The Walker Family Collage

Lauren Patoine

Definition

“Today a family can viewed more broadly as a group

of people with a past history, a present reality, and a future expectation

of interconnected mutually influencing

relationships”.(Galvin, Bylund & Brommel pg6)

The walkers are a family made up of some blood relatives and some that are not. They make their

family their own way.

Family TypeThe Walker family is very large and can be labeled as a “single parent home or a man or a woman who has lost his or her partner through death divorce or desertion”

(Galvin Bylund & Brommel pg9)

With five children, one main parent and a half sister, the family can also be considered blended and one of the single-parent family contributing to the “rise of single parent or primary parent systems” (Galvin Bylund &

Brommel pg13)

Communication Functions

Cohesion is the “emotional bonding that family

members experience with each other and includes concepts of emotional bonding, boundaries,

coalations, time, space, friends, decision-making, interests and recreation.”

(pg30)

The Walker family spends endless time focusing on

cohesion, they have family dinners, parties, family cabins, time shopping

together and even share a family business.

“Communication provides form and content to a family's life as members engage in family-related

functions.”(pg30)

Communication Functions Cont.

“Family flexibility, or adaptability, focuses on

how family systems manage stability and

change.”(pg32)

The Walkers adaptability shows very clearly when

their maternal father, William Walker, passes away and they discover

that he has a child, Rebecca Harper, with another woman, Holly

Harper.

Family of Origin

“The family of origin plays a significant role in creating and developing its members' communication patterns” (pg51)

The communication has been developed through the family of origin from the mother of the

family, Nora and brother Saul, down to the five children in this family.

The Systems Perspective Interdependence

The Walker family is not only extremely closely intertwined within relationships but they also share a large family

business, therefor all of the relationships are dependent on one another.

Wholeness

The wholeness of the family is most effective when all of the Walker's many members is in one location, working together, like when at their family business Ojai Foods.

Social Constructionism

Social Constcructionism proposes that “people make sense of the world by constructing their own model of the social world and how it works, and language is

viewed as critical to human society” (pg68)

The Walker children have made sense of the world and all very

different yet similar ways because their views were being shaped by the world that their parents had created for them.

Relational Dialectics

The tensions that exist within the family although typically between spouses, are most

prevalent between the children and their mother Nora. They all struggle

between being independent yet needing the support

from their mother as they move in and out of their

childhood home.

“Relational dialectic theory asserts that meanings emerge from the struggle of different, often opposing discourses.”

pg70

Family SecretsThe Walker family holds many toxic secrets. Toxic secrets “poison family

relationships; key family issues and stories remain untold and unexplained One of the most important secret is one that isn't told until after the death of William Walker, father of six children one in which he had with a secret woman and never shares with her wife or other five children. This secret effected the family is several negative ways long

after the secret keepers' death.

Family RolesNora Walker: widow of William Walker, mother of Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin

and Justin; home maker.

Sarah Laurent: daughter of Nora Walker and Nick Brody; mother of Paige and Cooper; President of Ojai Foods and former CEO of Greenotopia; ex-wife to Joe Whedon and wife of Luc Laurent.

Kitty Walker: daughter of Nora and William Walker, one year younger than Sarah;adoptive mother of Evan; writer and former communication director, television and radio host; widow of Robert McCallister

Tommy Walker: son of Nora and William Walker, two years younger than Kitty; adoptive father of Elizabeth; former president of Ojai Foods; ex-husband to Julia Ridge and fiancé of Rose.

Kevin Walker: son of Nora and William Walker, one year younger than Tommy; adoptive father of Olivia; father of Daniel; surrogate father of Elizabeth; pro bono lawyer and former communications director and corporate lawyer; husband of Scotty Wandell.

Justin Walker: son of Nora and William Walker; ten years younger than Kevin; paramedic, war veteran and former med school student; former alcoholic.

Family Roles

Rituals“Rituals are not just pleasurable routine events; rather, rituals

serve central ongoing maintenance and relational functions. May cluster around occasions such as dinnertime, errands, vacations, or religious celebrations, or rites of passage such

as birthdays, graduations, and weddings.” (pg113)

Sarah & Luc at their wedding.

A weekly Sunday Walker family

dinner.Kitty & Robert

at their wedding.

Citation

Galvin. Bylund. Brommel. 2008. Family Communication Cohesion & Change.

Pearson Education.New York.