The Importance of Family In Fiction

     What big ideas can you think of that movies, books, plays, tv shows, comics and whatnot have in common? Sure love is one, life is one, matter is one, but there’s also one special idea, and that’s family. Every person (and animal) in the world is part of a family that started generations upon generations ago. You can find out great things about yourself  just by looking at your family. My parents are immigrants from Lebanon who came from big families. That especially gives me a ton of cousins! I had found out that my paternal grandfather ran a printing press, my maternal grandfather was a mason, my paternal aunt used to work at a computer repair hotline, my maternal uncle is a professional hair stylist, and that one of my cousins is a writer/director (which is one of the things I want to be). Now enough about my family, let’s just talk about family “in general”.

My drawing of the Pearsons, from This Is Us

If you’ve read many books, or have seen many movies/ TV shows, you’d probably already know that the families of the main characters are discussed. For example, along with the mention of his late parents Lily and James, Harry Potter lives with his uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, and their son Dudley. Some of these works, generally in TV, surround a family. Examples of these are the animated show The Simpsons, sitcom Modern Family, and dramedy This Is Us. Though haven’t watched every episode of that show, I still understand how the Pearsons, the main family in this show, work. Jack and Rebecca Pearson got married and had triplets. One of the babies got lost, so he was replaced with a legally adopted baby born on the same day. And so, Kevin, Kate, and Randall Pearson were born. Jack sadly died of cardiac arrest from a house fire when the kids were 17, and the rest, you’ll have to figure that out. 

If you ever want to make your own fictional family (or analyse an existing one), here’s some questions to ask in the process:

How many kids does the family have? Two? Three? Five? Maybe they have just one.

Pearsons: Three kids (counting Randall’s two daughters, there’s five). 

What is the relationship status of the parents? Are they married? Divorced? Widowed? Perhaps both the parents are dead.

Pearsons: It depends on the time. If it’s in the past, at least before Jack’s death, their status is married. If it’s after (and in present day), it’s widowed, at least Rebecca is widowed.

Which race(s) do the members belong to? Is your family Indian? Asian? European? African? Mixed race? Or just pure North-American?

Pearsons: The family are “typical” Americans.

What is their occupational history? Maybe one of their ancestors was a builder? A scientist? An artist? A member of the military?

Pearsons: Uh...we know for sure what the parents did. Rebecca was a singer, a performer really, who was hoping she’d get on the big scene. Jack was mainly an alcoholic, as he has a family history of alcoholism.

What’s the personality of each member? Are they outgoing or shy? Confident or unsure? A team player or an independent worker? Perhaps there’s one of each in the family.

Pearsons: Kevin took the whole alcoholic thing from his dad. For a living, he’s an actor, but as a person, he is still trying to find himself, made harder by his cynicism. Kate has been working to maintain her weight for the past while, as she hopes to become a mother. Although her mom inspired her passion for singing, she feels closer to her father, even after his death. Randall was an exceptionally clever child, and as he grew, he became more conscious, even of others. In the present, he’s a humble and insightful man. The siblings, altogether, have an growing bond, though their personalities are various.

These and many more aspects of the family to establish build on to the fact that each family is unique.

        To conclude, since every character has a family, the idea of family is just as important as life, love, and...uh...things. Why don’t you start creating your own fictional family?