Relevant Themes
Familial Relationships
Augusten's relationship with his mother and father is very poor. His father, Norman, is a drunk who only spends time with him to take out the garbage. Augusten even says, "The one activity my father and I did do together was take the garbage to the dump" (13). With that being a very poor foundation for a relationship, he never spent much quality time with him. Augusten's mother, Deirdre, is a psychotic poet who never seemed to have much time for anything but her confessional poetry, which she writes around the clock. His own mother signed him off to her shrink to become his legal guardian, because she was unable to care for him. Augusten felt like he was responsible for taking care of his mother and making sure she was safe, a big responsibility. At times, Augusten also felt like he wanted to kill his mother because of how out-of-control she was.
The Finch's family relationships are a little more complicated. Firstly, Dr. Finch has three mistresses in his life, calling them each his wife, along with his legal wife, Agnes. Dr. Finch tells Agnes that, "Emotionally and spiritually we are not married to each other" (99), only legally. This causes friction between the two, but Agnes stays with him, no matter how crazy he is. Dr. Finch does not set up strong relationships with his children, and even blatantly displays favorites. He even states, "...Hope is my best daughter" (167). Since the Finches create no rules for their children and encourage them to find their own paths, their daughter, Natalie, at age thirteen has a long relationship with a forty-one year old man, named Terrance Maxwell, and became her legal guardian. Another one of their daughters, Vickie, left home at a young age of fourteen, and lives and travels with hippies. Jeff, their only biological son, "kept his distance from his more eccentric Western Massachusetts clan" (101), which displays that the ties between the Finch family are not very tightly bound.
Instability of Surroundings
Augusten Burroughs' environment continually changes throughout the memoir. First, he lives with his parents, Deirdre and Norman, and when they become divorced, he trades off living with the Finches and with his mother. Augusten states, "All summer I'd taken the PVTA bus back and forth between my mother's house in Amherst and my room in Northampton. I liked being able to freely move between the two locations" (229). Augusten does not have a stable home in either place. He is constantly on the run whenever something is uncomfortable for him, which is not healthy. Also, within Augusten's environments, there are always constant mental patients that he must encounter, not normal for a typical child. Augusten recalls hearing that "...the whole family used to live on the hospital grounds, back before Finch had his own practice. Natalie's first memory of home was of being in that very hospital, surrounded by lunatics" (177). It is not healthy for children, at young ages, to be surrounded by people who are not mentally healthy themselves. When Augusten is at his mother's house once, during one of her episodes, she brings home a stranger who looks like a "lumberjack", named Cesar Mendoza. She is unstable at the time and is telling him that Cesar will be his new father, even though he is being chased by the police. This is an example of how unstable Augusten's surroundings are and how deeply he is affected by them.
Unlimited Freedom
The Finch family does not believe in rules. All of their children can choose to be whatever they want and act whatever way they want; they are their own individual and can make their own choices. Dr. Finches view on this is "...if a young person sets his or her mind to something, there's really nothing anybody can do to stop them" (135). So, Dr. Finch lets his children do what they set their mind to, and does not stop them. There is no parental guidance or lessons taught by the Finch parents to their kids and Augusten on their paths of adolescence, just choices. Augusten mentions, "The problem with not having anybody to tell you what to do, I understood, is that there was nobody to tell you what not to do" (264). Augusten's complete freedom makes him lazy and he even quits school because he is tired of going. He is not sixteen yet so, with the help of Dr. Finch and his mother, he makes an attempt at suicide to get himself excused from school until he legally can choose not to attend. Nobody forewarned him that this might not be a wise decision for his future, because Dr. Finch gives them complete freedom to do as they choose. One other example of a regular day for Natalie and Augusten, is when they break down the kitchen ceiling to make it more spacious, and put in their own skylight with a seven-and-a-half inch gap. This is the freedom they get to practice and no one stops them. It is not a healthy upbringing for young adolescents.
