Survival of a Family

Survival of a Family

Family is the safe place for lonely people as the harbour is for fishermen. Whenever they encounter storms and dangers, it is always a safe place fallback. Love, affection, and protection from each family member are irreplaceable traits in which only family members experience.Just like how a tree needs water, soil and sunshine to grow, Family needs love, affection, and protection.The two families in Mary Lawson's novel Crow Lake and Duncan Scott Campell's poem The Forsaken clearly demonstrate the idea that effective families depend on each member's ability to love and protect each other. Both Morrison brothers from Crow Lake and the mother from The Forsaken contributed to their families' wellbeing. However, the two families differed in their understanding on importance of family and depth of love, which has led to different consequences.

Love and determination are crucial characteristics for a family to survive during difficult times. In the novel Crow Lake, after Mr. And Mrs. Morrison died suddenly, Luke and Matt, the elder brothers in the Morrison family, took the responsibility of raising their younger siblings. Luke decided "to look after" his siblings instead of "going to teachers' college", so that "the four of them can stay together" (P73). In order to support the family, Matt "quitted school" for "financial reasons" and "got a full-time job at the Hudson's Bay store." (P176) The Morrison family finally overcame the difficulty of money shortage and continued young sisters' education, which were all based on Luke and Matt's sacrifices. In the same way, the mother and her baby son in The Forsaken traveled "long distance, wolf-haunted and lonely" (line. 40-41) in the freezing winter, suffered from "great storm" (line. 9) with no food. After overpowering all their difficulties, they survived after traveling for three days because the mother was desperately protecting her son from death. Therefore, the strong responsibility and love between bloodcontributed in the survival of both families. The Morrison boys and the mother are similar in the way they make contributions for the wellbeing of family.

However, the two families have different ideas about importance of family and the depth of love, which has led to different consequences. First of all, the love between siblings is different from love between parents and children.This influenced how the son raised by his mother and how Kate was raised by her brothershad different ideas about family relationship and value. Kate lost her parents when she was young and thus, she desired the love from family since then. Shewould "liked a clear picture...each other" (P34). As witnessing every choice of Luka and Matt have made and their struggling between dream and reality, Kate realized