Family relationships in selected young adult novels by Cynthia Voigt and Sue Ellen Bridgers

This study examined family relationships among siblings, parents and children, husbands and wives, and extended families in the Tillerman cycle novels by Cynthia Voigt and the rural North Carolina novels by Sue Ellen Bridgers, two popular and prolific young adult novelists. The nine novels selected for this study were as follows:Cynthia Voigt:Homecoming, 1981Dicey's Song 1982The Runner, 1985Sons from Afar, 1987Seventeen against the Dealer, 1989 Sue Ellen Bridgers:Home Before Dark, 1976All Together Now, 1979Notes for Another Life, 1982Permanent Connections, 1987

A content analysis of each novel provided data which answered seven specific research questions. Both Voigt and Bridgers depict a variety of families ranging from severely dysfunctional to extremely strong and healthy. Some families are strong throughout a given novel while others have weaknesses but progress toward strength over a period of generations; still others give evidence of severe dysfunctions but make no substantial advances toward wholeness as a family unit.

All the sibling relationships that are adequately developed in these novels are either positively presented throughout the novel or they are a realistic blend of both negative and positive interactions, resulting, finally, in a positive relationship.

In Voigt's novels, father-child relationships are extremely negative in the two primary families but unusually positive in two minor families; in Bridgers' novels, older fathers of adult children are usually more positively presented than are younger fathers.

Mother-child relationships are complex, especially in the Bridgers novels, where more traditional mothers tend to relate more positively to their children. In Voigt, the two minor ones are positive and the two primary ones are negative.

The husband-wife relationship of Voigt's primary couple is extremely negative while that of the two minor couples is very positive. Bridgers' husband-wife relationships are, in general, positively depicted.

Extended families are important in the lives of the adolescent protagonists and are generally more positively presented by both Voigt and Bridgers than are the nuclear families

Approximately three-fourths of the families experienced conflicts, and about one-half either fully or partially resolved the conflicts. Despite some similarity in conflict type and in manner of resolution, no discernible pattern emerges in these family units.