A short Interpretation and Analysis of Nash Candelaria's "Familiy Thanksgiving"

Abstract or Introduction

In the following essay I would like to interpret and analyze the short story „Family Thanksgiving” by Nash Candelaria. Nash Candelaria was born in 1928 in Los Angeles. He is referred to as a Chicano writer although he does not consider himself one. After studying and working in the scientific field he took up a rather creative job in writing stories. Several of his stories were published in a collection in 1998, which he entitled Uncivil Rights and Other Stories, including “Family Thanksgiving”.

First of all I would like to talk about the title which gives us a broad idea of what the story is about. Family Thanksgiving can be interpreted in two ways by taking it as a whole or using the words separated from each other. When considering the words family and Thanksgiving on their own we get to the following conclusion: Family refers to the constellation the celebration is held within for the only time in the year. All other celebrations might be held within the nuclear family. When referring to Thanksgiving then we think of a holiday embedded in the American tradition, one of the most widely celebrated communal gatherings within the country. This typical celebration shows that this family is fully integrated into the American culture. When taking both words into consideration as a whole, we notice that this might be the only holiday when the whole family comes together. It might also be the most important one, for instance, because they are not getting together for the mother’s birthday, for example. It also seems that this is a rather obligatory event. This is the time when the whole family has to meet and celebrate with their mother and mother-in-law respectively. Secondly, I would like to analyze the story’s content and the literary elements used in the story. The story contains a lot of direct speech, which lets us imagine a lively family holiday with lots of talking, teasing and laughing. We can also sympathize with the atmosphere because of the use of dialogue. By using the colloquial language we get the impression of normal people coming together for a family event and talking about what is happening in their lives. It is also easier to empathize with them when the readers are aware of the complex history of the family.