English		TOPICAL JOURNEY
34			Views on Family
January 2013
FAMILY SAGAS				The views on family and marriage have changed over the times. Some of them are
The family saga is a genre of literature which				rather cynical, but witty.
chronicles the lives and doings of a family or
a number of related or interconnected families				All happy families resemble each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own
over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes				way. Leo Tolstoy
sequences of novels) with a serious intent,
				Tolstoy got it all wrong. It’s the unhappy marriages that are boringly similar to each
this is often a thematic device used to portray
				other. It’s the happy ones that are so extraordinary and eccentric and unlike anyone
particular historical events, changes of social
circumstances, or the ebb and flow of fortunes				else’s. Andrew Davies
from a multiple of perspectives.				Which of these two views do you find more true to life? What is your idea of a
The typical family saga follows generations				happy family?
of a family through a period of history in a series				There is no family life left in England. If somebody’s head gets in the way of the
of novels.
The Sagas of Icelanders – the medieval				television set, they bash it in. Heathcote Williams
				Do you believe that watching television together will bring the family members clos-
Icelandic family sagas from whence the word
‘saga’ is derived;				er to one another? What activities, in your view, would make family life exciting?
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh				Marriage is traditionally the destiny offered to women by society. Most women are
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann				married or have been, or plan to be or suffer from not being. Simone de Beauvoir
				Do you think that every woman should get married and have children? Are there
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
				in modern society other ways for a woman to realize herself?
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving				The good thing about marriage is that it enables one to be alone without feeling
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin				loneliness. Gerald Brenan
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel				What are other good things about family life could you think of?
García Márquez				Marriage is not just spiritual communion and passionate embraces; marriage is also
Roots by Alex Haley				three meals a day and remembering to carry out the trash. Joyce Brothers
				Do you think house chores will necessarily kill romance?

CHILDREN AND PARENTS

Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore,

And that’s what parents were created for.

Ogden Nash

When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.

Brian Aldiss

From the moment of birth, when the Stone Age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to these forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father, and their parents and their parents before them, have been. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities.

R.D.Laing

There are times when parenthood seems nothing but feeding the mouth that bites you.

Peter De Vries

Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth

Peter Ustinov

If you are human you love and doubt. The only thing there shouldn’t be any doubt about is your wife. If there is, it’s finished. Marc Chagall

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. Daniel Defoe

What, in your opinion, is behind the type of ‘a good family’ or ‘a respectable family?

I was ever of opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single and only talked of population.

Oliver Goldsmith

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. Lana Turner

Is there any truth in this joke? Can ‘love in a cottage’ have any chances to be happy or will poverty eventually bring the couple to misery?

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short. Andre Maurois

Would you agree with this statement?

What traditional views on the family does this quote express? Does modern society demand that every honest man should raise a large family?

Marriage is an arrangement by which two people start by getting the best out of each other and often end by getting the worst. Gerald Brenan

Why do you think it sometimes happens that people who get married for love change their feelings for hatred?

Is it true that unfaithfulness will always ruin marriage?

Far from being the basis of the good society, the family, with its narrow privacy and tawdry secrets, is the source of all our discontents. Sir Edmund Leach

Do you think that every family is inevitably the source of all our discontents?

In most societies, family is the principal institution for the socialization of children. Relationships within the family are so important that their patterns get imprinted on your mind forever.

See poems about family life CD.

Compiled by Olga Sventsitskaya

Family Values

Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family (parents and children) to be the essential unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution.

Although the phrase is vague and has shifting meanings, it is most often associated with social and religious conservatives in the USA. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term has been frequently used in political debate, to claim that the world has seen a decline in family values since the end of the Second World War.

Since 1980, the Republican Party has used the issue of family values to attract socially conservative voters. While family values remain an amorphous concept, social conservatives usually understand the term to include some combination of the following principles.

•Support for a traditional role for women in the family.

•Opposition to same-sex marriage.

•Opposition to legalized abortion.

•Support for abstinence education.

•Support for policies that are said to protect children from obscenity and exploitation Social and religious conservatives often use the term “family values” to promote con-

servative ideology that supports traditional morality or Christian values. Some American conservative Christians see their religion as the source of morality and consider the nuclear family to be an essential element in society. These groups variously oppose abortion, pornography, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, certain aspects of feminism, cohabitation, separation of church and state, and depictions of sexuality in the media.

Ironically, family values will rather disagree with Christian values if we refer to the teachings of Christ himself who insisted that ‘One is your Father, which is in heaven.’ Besides, Jesus Christ is also recorded in the Bible as saying, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke, 14:26), as well as “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. / And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, / But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mark, 10:29-30).