Augusten's relationship with his mother and father is very poor. His father, Norman, is a drunk who only spends time with him to take out the garbage. Augusten even says, "The one activity my father and I did do together was take the garbage to the dump" (13). With that being a very poor foundation for a relationship, he never spent much quality time with him. Augusten's mother, Deirdre, is a psychotic poet who never seemed to have much time for anything but her confessional poetry, which she writes around the clock. His own mother signed him off to her shrink to become his legal guardian, because she was unable to care for him. Augusten felt like he was responsible for taking care of his mother and making sure she was safe, a big responsibility. At times, Augusten also felt like he wanted to kill his mother because of how out-of-control she was.
The Finch's family relationships are a little more complicated. Firstly, Dr. Finch has three mistresses in his life, calling them each his wife, along with his legal wife, Agnes. Dr. Finch tells Agnes that, "Emotionally and spiritually we are not married to each other" (99), only legally. This causes friction between the two, but Agnes stays with him, no matter how crazy he is. Dr. Finch does not set up strong relationships with his children, and even blatantly displays favorites. He even states, "...Hope is my best daughter" (167). Since the Finches create no rules for their children and encourage them to find their own paths, their daughter, Natalie, at age thirteen has a long relationship with a forty-one year old man, named Terrance Maxwell, and became her legal guardian. Another one of their daughters, Vickie, left home at a young age of fourteen, and lives and travels with hippies. Jeff, their only biological son, "kept his distance from his more eccentric Western Massachusetts clan" (101), which displays that the ties between the Finch family are not very tightly bound.
Instability of Surroundings
Augusten Burroughs' environment continually changes throughout the memoir. First, he lives with his parents, Deirdre and Norman, and when they become divorced, he trades off living with the Finches and with his mother. Augusten states, "All summer I'd taken the PVTA bus back and forth between my mother's house in Amherst and my room in Northampton. I liked being able to freely move between the two locations" (229). Augusten does not have a stable home in either place. He is constantly on the run whenever something is uncomfortable for him, which is not healthy. Also, within Augusten's environments, there are always constant mental patients that he must encounter, not normal for a typical child. Augusten recalls hearing that "...the whole family used to live on the hospital grounds, back before Finch had his own practice. Natalie's first memory of home was of being in that very hospital, surrounded by lunatics" (177). It is not healthy for children, at young ages, to be surrounded by people who are not mentally healthy themselves. When Augusten is at his mother's house once, during one of her episodes, she brings home a stranger who looks like a "lumberjack", named Cesar Mendoza. She is unstable at the time and is telling him that Cesar will be his new father, even though he is being chased by the police. This is an example of how unstable Augusten's surroundings are and how deeply he is affected by them.
Unlimited Freedom
The Finch family does not believe in rules. All of their children can choose to be whatever they want and act whatever way they want; they are their own individual and can make their own choices. Dr. Finches view on this is "...if a young person sets his or her mind to something, there's really nothing anybody can do to stop them" (135). So, Dr. Finch lets his children do what they set their mind to, and does not stop them. There is no parental guidance or lessons taught by the Finch parents to their kids and Augusten on their paths of adolescence, just choices. Augusten mentions, "The problem with not having anybody to tell you what to do, I understood, is that there was nobody to tell you what not to do" (264). Augusten's complete freedom makes him lazy and he even quits school because he is tired of going. He is not sixteen yet so, with the help of Dr. Finch and his mother, he makes an attempt at suicide to get himself excused from school until he legally can choose not to attend. Nobody forewarned him that this might not be a wise decision for his future, because Dr. Finch gives them complete freedom to do as they choose. One other example of a regular day for Natalie and Augusten, is when they break down the kitchen ceiling to make it more spacious, and put in their own skylight with a seven-and-a-half inch gap. This is the freedom they get to practice and no one stops them. It is not a healthy upbringing for young adolescents.