What defines a healthy family ? What happens to an unhealthy one ? What does it take to have an honest family ? these questions truly ask the aspect of our life with our family. Family is our passion to succeed in life and keep at it. But it's not just our upside in life with family it is also the downside with family because in one point in our life, sooner or later, our family might slow us down whether in a relationship, job, or a special commitment, it is inevitable but not particularly bad. When we come of age we may have belongings of little amount or large amount of things but 1 thing we will mostly have: our family. I believe that family is a basket containing seeds that carries you up until you grow up and that family has a big role in coming of age. My COMING OF AGE book that i chose is "Where's My Wand?" by Eric Poole. The book is about the period of COMING OF AGE on the author himself : It's how Eric Poole and HIS family and growing up in the 1970's in St. Louis and how he triumphs over shag carpeting drawn by his mother. His everyday life basically shapes the very OPPOSITE of typical modern family idea yet so different in so many ways, anyway i picked this book because i truly felt it had the potential of drama, break-ups and make-ups family when i saw it.
In "Where's My Wand ?" an inference you can definitely make are the prestigious policies of the Poole family. What do i mean by that? well, there are many people who just can't live without every piece of detail (from furniture to bedsheets to clothes and to carpets). For example :"following an apocalyptic moment after the carpet was installed - when our mother discovered that entering a room created the shag version of snow angels" Basically this quote explained the first arrival of carpet in the Poole family house and how his mother was very picky due to an imperfection in the carpet. This quote also shows that every detail of perfection has to thrive in the Poole house and that's how the family is so disciplined onto clean and neat. And no one fits into that personality more than Eric's mother because then again the whole family IS disciplined BECAUSE of her, the Poole family clearly must follow a strict rule of clean. But i don't think it's necessarily bad because following this rule might aid a coming of age boy to stay pure, neat and organized, a strong lesson to learn in life.
Another important observation that supports my focus is how Eric and his sister Val must fear their own mother for being so strict and thoughtless, now i know i said this book shows a meaning of a true family. And to be honest, this isn't really what was really expected to be in the category of "family" but this shows that in order to have a healthy family there needs to be a conflict to fix it and making sure it doesn't happen again, because it is better if it is out in the open so you can resolve together. One perfect example would be: "There was a stunned moment of silence. I lay on the floor, my hands frozen in outstretched plea. Val and i turned to look at our mother, a mix of fear and contempt on our faces" this quote shows how just scared the kids can be of their mother in this book because we are talking about a woman who actually verbally dominates the conversation with her husband, yeah so how many times do we see something like that ? this was in early in the book where Eric's parents got into a big fight and his father "supposedly" left them but returned later that day, now this is kind of in the "good situation" category because i believe that a family should have issue like this so they can resolve it quickly which is better than having a undercover family issue occurring. This can damage a family in an unpredictable way. This can help a family realize "OK, we obviously have a problem here , let's work together to make sure it doesn't happen again".
My last inference that i can make is about Eric's father in the Poole family. Eric's father is calm, patient, understanding and reasonable person and parent. He doesn't immediately realizes such issues in the family but he does try to make it work with love, because in a family we all need at least 1 person that we can rely on to give us love and attention that's exactly what Eric's father is, for ex: "I'm gonna surprise your mother with a couple of unexpected gifts, is that okay with you kids? You know we're not gonna have a big Christmas this year, but your mother works so hard. She deserves something special, don't you think?". So, this was in the second chapter where Eric described his 1970 Christmas where at the current time his father was unemployed but still very strong and hopeful. This proves that he actually does want make his family work and make his kids and wife happy. And i think that this is the last element it takes to have trust and love in your family.
In conclusion, this book mirrors my life most of the time because whenever i think of the characteristics of Eric's mother because i think that she is also a "Neat Freak". How? well she always lectures me about keeping the house clean, eating with good manner and and have a sense of "purity" in my life but the only difference is that i presently understand she says those things because she loves me very much and is trying to look out for me so i don't make mistake in the future. And my father is pretty much like Eric's father because he is also loving, calm and reasonable. I want my readers to know that you may have a bad family, a good family, an embarrassing family and anything in between but there are so much reason to better yourself by bringing yourself closer to the family. this creates a unbreakable bond of love and trust, and yes, although there may such issues always know that you should try to resolve it and that will make you, if not your family, stronger.
MOMA Trip - Extra Credit Assignment due March 20
4 years ago
