Family structures and dynamics

¶ … traditional American family is a thing of the past. We do not see it in our modern culture and literature reflects this shift in society. Coontz maintains in her essay that these values are an "ahistorical amalgam of structures, values, and behaviors that never coexisted in the same time and place" (Coontz 9). The days of the traditional family where the father worked and the mother stayed home to care for the children is over. It is no surprise that we see this reflected in literature. After all, art reflects life. In the story, "Cyclops," Sedaris illustrates this point with the scene of his mother running over a cat and then returning home only to suffer at the hand of her husband. One thing that does not reflect traditional American values is the mother cursing on the way home and another is the father's response to the situation. We read that he shouts at her, telling her, "That could have been a child!" (Sedaris 50). He also warns his wife to think about that the next time she is "tearing sown the street searching for kicks" (50). These scenes illustrate how American family life has come a long way since its traditional roots. The mother drives and the father yells at her when she makes a mistake. these instance illustrate just how far culture has come in just a few decades. We are no longer a society that understands the notion of a nuclear family and if we do understand what it means, we may have never seen it in existence. Coontz is correct in her assertion that some families simply did not have the luxury of fitting within the cookie-cutter family ideal. We see this change occurring as early as the mid 1800s. We can assume that by the twentieth century, times would have changed.

The typical family in 2075 will look radically different than it does today. Families will be looked upon units rather than families and their significance will be greatly diminished due to logic, reason, and the absence of bonding. The family will be more like a contribution to society - a cog in the wheel, if you will - and its only significance will be what it can contribute to society as a whole. The paternal bonds we are ware of today will be complete fiction. People will read about how the traditional family used to be and they will wonder at how parents and children interacted because this form of interaction has given way to productivity and the common good. Coontz prepares us for this type of future when she writes that as early as the eighteenth century the family was already experiencing a breakdown. She stats that while we might be lead to believe that these families were experiencing something unique that gave them meaning, what they actually experienced was a sadness of things lost. She states, "Colonial Americans lamented 'the great neglect in many-parents and masters in training up their children' and expressed the?'greatest trouble and grief about the rising generation'" (Coontz 12). In addition, families only became more extended. As Coonts writes, "extended families" (Coontz) experienced a boost in popularity as early as the nineteenth century. Once society tends to move in a certain direction, it is difficult to reverse. We see the nuclear family deteriorating more than a century ago and it only seems natural that we would see it being replaced with something different and new to fit within the confines of a structured, rigid, and impersonal society.