Anything for Family
A sense of obligation towards family can drive many youths of color today. A strong sense of obligation relates to youth’s motivation to provide, take care of and assist their family; financially and physically. This type of attitude is prevalent among the youth of lower socioeconomic status and can even vary by gender. This kind of attitude was also portrayed heavily by Janelle a character in the play ‘Intersections,’ her sense of obligation may have had a hand in her decisions throughout the play. How can a strong sense of familial obligation, varying by income status and gender, affect a young person’s decisions and even their academic motivation?
In ‘Intersections’ Janelle and her small family, consisting of her younger sister Danielle and older cousin Travis face a tolling situation. Their guardian, their only real family, their grandmother, was dying because of cancer. They had two choices, to let their grandmother stay in the hospital or spend her last days with family at home. In the first scene, Janelle has a big argument with Travis to let their grandmother come home. She reasoned with him “She sacrificed her life for me. FOR US. When mom died, she took us in like it was nothing… Let her come home. I will do anything”. It was likely that their Grandmother took them in at a young age and supported them financially and physically. Probably having seen her grandma struggle to raise them by herself at that age must have felt a substantial need to give back to her. Janelle says to her Professor in a later scene “…nothing can stop me from helping.” They do end bringing their grandmother home with an at home nurse to take care of her. Young people, like Janelle who come from lower socioeconomic status, usually have a strong want to help their family. A study was conducted Andrew J. Fuligni and Sara Pedersen at the University of California, Los Angeles on 745 diverse young people from various backgrounds over the span of 3 years. Their research shows that “During young adulthood, poorer young adults placed more importance on family respect and future support than did the young adults from wealthier backgrounds.” (Fuligni and Pedersen 860) Growing up Janelle and her sister were taken in by their grandma, they were most likely not well off or even poor. When you are poor and struggling to get by, family can be your only anchor, the only thing you have left tying you down when everything else is bleak, that is what their grandma was to Janelle. That is why Janelle wanted to support and help her grandma and was ready to fight anything or anyone to take care of her.
It is interesting to note that Janelle reaction to news of her grandmother was very different than her cousin Travis. Travis is adamant on Janelle to keep going to school and complete her education and more level headed than Janelle. It could be possible that Janelle’s gender may have been an influencing factor in her stance of bringing grandma home. According to the study mentioned previously “Gender can also shape family obligations, with traditional gender roles often urging girls, more so than boys, to provide more assistance to the family.” (Fuligni and Pedersen 857) Their results indicated that the young women reported a stronger belief in assisting the family in the present and future, compared to the young men. In her argument with Travis, Janelle indicated that she had previously cared for Grandmother when he left, and she was ready to do it again, implying nothing else was more important than family for her. Travis on the other hand, was being very stern and emotionally detached. This was probably because being a man in the family, he was raised to be ‘masculine’ and ‘be a man’ and not be attached and to be strong.
Janelle also seems to have lost her motivation to excel in school. In her conversation with her professor in a later scene, it is suggested that Janelle hasn’t attended class in a long time. In her fight with Travis, she blatantly states “OUR FAMILY is first…Education I can get any time.” In lower-income youth with a sense of familial obligation, they start off motivated to attend college, to get a degree and provide for the family. But that motivation doesn’t last forever. According to a study conducted evaluating college persistence, their results suggest that youths “who anticipate helping more in the future while in high school may find that motivation and value of education may not be enough during the college years, given the actual helping behaviors that go along with family obligations during this period” (Witkow et al. 14). This is exactly what happens with Janelle; she cannot deal with her situation at home and the added responsibility on her shoulders, so she starts slacking off in college. After all, her motivation for getting an education was providing for her family, and now that her family needed her, she put education on the backburner.
In Janelle’s story, a turning point that indicates her mental downfall is her slacking off in school. After bringing grandma home and sacrificing her schooling, Janelle still feels she is not doing the best for her. Janelle cannot seem to take that there is nothing she can do to make her grandmother feel better. In her conversation with Danielle, she says this, “Our grandmother is dying! And you, I or that bullshit of a nurse can’t do anything about it. I will do whatever the fuck I’ve got to do to keep her with us. I can’t hang around this apartment knowing I can do something to ease her pain”. It’s evident from this dialogue that Janelle knows there’s not much she can do to fix this situation, yet at the end, she claims to get something to ease her pain. Danielle later implies that Janelle may be going to get a drug that their grandmother believed would magically cure her cancer. Janelle knew that deep down this drug would not heal her grandma, but she could not just stand the thought of grandma dying, and her, being able to do anything about it. Janelle’s mental state is in shambles at this point. An article published in University of Connecticut discussing lower income young women suggests that “In particular, adolescents who feel strong family obligations and experience many negative life events may have depleted psychological and coping resources, and thus develop more symptoms of emotional distress” (Stephanie and Wortel 1192). Evidently, Janelle feeling strong obligations towards her family may very have well added to her weak mental and emotional state. Janelle then makes a last-ditch effort by going to buy her grandmother drugs that she deluded herself into believing would cure her grandma. Janelle ends up being fatally shot by a police officer at the location of the transaction.
Research confirms that a strong sense of familial obligation common among young women of lower socioeconomic status can affect their decisions and their academic motivation. This is what happened with Janelle, a major character in this play. Janelle’s sense of duty played a role in her decisions to her to bring her grandmother home, slack off at school and even turn to illegal methods to provide what she thought was needed for her grandma. Yet, there is no way to truly know what was running through Janelle’s mind through all this.
Fuligni, Andrew J. and Sara Pedersen. “Family Obligation and the Trasition to Young Adulthood.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 38, no. 5, Sept. 2002, p. 856. EBSCOhost, mail.lagcc.cuny.edu/viplogin/default.aspx?redirect=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=7396521&site=ehost-live.
Milan, Stephanie and Sanne Wortel. “Family Obligation Values as a Protective and Vulnerability Factor among Low-Income Adolescent Girls.” Journal of Youth & Adolescence, vol. 44, no. 6, June 2015, pp. 1183-1193. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10964-014-0206-8.
Witkow, Melissa R., et al. “Understanding Differences in College Persistence: A Longitudinal Examination of Financial Circumstances, Family Obligations, and Discrimination in an Ethnically Diverse Sample.” Applied Developmental Science, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan-Mar2015, pp. 4-18. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10888691.2014.946030.
Artist Statement
My audience is my classmates and professor, although I wanted to make it so everyone can be able to read and understand what I am trying to say. I want them to learn about something that influences many young people, and can affect their whole lives. This subject is relatively new since most American people are not like this. But a strong sense of familial obligation is very common among low income colored young people. I think they will, I provided many articles and quotes to help them along. Also, I explained everything to my best ability. My perspective on Intersections is unique, because I am not writing about something most people take lightly. But having experienced this myself a lot, I know how much a sense of familial obligation can influence your life choices, as it did with Janelle. That having a strong sense of family obligation is a real issue that people face, not just me. I was appalled at the amount of research I could find on a subject I thought was barren. I did not learn much about race as I wanted to in my research. I mostly stuck to gender, and socioeconomic status. I still want to learn more about racism and discrimination. My peers added a new perspective and helped me add what I needed to this essay. Class discussion helped me dig deeper, something I still struggle with. I would definitely add more analyses about Janelle’s other cousin Danielle. Danielle was in the same situations as Janelle, a lot of the things in this paper apply to her too, yet she reacted to the situation much differently, why is that?? The last thing I want to tell my audience before they dive into my paper is try and understand what I am trying to say. Keep an open mind, and I am sure you will look at Janelle’s story in a new light.
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