Movie Report
Movie Report: Madea’s Family Reunion
Sierra Hicks
HDFS 2000
Summer 2013
Madea’s Family Reunion displayed examples of several themes and concepts that have been discussed in class thus far. The most obvious concepts were related to family. Although this movie focused on family, there were several ideas that dealt with aspects of love and marriage. There are three that caught my attention concerning family: types of family, how choices influence family, and strengths and challenges of African American families. In addition, the idea that I immediately noticed about love and marriage was one of the seven major mistakes in mate selection. In Chapter 1, we discussed the common types of families. I identified Madea’s family as two of these types: extended (intergenerational) and voluntaristic. An extended, or intergenerational, family consists of relatives who live near each other or exchange frequent interactions. This is demonstrated by how Madea is constantly accepting her family members into her home. It’s quite obvious that there are frequent interactions between her and her family. She cares for her nephew Bryan’s children while is working. She also opens her home to her great-niece, Vanessa, and her two children. A voluntaristic family is a group of people who may or may not be related. Madea’s family becomes this type when the judge orders her to take Nikki into foster care. Although Nikki is not biologically related to the rest of the family, she eventually becomes a part of the family. The next theme I noticed was how choices influenced the family. The choices we make will influence our family relationships now and in the future. (Ch.1) One example of this is Deborah’s drug addiction. The main influence it had was on her marriage with Brian. It also greatly influenced her children because they had to be raised by someone else and rarely ever had a parent around. Lastly, it caused her family not to trust her. After Brian told Madea that Debrah had been
Sierra Hicks
HDFS 2000
Summer 2013
Madea’s Family Reunion displayed examples of several themes and concepts that have been discussed in class thus far. The most obvious concepts were related to family. Although this movie focused on family, there were several ideas that dealt with aspects of love and marriage. There are three that caught my attention concerning family: types of family, how choices influence family, and strengths and challenges of African American families. In addition, the idea that I immediately noticed about love and marriage was one of the seven major mistakes in mate selection. In Chapter 1, we discussed the common types of families. I identified Madea’s family as two of these types: extended (intergenerational) and voluntaristic. An extended, or intergenerational, family consists of relatives who live near each other or exchange frequent interactions. This is demonstrated by how Madea is constantly accepting her family members into her home. It’s quite obvious that there are frequent interactions between her and her family. She cares for her nephew Bryan’s children while is working. She also opens her home to her great-niece, Vanessa, and her two children. A voluntaristic family is a group of people who may or may not be related. Madea’s family becomes this type when the judge orders her to take Nikki into foster care. Although Nikki is not biologically related to the rest of the family, she eventually becomes a part of the family. The next theme I noticed was how choices influenced the family. The choices we make will influence our family relationships now and in the future. (Ch.1) One example of this is Deborah’s drug addiction. The main influence it had was on her marriage with Brian. It also greatly influenced her children because they had to be raised by someone else and rarely ever had a parent around. Lastly, it caused her family not to trust her. After Brian told Madea that Debrah had been