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The book presents very few functioning family relationships

In times of catastrophic events, it is an individuals want, need and desire to be with their family in order to obtain a sense of security and belonging. In disastrous times, we attempt to cling to what family we have left in order to maintain a sense of who we are. In the text Things We Didn’t See Coming the reader is presented with a range of relationships un able to function properly. It is through the hardship that they have endured, which has withered down their support structure creating them to fall apart. Although many of the family relationships in the text are depicted as dysfunctional, there are also incidences that present the opposite.

In times of hardship and panic, our basic parental and family instincts become influenced and stray from the usual. In the story “ Dry Land” the reader is presented with the relationship of Liz and Jenna. Ordinarily they would be a standard mother and daughter family, however due to the impact of the catastrophic events their relationship has been strained to the point of unrecognizable. There love for each other is strong, but this need to be with each other will inevitably more than likely is the cause of their deaths. As the narrator states, “ What’s it going to take for them to be real survivors”. Due to Liz’s inability to cope with the ongoing situation around her, her role as a mother has been compromised. In a normal situation the protection and survival of her child would be put as a priority, but in these circumstances she has become selfish and kept Jenna with her. It can also be seen with their relationship that the roles have almost reversed. Jenna is constantly looking after her drunken mother, and is the one learning from the narrator on how to survive. From this it is evident how in such a disastrous world, normal families can be corrupted.

When the world becomes engulfed by disaster, relationships are

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