Family Relationships

Family Relationships No matter how much you love or hate your family they will always be there for you when no one else is around. It is essential in life to have a strong relationship with your family members especially parents and first siblings. However, there are tons of families in this world with terrible relationships with-in and the people in those families tend to be the least successful in life and are more likely to have large issues. A few key characteristics to a strong healthy family relationship consist of trust, love, and having the ability to never turn your back on one another no matter what. Many of these characteristics are either present or absent with-in two family members throughout the stories “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. “Sonny’s Blues” is a story about a long changing relationship between a man name Sonny and his brother. Although they grew up going separate ways, one could argue they still contain an inner relationship throughout their lives. In the beginning of the story, Sonny is in jail and continues to have an ongoing drug addiction. Once Sonny gets out of jail he has absolutely no idea where to go or who to call. Sonny’s brother saves him and decides to help him out and allow him to come back to his apartment and eventually live with his family for a while. His brother shows the characteristic of never turning his back or losing hope on Sonny. Instead of forgetting about Sonny and leaving him to live homeless on the streets, he comes to save him. This proves that the two brothers do indeed have an inner healthy relationship even if it may not always look like it. On the other hand, one characteristic that the two brothers do not possess is love for each other, which can help argue that the two brothers actually do not have a fully functional relationship. Constantly throughout the story, Sonny and his brother argue, fight, or just yell at each other. Never once at all do the two say