Family 2

Return Those Duties Back As Are Right Fit: The Importance of Mutuality in Family in Angela’s Ashes, King Lear, and The Joy Luck Club The concept of family has diverse meanings since each family is unique. However, a defining aspect of a family is the reciprocal exchange of love and care. Each member must give and receive in order to form a functional family because the purpose of a family is to provide mutual benefit to all individuals involved. In Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the success of the families comes from the characters’ ability to fulfill shared responsibilities, reciprocate love, and understand each other. In Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Frank and Angela constitute a family because they hold a shared responsibility towards the family’s well-being. Frank recognizes that a family must make sacrifices for each other. He witnesses his mother’s selfless sacrifices and actively helps her. Thus, even as a child, Frank understands the importance of collective contribution. On Christmas, he helps his mother by carrying a pig head home. Although it is shameful to carry a pig head in public, he willingly gives up his own dignity to accommodate for the family’s needs. Meanwhile, disappointed by his father’s lack of responsibility, he says, ‘I wish Dad would come and help us because Mam has to stop every few steps and lean against a wall . . . Even if Dad came he wouldn’t be much use because he never carries anything, parcels, bags, packages. If you carry such things you lose your dignity. That’s what he says.’ (98) Angela and Frank put themselves through physical fatigue and humiliation in order to satisfy their family’s basic needs such as food. Even through sickness, they do everything

they can to help the family. In contrast, Malachy does not make his end of the responsibility. Throughout this ordeal, Malachy remains absent because he refuses to sacrifice his dignity. Instead of being an active contributor, he becomes a burden who feeds off of his son and wife’s contributions. Even Frank, who is usually forgiving, admits that it is unfair for Malachy to place self-dignity over the family’s well-being. While Frank and Angela’s contributions strengthen their familial bond, Malachy’s lack of commitment harms the family. In addition to shared responsibilities, a healthy family involves an exchange of love. In King Lear, the relationship between Cordelia and Lear is strong because Cordelia reciprocates her love for Lear whereas Goneril and Regan do not. When Lear asks Cordelia about her loyalty, she responds, “you have begot me, bred me, loved me: I/ Return those duties back as are right fit/ Obey you, love you, and most honor you” (I. i. 101-103). Cordelia gives credit to Lear for his years of nurture and offers her love in return. Despite Lear’s arrogance and misguidance, Cordelia holds a fundamental love for her father in appreciation of her father’s past years of paternal care. Cordelia’s persistent loyalty later allows the two to reconcile, strengthen their relationship and settle misunderstandings. While Cordelia professes her love wholeheartedly, Goneril and Regan, though dramatic in their vocal expressions of affection, do not actually mean what they say. In fact, they use their father as a tool and abandon him once he grants them power and land. When Lear comes to Goneril and Regan’s doorsteps to seek shelter, the two daughters conspire against him and drive him out into the storm. Thus, family relationships based on unreciprocated love are insubstantial and unsuccessful.

The success of a family also depends on its members’ mutual understanding of each other. In The Joy Luck Club, Suyuan makes tremendous sacrifices for June but seldom receives June’s appreciation in return. In a conversation with Lindo, June reflects upon her failed relationship with her mother and says, ‘“[the twins will] think I’m responsible, that [Suyuan] died because I didn’t appreciate her.” And Auntie Lindo looked satisfied and sad at the same time, as if this were true and I had finally realized it’ (331). Here, June identifies her lack of understanding and appreciation of her mother as the reason for their disconnect. Suyuan channels much of her time and energy into advancing June’s future. All she asks in return is for June to appreciate her. However, throughout childhood, June rejects her mother’s Chinese way of thinking and forsakes her mother’s guidance. June is only able to grasp the importance of mutual understanding after her mother dies. At the end of the book, she decides to reconnect with the twins and tell them about her mother’s story. Although her mother has already passed away, June finally makes the effort to reinvent the notion of family. She now understands that her mother has always been focusing on her, now it is time to do something worthwhile for her mother. Some critics argue that attempts to create fairness between family members may raise unnecessary complications and so it is better to keep the family dynamic skewed. For example, in The Joy Luck Club, Rose always let Ted make decisions regarding daily matters such as dinner choice and budget management. She fears that her own opinions may not always be right but she is confident that Ted’s interest is what is best for the family, so letting Ted make all the decisions seems like a logical choice. This solution seemingly eliminates complications. However, the logic is flawed because Rose’s

passivity ironically is the source of the marriage’s failure. Ted expresses his frustration as he questions Rose, “How the hell did we ever get married? Did you just say ‘I do’ because the minister said ‘repeat after me’? What would you have done with your life if I had never married you?”(127). Ted feels that their marriage has lost its value since the assertive side of Rose’s personality that Ted has admired so much is now lost. He prefers to let his wife voice her opinions even if her opinions may not reflect his and may encourage minor disputes. Rose’s lack of voice prevents both of them from gaining from their relationship. Rose loses her sense of self-importance and feels dissatisfied with her marriage. Likewise, Ted is miserable in this marriage. He feels abandoned by his wife and is overwhelmed by the responsibilities that she has laid upon him. Their subsequent divorce indicates that Rose’s withdrawal from responsibility is not an effective way to reduce complications, but rather a source of the family’s deterioration. The exchange of responsibility, love and understanding allows a family to thrive and mature as a unit. When the balance of this exchange is disrupted, a family may experience emotional fragmentation or in worse case, complete separation. Angela and Frank’s sense of shared responsibility, Cordelia’s reciprocation of love, and June’s development of understanding all indicate healthy and beneficial family relationships. However, Malachy, Goneril, Regan, and Rose’s deficiencies cause disconnects within the family which prevents the people from benefiting and learning from each other.