The Jarrett Family In Suburban Chicago's Ordinary People

According to Minuchin (1974), individuals organize themselves in systems of groups called families, true to human nature, as all members of a society are regarded as social creatures. Therefore, the family, which is comprised of different members, functions as an interdependent system with idiosyncratic norms and values. An emotional and powerful film evolving around the lives of an upper middle class family in suburban Chicago, Ordinary People illustrates the unraveling of the Jarrett family after they have been struck by tragedy: the unexpected loss of their oldest son Buck. Their youngest son has recently returned home from being hospitalized after a suicide attempted shortly after the accident that killed his brother. The movie depicts how the loss of an individual member from a family unit does not just affect another individual in the system. The loss impacts the family unit as a whole, as illustrated by the dynamics of the Jarrett family. This haunting film portrays

For example, early on in the film, it appears that a rule has been implied in which the members of the family cannot discuss details of the funeral or what happened to Conrad following the incident. In addition, it lends to a larger frame, in which it appears that members of the family do not discuss feelings or emotions. Members of the family do not display overt emotions and keep family matters as private as possible. Nobody in the family yells or shouts nor uses profanity, except when Conrad attempts to break this pattern during a scene in the film when Calvin is asking for Conrad and Beth to take a picture side by side. The viewer can see how visibly uncomfortable and stiff mother and son are, and Conrad consequently has an outburst. Although he stuns those surrounding him, no one acknowledges the outburst. Beth instead asks whose hungry, a motif in the film that Beth uses to dissipate attention from difficult