Families Essay Plan
The theme of families can be seen as significant throughout the novel because it is one of the main factors that brings all the characters together and defines them. Marcus and Will meet lots of families that are all different but at the same time are all dysfunctional.
Marcus and his mother’s relationship is both peculiar and intense. Fiona can be seen as a stereotypical mother, controlling Marcus’s behaviour and the things he does whilst trying her best for he son so he can be happy. However, Fiona’s strong attitudes and tastes such as vegetarianism, that she has imposed on Marcus have been a primary factor that has led to him being bullied, “Marcus knew he was weird, and he knew part of the reason he was weird was because his mum was weird.” Marcus doesn’t fit in because his mum tells him he should be an individual. For instance, Marcus listens to “Joni Mitchell” his mum’s music and is unable to listen to “Snoop Doggy Dogg” due to his “bad attitude to women”. Fiona is remains unaware of the extent of Marcus’ bullying and believes he’ll “get used to it”. Fiona talks to Marcus about her boyfriends and depression, this causes Marcus to become anxious and he tries to shield his mum from upsetting things on the TV, “he was worried the trouble in the soaps would remind his mum of the trouble she had in her own life.”
After “Dead Duck Day”, which is a euphemism used by Marcus when referring to the day his mum tried to commit suicide, Marcus and is mother grow apart slightly and he decides that “two is not enough” for a family, it is too risky as you could get “left on your own”. By the end of the novel Marcus is thinking in terms of a “human pyramid”, a metaphor for having a larger support network of people you love to hold you up. He feels his dad has “missed his chance” and that people like Ellie and Will are closer to him now. Hornby could be trying to present a new kind of family for the post-divorce era and to show that you don’t have...