Families in Fiction Family Plays

Families in Fiction

Family plays a part in all three books, "April and the Dragon Lady," "Children of the River," and "Shizuko's Daughter." In "April and the Dragon Lady," her mother is dead, so her relationship revolves around her father, grandmother, and brother. April feels a great deal of responsibility to her family, and she is the main caregiver for her grandmother, a duty that her brother does not share. He is spoiled and selfish, and April is always making excuses for him. She loves her father and her grandmother, and she takes on much responsibility early in life, while her brother takes on none. She is strong, and she is responsible, but she is also human, and she needs friends and people in her life that will support her, because her family life is difficult. She has a good relationship with her father, and her relationship with her grandmother improves as the book ends. Her father is portrayed as weaker than the grandmother, who is the true matriarch and leader of the family.

In "Children of the River," the protagonist, Sundara, leaves her family behind in Phnom Phen when she becomes a refugee from the Khmer Rouge. Her family is back in Cambodia, while she lives in America with her aunt and uncle, who push her to become a doctor. She seems almost like a servant to them, and sleeps in the garage; with the car she calls her "roommate." Sundara loves her family, but they are so strict, and so different from the American families she sees around her, that she begins to rebel and fight against their very strict Cambodian ways. Sundara, like April, is very responsible to her family, and, even though it is not true, she feels responsible for the baby's death as they left Cambodia. Her family is portrayed as strict, and living in the past, something that Sundara cannot accept or understand.

In "Shizuko's Daughter," Yuki probably has the worst relationship with her family. Her mother commits suicide, and she lives with an aunt until her father remarries. Her father is portrayed as extremely cold and unemotional, and he has little to no real relationship with his daughter. His new wife wants to be Yuki's friend, but essentially, Yuki misses her mother and the loving relationship they had, and she is very unhappy. Her mother is portrayed as loving but weak and fragile, while her father and stepmother worry more about what other people will think than they do about Yuki. They also do not let her visit her mother's family as often as she would like, and that bothers her. Essentially, she grows up without love after her mother dies, and she has to come to terms not only with losing her mother but also with her own maturity and dreams for the future.