What constitutes as real happiness in the family - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Jack, her father, over reacts and is offensive to his future son-in-law. He does not want his daughter to get into a marriage such as that though later we find that he acts like that because he wanted to avoid discussing his own problems and also as he worried that Melanie’s marriage may end up like his.
Xue’s piece is – there is no other word for it – strange. It is also about a wife and a husband and their son called Sha-yaun. They are a Chinese family. The couple seems alright in the beginning, their son a bit odd. Sha-yaun has a fondness for snakes and sees them everywhere, but later one realises they are just symbolizing dreams. His parents are concerned for him and the feeling grows even more when he starts appearing with snake bites on his arms. They try to keep their eye on him but fail to do so properly. The boy goes through several changes in his life whilst growing up but the snakes/dreams continue though later he says that he has snakes in his stomach so his parents cannot see them i.e. he can easily mask his fears. His parents start to get weaker by the day until his mother stops acknowledging Sha-yaun as her child, wondering whether he was just a figment of her imagination or not. Again, this is a metaphor of sorts. When he grows old enough to take care of him, his parents await death as their main aim of life has been accomplished. They wanted the perfect life for their child but that never happened, maybe that fictional life is what she thinks to be nonexistent.
Both the stories do not have the perfect familial relationship shown in them, in fact, it is quite the opposite though there are glimpses to a happy past, that all was not bad, they did actually have some good times.
In Arent You Happy for Me? Jack and his wife have clearly been married for over twenty years before they decide on divorcing each other. Melanie had left them some time ago for her education so they did not have the ...Download file to see next pagesRead More