Janet's Relationship With Ted Change example essay topic

The novel All Families are Psychotic written by Douglas Coupland starts off as a pessimistic novel but slowly evolves into an optimistic novel through the dynamic family relationships that grow throughout the story. The estranged and new relationships that are formed in the novel demonstrate the beauty that exists within families: the intimate moments shared between father and son and husband and wife. These touching moments in the book and the fairytale ending leave the reader with an optimistic outlook on his or her family. The reader gets the impression that even though his or her family is problematic, there is hope for the future. At the start of novel, the relationships within the Drummond family are either weak or non-existent because of the lack of love between Janet and Ted Drummond, wife and husband in the Drummond family, respectively.

Their divorce and lack of compassion for each other has a negative impact on their children, Wade, Sarah, and Bryan, which is the main cause for dysfunction in their family. In contrast, at the end of the novel, the family goes through adversity and achievements which bring them together as a family. This positive ending in All Families are Psychotic reinforces the strength and character of families: family unity will triumph over all adversities. Wade and Ted's resentful relationship changes into a somewhat friendlier relationship where Ted and Wade can talk to each other as adults without too many insults or arguments. In a scene when the Drummond family was young, Ted is easily angered with the seemingly harmless dancing of Wade with his mother. His anger leads to a brawl with Wade: "He stormed over to Wade, who was by now adept at ducking his father's swings.

Wade jumped onto the Naugahyde couch screaming, pantywaist, pantywaist, and Ted lunged after him... ". (76). It took little or no time at all for Ted and Wade to get into a fight. The two try to provoke each other every chance they get. Their physically abusive relationship is shown through the fact that Wade was "adept at ducking his father's swings".

Wade's loveless relationship with his father slightly changes as they get older. After Wade begins his job of delivering a priceless letter to Florian, a wealthy pharmaceutical tycoon, he invites Ted in on it because he knows Ted needs the money. After accepting the invitation, Ted says, "I want the money. I'll leave the details to you. It was very kind of you to think of me, Wade" (69). Ted's appreciation towards Wade is the first intimate moment Ted shares with anyone in the novel, besides Sarah, whom he adores.

Even though Ted shot Wade one year prior to this scene, Wade still wants to help his father with his financial troubles. This scene demonstrates the deep bonds within family members. Despite their surface problems, Wade and Ted take a small step in achieving a healthy father and son relationship. Wade's goodwill towards his father is an act of love and adds to the optimistic feeling that the book promotes. After Wade helps out his father, Ted's realizes that he needs to change to become a better man. When Ted and Janet are on their way to Southern Florida to give Florian his letter, Ted asks Janet, "When did I turn bad, Jan?

Tell me, because I wasn't always such a bad guy. I was an OK kind of guy when you and I started out. Jan? You listening?" (181).

Ted feels perplexed about his life and begins to wonder how he could change for the better of his family. He seeks advice from his ex-wife who could barely stand being in the same room with him up until a couple hours ago in the novel. This is a turning point in Ted and Janet's relationship. This new, loving relationship that develops, demonstrates family unity at its best. Family will always look after their kin regardless of any conflict among themselves. The old couple shares an intimate moment that is captured within Coupland's text.

This real moment is what gives the reader a positive feeling towards the novel; thus creating an optimistic effect. Not only did Janet's relationship with Ted change, but her relationship with herself changed as well. Janet's relationship with herself starts off as her perceiving herself as a depressed, self-conscious senior citizen. At the start of the novel when Janet wakes up in her motel room, she thinks, "Yes, Janet, that's correct: you are shrinking - sinew by sinew, protein molecule by protein molecule you are turning into a... an elf, yes, you, Janet Drummond, one voted 'Girl We'd Rob a Bank For' " (9). She sees herself as a woman who at one time was beautiful, but now she sees herself as a squat ty, wrinkled creature. The fact that she uses the word "elf" to describe herself shows how she no longer feels human.

Along with losing her life and vigor, she seems to feel too distant from her children. When she wakes up, one of her first thoughts is, "My children - where are they?" (1). Janet's soul feels empty from the lack of love in her family. Janet's soul sickness fades away as the novel progresses. Janet's dynamic character leaves the reader with an optimistic view on how we can live life to the fullest and how people are rewarded for being good. When Janet is sitting with Wade outside the swamp after getting tossed out of the black market baby sellers' car, she thinks, "But maybe now she'd continue looking for ideas she'd never dreamed of in place once forbidden - not because she had to but because she choose to - because that had proven to be the only true path out of her brittle, unlivable life-before-death" (269).

Without the burden of AIDS, Janet feels a renewed sense of purpose. Janet's disease made her break out the shell she had been hiding in for years. So she will continue to live without social constraints in order to get the most out of life. Janet's new life demonstrates how one should always try and seize the day because it could be his or her last.

Any reader can relate to the pain and suffering endured by Janet whether it was her divorce, her disease, her lack of love, or her own family. This relation makes the reader feel connected to Janet's agony and later her triumph. The triumph in the end of the novel leaves the reader with a feeling of bliss solely for the reason that Janet, a kind, gentle, loving person, was rewarded for her good deeds at the end of the novel by being cured of her AIDS and regaining connection with her entire family. All positives at the end of the novel were brought about through the negatives, which is why the beginning of the novel has such a pessimistic vibe to it. Just before Sarah's launch when she is looking at a monitor with her family on it, she thinks, "Her own family looked so... damaged beside the Brunswick's, and yet they were - well, they were her family (273). This moment symbolizes the fact that even though Sarah's family is not nearly close to perfect, they are still her family and they were the ones who stuck by her through all the hard times.

Sarah now understands that all of the misfortunes in her family's lives have led up to the bliss that they are all experiencing. As Sarah is about to leave Earth to conceive a child in space, she thinks, "A child conceived in space would be a God" (277). It seems as though the next generation of the Drummond family will be brought up in a more positive atmosphere leaving the reader with an optimistic outlook for the Drummond's future. Life is like a game of poker. You deal with the cards you are dealt. The Drummonds made the best of a bad hand and came out on top.

Rooting for these underdogs, so to speak, is what makes you feel optimistic after reading the book. This book also makes you feel optimistic because it makes you believe that the perfect family, which is engrained into society through television and media, does not exist nor ever existed. The realization that there never was a single norm gives the reader hope that he or she can have a happy, fully functioning family in the future even if problems do occur. A family like the Drummonds who are more messed up than my family and most likely your family made it through the worst of times and became a functional, dysfunctional family, truly the norm in today's society.