Family In Desiree's Baby, Of Mice And Men, And The Lottery

The theme of family is everywhere in life, be it in books, television shows, and even in a person’s actual life. It is something that everyone comes in contact with, and reads about, every once in awhile. Family is a rather popular theme in people’s lives. It can be seen on the streets, on television shows, in movies, and even in books and stories, just like the four short stories in this paper. Family will be present in almost all of the American literature stories, so it is not hard to pick stories with this particular theme in it. However in “Desiree’s Baby,” Of Mice and Men, “Wagner Matinee,” and “The Lottery,” family seemed to be more prominent throughout the story.
People say that a mother loves her family and child no matter what the
situation is. For instance, in the short story “Desiree’s Baby”, Desiree puts her love for her family above her own thoughts and feelings. The theme of family is also shown with Desiree not knowing who her birth parents are. At the beginning of “Desiree’s Baby”, it talks about how Madame Valmonde found her little baby Desiree lying asleep in the shadow of a big stone pillar (Chopin). Madame Valmonde had no true idea as to why Desiree was left without her birth parents. The only idea that Madame Valmonde had was that Desiree had been left there on purpose by a group of Texans, whose wagons had been spotted later that day (Chopin). This shows two of the three different examples of the theme of family. The first example is the negative side of family; this is shown by whoever Desiree’s biologic parents were, leaving her behind, whatever the reason may be. The second example is shown by Madame Valmonde finding Desiree and taking her as her own daughter. This shows a more positive side of the theme family, because it shows how even though Desiree no longer had her birth family, she gained a new family that loved her just as much, if not more. The last example of the theme family that is shown in “Desiree’s Baby”, is her love for her husband and baby. During the first three months of Desiree raising her child, she and her husband both are completely blind to the little distinctions that show that the baby is not completely white (Chopin). After she and her husband both realize that their baby is not completely white, Desiree selflessly leaves when her husband tells her to go, and continues to love the baby anyway. “Desiree’s Baby” is a good example of the many different ways that the theme of family can be shown in a story.
John Steinbeck’s story Of Mice and Men shows a more caring and complicated side of the theme family.
Steinbeck shows the types of obstacles a family can face, blood related or not. Steinbeck also shows an example of the difficult decisions that have to be made at times. According to Elizabeth Lawrence’s writing on the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute website, “The American social vision as represented in our literature is unique in its perception of the family in that it has represented the family to be a model of the greater society at large” (Lawrence). However, this is not the case in the story Of Mice and Men. In Of Mice and Men, even though George and Lennie are not blood related, they still care and look out for each other like a family should do. George is always there for Lennie whenever he gets in trouble and always tries to do what is best for Lennie, even if it means hurting his feelings a little in the process. One example of the caring and complicated side of family that is shown in this story, is when Lennie breaks Curley’s hand. Even though Lennie does not want to hurt Curley, George pushes Lennie to stop him, knowing that Lennie stopping Curley is the best thing in that situation After Lennie breaks Curley’s hand, the more caring side is shown by George cleaning the blood off of Lennie’s face, and telling him he is not in trouble for hurting Curley. At the end of the story, George is given a hard decision to make with what to do with Lennie after he accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Instead of turning Lennie in or letting Curley torture and kill Lennie, George goes to the spot where he told Lennie to hide if anything goes wrong. George then proceeds to make Lennie happy by telling him to think of the farm house they ar, finally kills him painlessly by shooting him in the back of the head. This ties into the theme of family because George cared for Lennie so much that he could not bare to see someone else kill Lennie. Even though the theme of family
is not portrayed as people normally picture it in the story Of Mice and Men, it is still strongly present in the story.