"Choose three texts and discuss their representations of family. Is family a repressive force; is it an empowering one? How do questions of family relate to issues like class, race and gender?"

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"Choose three texts and discuss their representations of family. Is family a repressive force; is it an empowering one? How do questions of family relate to issues like class, race and gender?"

The family is commonly known as a place of socialisation. It serves as a basis in which children acquire their morals and believes, that enhance their development and social behavior. Throughout history, the image on the family has changed from a household of many relations to a nuclear family: 2 parents and 2.4 children. The influence for this change to the nuclear family being the model of all families has been due to changes in history itself, television and literature. This essay will address three pieces of literature, each novel being different than the first and their portrayals of family, class, race and gender.

Thea Astley's novel It's Raining in Mango (1987) is a recovery of the past prompted by the search for one family's future. It reflects upon the history of the Laffey family alongside the history of an Aboriginal family. Together these histories intertwine as a part of Queensland's own history. The family spans from the early nineteenth century to the twentieth century,