Despite the efforts of religious and social conservatives, family arrangements in the United States as well as in all European countries have become more diverse with no particular household arrangement.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FAMILY

Ziona Chana is head of the world’s biggest family – and says he is ‘blessed’ to have his 39 wives.

He also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.

They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

www.shabait.com; http://www.dailymail.co.uk

TOPICAL JOURNEY English

35

January 2013

FAMILY HUMOUR

A father was showing his young son the family photo album and came across a picture of himself and his wife on their wedding day.

“Was that the day Mommy came to work for us?” the son asked.

Preparing for a family vacation, my sister-in- law and her husband explained to their young children that they would be sitting in the car for a very long time. The kids were told they would not be arriving at their destination until after dark, and were warned not to keep saying, “Are we there yet?”

After a few minutes of peaceful driving, their five- year-old daughter perked up. “Is it dark yet?”

Teacher: Well, at least there’s one thing I can say about your son.

Parent: What’s that?

Teacher: With grades like these, he couldn’t be cheating.

Little Susan was mother’s helper. She helped set the table when company was due for dinner.

Presently everything was on, the guests came in, and everyone sat down. Then Mother noticed something was missing.

“Susan,” she said, “You didn’t put a knife and fork at Mr. Smith’s place.”

“I thought he wouldn’t need them,” explained Susan.

“Daddy says... he always eats like a horse!”

A young child walked up to her mother and stared at her hair. As mother scrubbed on the dishes, the girl cleared her throat and sweetly asked; “Why do you have some grey strands in your hair?”

The mother paused and looked at her daughter. “Every time you disobey, I get one strand of grey hair. If you want me to stay pretty, you better obey.”

The mother quickly returned to her task of washing dishes. The little girl stood there thinking. She cleared her throat again. “Mother?”

She sweetly asked again.

“Yes?” Her Mother replied. “Why is Grandma’s hair all grey?”

Children would all be brought up perfectly if families would just swap kids. Everyone knows what ought to be done with the neighbor’s kids.

Father: Don’t you think our son gets his brains from me?

Mother: Probably, dear. I still have all of mine.

A:Just look at that young person with the short hair and blue jeans. Is it a boy or a girl?

B:It’s a girl. She’s my daughter.

A:Oh, I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know that you were her father.

B:I’m not. I’m her mother.

A man sat down and was seriously staring at the marriage certificate, after a long time his wife asked, “What are you looking for? He replied, “The expiration date.”

See more on CD.

English TOPICAL JOURNEY

36

January 2013 Animals’ Families

INTERESTING FACTS

•Beaver mothers and fathers work together to build a house for their families. They chop down trees with their teeth to build a beaver lodge.

•A father emperor penguin

stands around and keeps his mate’s egg warm for three months. He doesn’t eat or drink anything until his baby penguin hatches.

•Elephant families love gigantic family reunions.

When one of their relatives comes home from a trip, they all flap their ears, twist their trunks together, and turn round and round in circles.

•All the honeybees in a hive are brothers and sisters, except the Queen Bee who is everyone’s mother. The brother drones sit around loafing, while the sister workers do all the work. They build the hive, keep it clean, and fly for miles to find the nectar and pollen to make the honey that feeds everyone.

From the time we are born, we all start the lifelong process of becoming bigger or “growing up.” For human children, the process takes around 18 years. That’s the amount of time we need before we are ready to be on our own. We have a lot of life lessons to learn.

For many animal families, it is a much different experience. A lot of learning is packed into a short amount of time. Mama ducks, for example, teach their young all the lessons they have to learn in just two months. Then they are ready to fend for themselves. A young elephant will stay with her mother for an average of 16 years. That is almost as long as human children. Growing up in the animal world varies greatly from species to species, but one thing is constant: babies need parents to guide and teach them.

What are the names for groups of animals?

They are called herds, pods,or packs depending on what animal.

Herd (of deer) Pod (of whales) School (of fish)

Flock (of birds)

Business (of ferrets) Murder (of crows) Mob (of kangaroos)

Pride (of lions)

Colony (of ants)

Gaggle (of geese)

Why do animals live in groups?

Those animals that live in groups tend to do so for one or more of the following reasons:

1)"Safety in numbers" In a large herd, a predator can only take a few individuals. By staying with others of their own kind, each animal is lowering its personal odds of being chosen. Also, there are more eyes watching for predators. This is part of the reason why birds form mixed foraging flocks.

