Erin Brooks' 'Grove': Analyse af dysfunktionelle forhold

A dysfunctional relationship is simply, a relationship which is non-functioning. This can be due to several reasons, whether it be problems with communication between the parties involved, abuse of any kind - whether it be of a sexual origin, substance related to name a few examples.

But what do we consider a “dysfunctional relationship”? Since the definition of dysfunctional is something not operating normally or properly, and when talking about people it means unable to deal adequately with normal social relations. According to this definition, most people might agree that when we call a relationship dysfunctional, it then must mean that said relationship doesn’t perform its intended function; that is, it doesn’t emotionally support the participants, foster communication between them, appropriately challenge them, etc.

Our story revolves about a couple; our protagonist and her boyfriend. Their relationship is especially dysfunctional, since the boyfriend of the protagonist, has a wife, and furthermore our protagonist is an alcoholic herself. Moreover, we have a few incidents indicating that the boyfriend could be a daredevil, or maybe even an adrenaline junkie. The first indication we have of this is in the start of the short story. “He has an accident on the second day of our visit. He's riding ahead of me and hits a root that juts out of the ground, and he falls. “, this paired with our incident in the end of the story where he “In the car, driving home, the air is wet in the headlights. A small animal runs fast across the road. We are the only car. Have you ever, he says and turns off the headlights. “, might indicate that he in the first incident might also have been driving recklessly. These details help build the characters so that they don’t appear flat, but instead give us insight into their more complicated personality, which is in great contrast to how the mother and father are shown. The mother and father are instead described in a manner, which makes them appear as flat characters.