationship with his brother. He compares that relationship with the relationship his own two boys has. I couldn’t relate myself to this story really because, even though I do have a brother who I have a good relationship with, I don’t kids of my own and that is sort of the basis of the essay. I can, however, relate to King’s story. He writes about his father being very traditional and how, throughout his teenage years, he and his father would argue constantly. My father wasn’t quite as strict as his but we still went at it in my teenage years. I think that a typical relationship with teenagers and their parents. To put it lightly teenagers suck! Parents are just trying to look out for what is best for their children and teens don’t want anything to do with it. It takes time apart from them to really understand that they were right.
The key themes in Unit Two have to do with self-exploration through your relationships with your family and family members. The family and environment that a person grows up in can greatly affect the way that person defines themselves. Many people think that families should be ones that can be defined as “traditional,” with a mother and a father happily married who spend a lot of time with their children. However, in Robert B. Reich’s “The Incredible Shrinking Family,” he explains why this may no longer be true, and why families are getting smaller. Husbands are no longer the only ones working in the family, many women also have jobs too. Family members are seeing a lot less of each other because parents are consumed by their work, and even when they are together they seem preoccupied by their work. Parents are only worried about getting their children where they need to be, rather than spending time with them. Many children are left at day care while their parents are at work. Families eat together a lot less now compared to in the past, and in place might schedule meetings with their family to talk about each other’s schedules for the week coming up. Married couples find that they are too tired to be intimate together, and their love life suffers from this. In fact, less people are getting married and more are without children these days. The desire for large families just isn’t there anymore like it used to be.
The main theme to Unit 2 is how we define ourselves based on our relationships with family or certain family members. Through experiences and events with other people, that can influence and change who you are in the long run.
I really enjoyed the story "A Daughters Journey". In this story, Sharon Liao and her family travel to China to further understand her family, and families in general. In the end she grew to understand and accept her family even saying "I am very lucky".
The key theme in this unit is how relationships in our family create who we are today. The way your family acts is usually the way you grow and model yourself. In your family there may be one person that you wish to become more alike, so you then create the same goals, ideals, and values as this person. The reading that I find this most interesting is the “Lott” story. Two brothers that become closer as they grow up. I can relate this to myself because my brother and I never really saw the world the same. But as I grow older, him and I have become better friends and try to model ourselves after one another.
The key themes in unit two are issues with: sexuality, parents, adoption, race, and fitting into society. They are using their relationships with their family to define themselves as normal and just like everybody else. They could not understand why people were having problems with them. I find Adoption should be color-blind to fit these aspects.
The key themes in Unit two are relationships dealing with and within family. It's mainly about your what you think of your family. also how you define your family and the traditions your family haves.it also deals with your role in the family, and what effects have it had on you. people are using their relationships with people to define themselves and also to help bring out their character. The story i felt that was unique is A pARENTS JOURNEY OUT OF THE CLOSET. i LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT'S LIKE YOU COULOD NEVER FEEL THE FEELING A PARENT HAS WHEN THEY FIND OUT THAT THEIR CHILD THAT THEY HAVE RAISED TURNED OUT TO BE GAY. sometimes i think some parents become ashamed because they feel as though its their fault and no one really has answers for their children coming out the way that they did. I also feel it was very intamate because how many parents are that open and comfortable with their child being a way that they dissapprove of?
Unit two deals with relationships with family members and the affects it has on people as a whole individual. It shows how people who grow up in certain backgrounds can grow up to be the exact opposite of what society expects of them. Some people go against the grain even though their environment is teaching them to follow certain rules or be a certain way. Some families have to learn how accept them and learn how to deal with it. A lot of people don’t know how to come out and let society know who they are because they are scared to be who they are. These stories explain just that. Sometimes we are different than what our parents or environment is. That’s where open minded comes in. People learn to cope with the different aspects of different lifestyles or customs that people have whether it be religion, background, race or color. Life is all about learning and becoming diverse. if everyone was the same it would be boring. I think this unit shows that a lot. Some of the stories are daring, almost shocking. I love it!
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