2)"It takes a village" Many animals

group together to raise their young. For some, this is a subset of #1 above – if all the young are being born at the same time and place, each individual's risk of being prey is lower. For others, it is a way to pool resources, with adults sharing the protection, defense or feeding of the young. In many bird species, young birds live with their parents in family groups for a season or two before trying to mate on their own – they use this time to learn parenting skills, and their contributions to nestling care increases their parents' success as well.

3)Greater success in finding, killing or defending prey items. Wolves are actually more successful as lone hunters than in a pack, but cannot defend their kills from bears and even ravens when they are alone. This was a fascinating recent study on why some predators hunt in

groups even when they are more successful as single predators.

4)Very large ranges make finding mates

difficult. Some animals live together in small groups because finding one another across large territories with low population densities is difficult.

See more on CD

http://www.teachersdomain.org

TOPICAL JOURNEY English

37

Movies about Family January 2013

STONE FAMILY

Christmas at the Stone family home is a time for laughter, joy and liberal values – until eldest son Everett (Mulroney) brings Meredith (Parker), his tightly wound girlfriend, home for the holidays. Younger brother Ben’s (Luke Wilson) crush on her, and the attraction between Everett and Meredith’s sister Julie (Danes), add further complications.

Although in danger of being unable to decide what kind of film it wants to be, a well-written script and well-judged performances make this a family film worth seeing.

THE FAMILY MAN

Wall Street heavyweight and confirmed bachelor Jack Campbell is given the chance to see how different his life would have been had he married his college sweetheart, Kate, 13 years earlier. In the alternative reality he’s a happy family man with two children, but given the opportunity to live the other life, which would he chose?

This is exactly the kind of adult fantasy people want to see at Christmas and, as such, it’s highly enjoyable entertainment. But there’s just something lacking that makes it less satisfying than it could be: too many plot question marks, and a conclusion that, while hopeful, is

hardly the uplifting emotional finish the film so badly needs.

STEPMOM

The movie Stepmom was directed by Chris Columbus and was released in 1998. It stars Julia Roberts, Ed Harris and Susan Sarandon. Stepmom is the story of a terminally ill mother, who has to accept the new woman in her ex-husband’s life as the stepmother of her children.

Jackie (Susan Sarandon), a one-time book

editor, is divorced from her husband Luke (Ed Harris). She has the custody of the kids and is now an accomplished soccer player. Their kids stay at her New York ranch, outside of Manhattan. Luke, who has the weekend custody of the kids, is involved with Isabel (Julia Roberts), a high-fashion photographer. Isabel is a career-oriented woman, who is quite inept at handling the kids.

One day, Jackie comes to know that she has cancer. On one hand, she is facing the problems of medical tests and chemotherapy. At the other, she is worried about leaving her kids in the care of Isabel, whom her ex-husband is about to marry. Even though Isabel tries her best to take care of the kids, along with concentrating on her work, Jackie always finds her efforts as insufficient. What follows is a lesson in parenting for Isabel and a lesson of family bonding for Jackie, who accepts Isabel as a

part of the family.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Con artists have targeted the Addams Family and infiltrate the family with a fake “long lost” Uncle Fester, but do they underestimate the brains behind the strange? Could that morbid child who talks like an adult initiate their undoing? It is deliciously sick and delightfully cast.

http://www.empireonline.com

FAMILY LIFE

A River Runs Through It

A Thousand Acres

After the Deluge

Because I Said So

Before and After

Fly Away Home

Georgia Rule

In America

Little Miss Sunshine

Marvin's Room

On Golden Pond

One Fine Day

One True Thing

Ordinary People

The Secret Life of Bees

SEPARATION & STEP FAMILIES

After the Deluge Kramer vs Kramer Mrs Doubtfire Stepmom

ADOPTION & FOSTER FAMILIES

December Boys

Forever Lulu

Free Willie

Juno

Losing Isaiah

Second Best

SINGLE PARENT/ABSENT PARENT(S)

A Love Song for Bobby Long About a Boy

As Good as It Gets August Rush Beneath Clouds Dear Frankie Looking for Alibrandi Pay it Forward Sleepless in Seattle The Shiralee

The Story of Antwone Fisher Whalerider

KEEP SMILING

Things We Can Learn From Kids

1.A king size waterbed holds enough water to

fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.One 3-year-old’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

3.When you hear the toilet flush and the words “Uh-oh,” it’s already too late.

4.No matter how much Jello you put in a swimming pool, you still can’t walk on water.

5.Super glue is forever.

7.Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

8.Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise

when driving.