Family is where one’s core roots are formed, where one puts together the building blocks of their character, and where it is determined whether they will be viewed in life, through a lens of prejudice or acceptance. Generally, in a family, an individual will discover how to draw the line between right and wrong. Dysfunctional families blur that line, and boundaries become unclear. In August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, the absence of moral boundaries is evident throughout generations of this family. The members of the Weston family are blood related, this seeming to be their only real form of unification, as they are far from loving and compassionate.The Weston’s dysfunction is a result of their physical and metaphorical distance between each
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Barbara Weston, the eldest daughter in the chaotic family, struggles to express her feelings to her own daughter, Jean. After the confirmation of her father’s death, Barbara with mixed emotions, exclaims to Jean, “Listen to me: die after me, all right? I don’t care what else you do, where you go, how you screw up your life, just...survive. Outlive me please.” (54) This frantic expression is Barbara 's way of being sentimental, which is rarely seen by in this malfunctional family. Barbara does not know how to fully express that she cannot bear the thought of losing someone else in the family, and how heavily her father 's death impacted her. She is just trying to figure out a way to subsist, something she has in common with the rest of her family. Likewise, Violet’s fraught relationship with her daughters is the clearest indicator of her outspoken personality. This makes it very difficult for any of the daughters to talk to her without being insulted or hassled about the things they do. When Beverly goes missing, Ivy is the first to arrive. During this mother-daughter encounter, Violet reaches into a bottle of pills and takes one out. She asks, “How many was that?” and when Ivy replies, “I wasn 't counting,” her mother simply takes another. (27) Violet, who often feeds her addiction in front of her daughters, was not asking, “Have I taken too many pills?” but rather, “Are you paying attention to me?” Violet’s desire for attention takes persistent when talking to others. Additionally, the family pertains an underlying inability to voice their feelings, so as a result of this, Violet must express her feelings in an indirect way so that they do not make her appear weak. At the end of the day, poor communication is a notable hallmark of a dysfunctional family,
Barbara Weston, the eldest daughter in the chaotic family, struggles to express her feelings to her own daughter, Jean. After the confirmation of her father’s death, Barbara with mixed emotions, exclaims to Jean, “Listen to me: die after me, all right? I don’t care what else you do, where you go, how you screw up your life, just...survive. Outlive me please.” (54) This frantic expression is Barbara 's way of being sentimental, which is rarely seen by in this malfunctional family. Barbara does not know how to fully express that she cannot bear the thought of losing someone else in the family, and how heavily her father 's death impacted her. She is just trying to figure out a way to subsist, something she has in common with the rest of her family. Likewise, Violet’s fraught relationship with her daughters is the clearest indicator of her outspoken personality. This makes it very difficult for any of the daughters to talk to her without being insulted or hassled about the things they do. When Beverly goes missing, Ivy is the first to arrive. During this mother-daughter encounter, Violet reaches into a bottle of pills and takes one out. She asks, “How many was that?” and when Ivy replies, “I wasn 't counting,” her mother simply takes another. (27) Violet, who often feeds her addiction in front of her daughters, was not asking, “Have I taken too many pills?” but rather, “Are you paying attention to me?” Violet’s desire for attention takes persistent when talking to others. Additionally, the family pertains an underlying inability to voice their feelings, so as a result of this, Violet must express her feelings in an indirect way so that they do not make her appear weak. At the end of the day, poor communication is a notable hallmark of a dysfunctional family,