Fictional Family Analysis: Full House (FULL HOUSE TELEVISION SHOW)

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Introduction
Full House is an unconventional family show involving Danny Tanner, who juggles raising his three daughters together with the help of his bother in law and friend. Being recently widowed Tanner goes through an emotional roller coaster in his attempt to be a good father to his daughters with little help from female figures in the children’s life. At the same time, the sitcom focuses on sibling relations, as well as the growth and development of the children. Even though, it is set in the mid 1980’s up to the mid 1990’s, it is still relevant as it addresses issues surrounding families and coming of age. The sit com aptly captures the notion that it is ‘full house,’ through the actions and reactions of the three adult male characters and the children in the same house.
Family
The plot in Full House is a departure from the usual sitcoms that showed white working class American families and women at home. This occurred as more women entered the workplace; the 1980’ saw a shift on traditional roles of women in the family and workplace, as well as depiction of nuclear families as the ideal set up in America. Thus, the sitcom shows contrasting view on family relations among Tanner’s children their uncle and father’s friend (Franklin et al., 1987-1995). The growth in popularity in the show is an indication that they were shifting mindsets in mainstream America regarding social identities and family relations. The male figures in the TV show embrace new realities on the changing face of masculinity and patriarchy in America, and the children relate well with them.
Cohesion
The Full House, cohesion plays an important role in the Tanner’s homestead, as the six characters relate to each other. The entry of both Joey and Jesse does not seem to destabilize the Tanner family. Michelle the youngest of the tree daughters seems thrilled at Uncle Jesse’s antics who plays the guitar. On the other hand, Tanner appears less often in the children’s life as they grow up. Nonetheless, there is cohesion in the family which allows both Jesse and Joey to blend in the family. The two characters were initially supposed to stay for a shorter time, but they spend too mush time in the family life that they eventually clock eight eights together with the family. Even though, they intended to find solace in the family and escape homelessness, it is evident that through communication there is cohesion and the family is able to live harmoniously.
Meaning and rules in family
Satir’s work shows that the way families function is a reflection of their environment and past generations also have a profound effect on how families function. Additionally, families function like systems where there is a need to strike a balance, and destabilization of this balance is bound to bring problems to the family members. Destabilization could occur depending on how members apply rules, and harsh enforcement of rules and excessive restrictions might lead to dysfunctions in the family. In the Tanner family, the Tanner sisters do not experience restrictive rules, which then facilitate the process of meeting the individual needs. The sisters are inquisitive, and they do not show defensive behavior which affect families that are not balanced because of their tendency to apply restrictive rules.
However, the roles in the family are not clearly defined because there is lack of a mother figure, and this may destabilize the family. At the same time, the father is less active in the children’s life. Even though, the family is unconventional, it is still set up in hierarchical nature where the father, Jesse and Joey have power in the homestead. Thus, power imbalance changes the minute, both Uncle Jesses and Joey begin to take a more active role in the children’s life. In other words, this confirms Satir’s assertions that even the dominant force must conform at some point in time when they need to accommodate changes in their life.
Conflict and how they manage it-
Family communication is a pertinent issue in conflict resolution in families, and in Full House this takes place through family discussions. The conflicts that affect the family are typical of many modern family set ups. Nonetheless, the conflicts center on sibling relations and how they relate with their father while growing up. The types of relationships in the family determine the type of family systems (Floyd & Marman, 2013).The co...