The Importance Of Family In Portrait In Sepia

Let us face it: many families are dysfunctional. Some are constantly feuding with another sibling for attention. Kids will rebel against their parents and argue every chance possible. People sometimes just hate one another’s guts. Other family relationships can only be described as complicated. Whatever the reason, perfect families are as common as unicorns; they are wished for and believed in, but they have not been found yet, and sadly may never be. This is the case with the family of Aurora del Valle. Aurora herself is a bastard child, claimed to be a child of one of the members of the del Valle family, but she doesn’t know exactly who is her biological father. She lives with one of her two grandmothers, Paulina del Valle, who does everything she can to erase the past of Aurora before she came into their family. Aurora sets it upon herself to discover the truth, and with it finds secrets about herself even she couldn’t remember. Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende is a documentary about a fictional family’s secrets, how they are kept and passed down, as well as how they affect the members.
The stories of Aurora’s two heritages is discussed in the first portion of the book. When Aurora is born, she …show more content…
Brothers bicker, sisters are snide, and children contest their parents daily. No matter the family background, another theme is also common: secrets. As shown in Isabel Allende’s novel Portrait in Sepia is an investigation into how secrets are kept in the family. Families have their own scandals, but many lengths are taken to quell them, even erasing them from the memories of those involved. We alter our stories to fit what we think is acceptable, especially in families where the scandal is yet to be shared. “Memory is fiction. We select the brightest and the darkest, ignoring what we are ashamed of, and so embroider the broad tapestry of our lives.” (page