Family systems analysis and theory

Family Systems Theory and Farewell to Manzanar

Family roles

According to Bowen Family Systems Theory, all family members engage in role-playing beyond those of the conventional roles of 'daughter,' 'husband,' 'son,' and 'father' in relation to one another. Much like characters in a play, family members have other, unstated roles which they develop as the result of 'triangulation' or relationships with other family members. Frequently, these roles are dysfunctional. At the beginning of Farewell to Manzanar, the father of the Wakatsuki clan, Ko Wakatsuki, plays the role of a traditional, patriarchal authority. He attempts to recreate the dynamic that he regards as 'correct,' with the father's will dominating over that of his wife and children. His daughter Jeanne idolizes him.

However, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the family is relocated to a Japanese detention center where they must live in a collective environment with other Japanese-Americans who are being forcibly confined because of their race. No longer able to eat together with his children and wife, Ko loses his central place at the head of the family. The siblings are no longer bonded, and Jeanne becomes fascinated with Catholicism. Then, Ko is arrested, ripping him out of the central role he has played, temporarily leaving his family without a patriarch. During his absence, his children begin to move away from his authority even farther as well as from one another. When Ko returns, he is changed and loses the respect of his children because of his drunken, aggressive, and violent behavior.

The other sons take on Ko's former patriarchal role. Kiyo, the youngest, protects his mother when Ko becomes violent. Another son Woody is drafted into the military, effectively replacing his old family structure with that of the U.S. government. And even after the detention is deemed unconstitutional, Ko does not assume his old authority. Jeanne resists her father's attempts to control her sexuality as an adolescent, and Ko is never restored to his old, pure place as unquestioned leader, thanks to the fracturing experiences of detention.

Q2. Analyze the impact of ethnicity

It has been noted that the principles of Family Systems Theory vary with ethnicity. "The cultural variations in the family life cycle are great" (Family Systems Theory, 2007, Child Welfare Manual). "Ideas about when and under what circumstances young people leave home are different from middle class Anglo-American ideas" (Family Systems Theory, 2007, Child Welfare Manual). Ethnicity has a clear impact upon the Wakatsuki family, first and foremost because they are singled out for detention because of their ethnicity. Within the internal organization of the family, the assumed dominance of males within the family structure has clear links to the gender-based assumptions Ko brings to his idea of parental authority. Rather than a dynamic system in which ideas are exchanged, the father is assumed to be wiser and better able to govern than either his children or his wife.

As the family interacts more and more with others, this shifts. Even in the camps, when interacting with other Japanese families, close-knit dynamic begins to unravel. When Ko breaks under the stresses of the arrest, he is no longer in his children's eyes the unquestioned authority who can demand absolute obedience. Jeanne later on becomes more exposed to different constructions of what it means to be feminine rather than the conservative, demure ideal upheld within her family.