Dysfunctional Families In Cana Essay -- essays research papers

Dysfunctional family relationships form the basis of many Canadian short stories. Often, tragedy is the end burden of severe family breakdown. In other cases, personality defectsare directly traceable to poor family dynamics. In the stories Hurt, Fall of a City, and The Sound of Hollyhocks there were very profound family problems.The difficulty in the generate/son relationship in Hurt reflects a role reversal. Even thoughStevie is only a young boy, he took care of himself and his father. Stevie made his ownmeals and when his father was inebriated, he ...went down to the store and got him acouple bottles of vanilla to sober up on. (pg. 195) In a family situation a young childsuch as Stevie should not have the responsibility of taking care of his parent. Moreover, even when Stevies father was sober, Stevie could do whatever he liked withoutconsequence. Skip described such a freedom when he said that Stevie went to schoolwhen he wanted to go... (pg. 193) This deficiency of rules or an authority figure demonstratesthe disfunctionality of this family. Also, Stevies father was a violent alcoholic. Skipobserved that somedays Stevies father would be ...pounding on the walls with his fistsand swearing and holler all at the same time... (pg. 195) The parent/child role reversal , the lack of structure, discipline, and authority in the home and the violent episodesdemonstrate the degree of dysfunction in this family.Fall of a City depicts the dysfunctional...