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The Walker Family Collage
Lauren Patoine
Definition
“Today a family can viewed more broadly as a group
of people with a past history, a present reality, and a future expectation
of interconnected mutually influencing
relationships”.(Galvin, Bylund & Brommel pg6)
The walkers are a family made up of some blood relatives and some that are not. They make their
family their own way.
Family TypeThe Walker family is very large and can be labeled as a “single parent home or a man or a woman who has lost his or her partner through death divorce or desertion”
(Galvin Bylund & Brommel pg9)
With five children, one main parent and a half sister, the family can also be considered blended and one of the single-parent family contributing to the “rise of single parent or primary parent systems” (Galvin Bylund &
Brommel pg13)
Communication Functions
Cohesion is the “emotional bonding that family
members experience with each other and includes concepts of emotional bonding, boundaries,
coalations, time, space, friends, decision-making, interests and recreation.”
(pg30)
The Walker family spends endless time focusing on
cohesion, they have family dinners, parties, family cabins, time shopping
together and even share a family business.
“Communication provides form and content to a family's life as members engage in family-related
functions.”(pg30)
Communication Functions Cont.
“Family flexibility, or adaptability, focuses on
how family systems manage stability and
change.”(pg32)
The Walkers adaptability shows very clearly when
their maternal father, William Walker, passes away and they discover
that he has a child, Rebecca Harper, with another woman, Holly
Harper.
Family of Origin
“The family of origin plays a significant role in creating and developing its members' communication patterns” (pg51)
The communication has been developed through the family of origin from the mother of the
family, Nora and brother Saul, down to the five children in this family.
The Systems Perspective Interdependence
The Walker family is not only extremely closely intertwined within relationships but they also share a large family
business, therefor all of the relationships are dependent on one another.
Wholeness
The wholeness of the family is most effective when all of the Walker's many members is in one location, working together, like when at their family business Ojai Foods.
Social Constructionism
Social Constcructionism proposes that “people make sense of the world by constructing their own model of the social world and how it works, and language is
viewed as critical to human society” (pg68)
The Walker children have made sense of the world and all very
different yet similar ways because their views were being shaped by the world that their parents had created for them.
Relational Dialectics
The tensions that exist within the family although typically between spouses, are most
prevalent between the children and their mother Nora. They all struggle
between being independent yet needing the support
from their mother as they move in and out of their
childhood home.
“Relational dialectic theory asserts that meanings emerge from the struggle of different, often opposing discourses.”
pg70
Family SecretsThe Walker family holds many toxic secrets. Toxic secrets “poison family
relationships; key family issues and stories remain untold and unexplained One of the most important secret is one that isn't told until after the death of William Walker, father of six children one in which he had with a secret woman and never shares with her wife or other five children. This secret effected the family is several negative ways long
after the secret keepers' death.
Family RolesNora Walker: widow of William Walker, mother of Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin
and Justin; home maker.
Sarah Laurent: daughter of Nora Walker and Nick Brody; mother of Paige and Cooper; President of Ojai Foods and former CEO of Greenotopia; ex-wife to Joe Whedon and wife of Luc Laurent.
Kitty Walker: daughter of Nora and William Walker, one year younger than Sarah;adoptive mother of Evan; writer and former communication director, television and radio host; widow of Robert McCallister
Tommy Walker: son of Nora and William Walker, two years younger than Kitty; adoptive father of Elizabeth; former president of Ojai Foods; ex-husband to Julia Ridge and fiancé of Rose.
Kevin Walker: son of Nora and William Walker, one year younger than Tommy; adoptive father of Olivia; father of Daniel; surrogate father of Elizabeth; pro bono lawyer and former communications director and corporate lawyer; husband of Scotty Wandell.
Justin Walker: son of Nora and William Walker; ten years younger than Kevin; paramedic, war veteran and former med school student; former alcoholic.
Family Roles
Rituals“Rituals are not just pleasurable routine events; rather, rituals
serve central ongoing maintenance and relational functions. May cluster around occasions such as dinnertime, errands, vacations, or religious celebrations, or rites of passage such
as birthdays, graduations, and weddings.” (pg113)
Sarah & Luc at their wedding.
A weekly Sunday Walker family
dinner.Kitty & Robert
at their wedding.
Citation
Galvin. Bylund. Brommel. 2008. Family Communication Cohesion & Change.
Pearson Education.New York.