The empty representation of family

            Long Day's Journey into night can be read as an attempt of the author to illustrate how his life was, since this play has several autobiographical elements of the playwright Eugene O'Neill, but it can also be read as a statement, warning us about the danger that the lack of communication is.

            The character in the play are gloomy and mysterious. They don't get along well, they all bear secrets, and they never ever talk about the problems they have. The Father, James, was an actor, a classical actor that was interested in money, and suffers from nostalgia and fear of dying poor.  The mother, Mary, is a former morphine addict, which is now rehabilitated. The older son, James Jr., carries the guilt of having killed his brother, directly or indirectly. And Finally The younger brother, Edmund, who although he is more poetic and artistic than his brother and father, he is weak and sick, carrying the curse of tuberculosis.

            The plot of Long Day's Journey into Night revolves around this family and how this family slowly fall apart because of the heavy load each one of the member has to carry. We can argue that, if they were to trust each other, and communicate those feelings of desperations, sadness, guilt, etc., they could help each other bear those feeling together, avoiding falling in this black hole they fall into in the play. So, why don't they? Why do they remain silent, keeping all that's wrong inside of each one of them? In my opinion, It has to do with the idea of family.

            Families are supposed to be the core of society as it is. Every religion and culture from the beginning of written history, has considered families as a pivotal part of the cultural machinery. Greeks had the goddess Hestia, the goddess of family, and Egyptians had Bes, the dwarf god of family and new born babies. This illustrates how important family is for culture. The problem is , that sometimes, family is over idealised, meaning that the idea of forming and keeping a family becomes more important that the individuals that form up the family. This becomes worse when we look at the idea of the American perfect family: The perfect wife, the perfect husband, the perfect children, the perfect dog in the perfect house, with the perfect car.

            Perhaps trying to keep this idea of the perfect family is the one that is holding these character back, because speaking about the problems in the family, is making the white elephant in the room, to become real, and you know that, if you have an elephant in your living room, you will have problems. Making explicit the problems in the family, forces the members to engage in conflict, and brings crisis and change to the organisation.

            So, instead of speaking out and facing the problems that are tearing the family apart, the Tyrones choose not to speak, in order to preserve the status quo, the perfect American family. This is why at the beginning of the play, everything seems fine, luminous, almost to perfect to be real, but once the play continues, every character becomes gloomier, and the family descend into darkness, making the night written in the title of the book, more real that it should be.

            And this problem of lack of communication is not unique to the American culture. Here in Chile is present too: Families avoid talking about their problems, seeking help to solve them, and solving their problems, in order to look as a normal, perfect family. And what's worse, people do not realize that avoiding the problems to look normal  is exactly what causing so much harm to families.

            And coming back to the Tyrones: It is lack of the communication what causes this family to fall apart, it is the detachment of each member to the others that help th family to fall into chaos.

            This play has the mark of a good play: One that can be read and analysed from thousands of viewpoints, and for this short entry, I decided to focus on this small spectrum of topics presented in the book. I have decided to talk about this one, because it was one of the problems from the Tyron family were not only relevant when the play came out, but also because the same conflicts presented in these pages are present in our lives and therefore becomes relevant to tackle these issue and for once, start doing sometime about it.

            This was a first look at the topic of the family and how miscommunication can tear one apart. To end up this post, I think that it is really important to once more, think how many problems could be solved by talking to each other, by letting go of all the negative emotions, and by facing crisis.