Analysis Grape Family

881 Words2 Pages

Functioning as a Family Unit
The family dynamics in the Grape family is close and reflects a general sense of caring. Each character on some level interacted with one another in order to keep the family together. While Gilbert works tirelessly as a caregiver for his brother, he also works to provide for his family. When Ellen is not preoccupied with herself, she also helps take care of her mother. Bonnie, while immobile for much of the movie, runs her family unit from her spot on the couch, and she is included in meals when they bring the table to her in order for them to eat together. Newman & Newman (2012) suggested that the demands of household management stimulate development. As each character is involved in this role in some sense, …show more content…

Even with this minor breakthrough for her character development, Ellen is mostly concerned with there being a crowd to witness the embarrassment of her mother and is again self-absorbed. She does however work together with her siblings to make a decision to burn down the house, rather than have their mother be made a public spectacle. She assists them in removing all the furniture from the house before setting it on fire. In this act, Ellen finally seems to see her family as a unit which may be due to “formal operational reasoning which allows for reflection about social relationships” (Newman & Newman, 2012, p.356). As Ellen transitions into late adolescence, she will hopefully continue to develop positively and this begins with establishing a strong individual identity.
By the end of the movie, Bonnie Grape was no longer alive, but she had just begun her path to the positive spectrum of her psychological crisis: generativity. As Newman & Newman (2012) proclaims ‘this motive is aroused as one recognizes they won’t be around forever (p.512). If she was alive to make it to the next developmental stage, she would be on the right track to beginning her journey of integrity in later …show more content…

Kirmayer, Sehdev, Whitley, Dandeneau, & Isaac (2009), suggested that a culture-centered approach to resilience is better as a community process, rather than an individual struggle. In this article, the focus is on the Aboriginal people and resilience. The authors warned that resilience should not be used as an all-inclusive term to fix everything, but instead be used as a component of overall wellness in a community. A key strength of the wellness framework is that it is “culturally relative” and each person can define his or her pathway (Newman & Newman, 2012). The road to wellness and resilience is challenging due to the many factors influencing success. External influences can affect how an individual copes with certain situations and it can be detrimental if they have no external support. However, when excellent support is offered, it is more likely that an individual or community can effectively cope. Nevid & Rathus (2010) define acculturative stress as the feelings of tensions and anxiety that comes with trying to adapt to the dominant culture. This can lead to feelings of ambiguity in personal identity and can lead to further

Open Document