Dysfunctional Families Galore

At this point, I feel like we've talked about a lot of dysfunctional families. We started this year out talking about the Buendias in Macondo, and, with their extensive incest and violence, they turn out to rank pretty high on a scale of dysfunction. Recently, we just covered Oedipus' family, and they too carry their own flaws as Oedipus is the brother and father of his children. Another crazy family we discussed in class was Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra's. Agamemnon kills his daughter which leads to his wife killing him which then leads to his children killing their mother. Not very functional at all, I'd say. In all three families, greed and murder are also prominent themes. Because of these elements and ultimately due to the dysfunction of their families, these stories could all be classified as tragedies. As Aristotle said, tragedy resonates the most with an audience when they can relate to it. Granted, we most probably do not relate to the extremely violent and incestual tendencies of these families; however, we can relate to other, more general conflicts that these families face, such as pride and impulse, which lead to their tragic endings. I think it's interesting how authors can use family to achieve this point.