Brighton Beach Memoirs

As Brighton Beach Memoirs focuses on a single family, the importance and power of the family unit is a critical theme throughout. Shared family history is both a burden and a blessing. In some cases, it is a great source of conflict between the members of the Jerome-Morton family. Each of the three sibling duos are forced to reckon with aspects of their upbringing and determine how to move forward. Kate and Blanche’s relationship is the most explicitly connected to this concept since they are adult siblings and each also has their own children, which gives them a unique perspective on family. Because the women grew up together, they are intimately familiar with both how to provoke and soothe one another. In Act II, for example, Kate shares that she felt that Blanche received preferential treatment as a child, and this has continued and is causing friction now that Blanche is being supported by Kate’s husband and children. However, because Blanche is perfectly aware of the situation, she feels that she and her daughters are a burden and is dissatisfied with the trajectory of her life so far. This coming together of childhood family dynamics and adult family dynamics enables both women to have a deeper understanding of each other and what is needed to resolve the problem. The conflict leads to Blanche growing as an individual because Kate has the familiarity to be aggressive with her criticisms, and Blanche has the respect to listen. Blanche also understands that she has the love and support of her family that will enable her to go outside of her comfort zone and make the changes she needs to make.

Stanley and Eugene also have a complex relationship with their family. Throughout the events of the play, both get a clearer idea of what is expected of them as members on the family: Stanley is a secondary breadwinner for the family because he knows his labor is more useful than furthering his education; and Eugene is expected to go to college, as many members of his family see him as the key to their success and stability. In this way, their membership in the family clearly defines their roles as they grow into young adulthood. As Jack demonstrates through his continued support and sacrifice for his family as well as distant family, the roles these two young men fill now will not likely change much as they grow older and perhaps have families of their own. In this way, these family dynamics and values are perpetuated through generations,  

The pressure of the coming war only further punctuates the importance of supporting family. As Jack says, “If you’re Jewish, you’ve got a cousin suffering somewhere in the world” (35). The simple fact of Jewish heritage and suffrage connects all the Jews in Europe to those living in relative safety in America. Though Jack bemoans the hardships he and his family are suffering as the Great Depression still weighs heavily in 1937, he never hesitates to offer shelter and support to his extended family. There is never any question about whether they would help shelter their Polish cousins, and all the conflict of the earlier scenes is quickly forgotten in the overwhelming relief that their family members were able to safely escape Europe ahead of the war. In contrast to the chatter and bickering that occurs during other dinner scenes, the final dinner scene has the family together and offering up all the solutions and sacrifices they can manage to help support the arrival of the extended family. This unification of effort and joy underlines the power of the importance of family and the power a family can yield when it comes together as a unit to support one another and solve problems.