Family Collage PP

1. The Tenenbaums
~Family Collage~
By, Orianna Bailey

2. This presentation discusses in detail, the analysis of family
communication seen in the 2001 film “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

3. Character Structure
 Etheline is primarily a mother of three
children, also a noted archeologist and author.
She is sensitive and practical in nature The
children live with her.
 Royal is the estranged father. He leaves the family
when the children are in their adolescence. He’s
an insensitive lawyer who gambles and steals. He
maintains little to no contact with the family until he
fakes a cancer diagnosis.
 Richie is the first son, a child prodigy tennis player
and artist. He suffered a mental breakdown on the
court in front of thousands. Richie is a romantic
and a peace-keeper. He has a secret love for
Margot.
 Chas is the second son, a genius in international
finance. He becomes obsessive over safety after
the plane crash death of his wife. Chas is the
father of two and extremely left-brained.
 Margot is the adopted daughter, a playwright and
an infamously secretive, distant family member.
She’s married to Raleigh, has a secret affair with
Eli and even more secretly, loves Richie back.

4. Disengaged: Family members Cohesion
maintain extreme separateness and
independence, experiencing little
belonging or loyalty.
(Galvin, Bylund, and
Brommel, 2012, pg. 31)
The Tenenbaum family is extremely
dysfunctional. What started out a two-
parent biological family became a
blended family (with Margot as their non-
blood offspring addition), then became a
single-parent family with the divorce of
Etheline and Royal. All three children experienced
Royal was never supportive. He was an great success at a young age, forcing
insensitive lawyer who ignored his them to require more attention than
wife, made a point to refer to Margot as usual in the adolescent life stage.
his “adopted daughter”, stole stocks and When none received such
bonds from Chas, and treated Richie as attention, then the news of their
his prized child. Royal paid little attention parent’s divorce, they all experienced
to his family, leaving Etheline with all extreme developmental issues that
parental duties and household carried through to adulthood and left
responsibilities. them in post-success slumps.

5. Developmental Issues
~Margot~
Margot had her first success in the ninth grade when she received a
$50,000 grant for writing a play. Yearning for attention and acceptance in a
family that wasn’t biologically hers, it was her needing the most from the
parents. When she didn’t receive the necessary attention, she became very
distant in the family. She started acting out by smoking and engaging in
sexual promiscuity. Margot marries a sweet and successful neurologist by
the name of Raleigh, who she continues on her path of secrecy and
promiscuity with. She has an affair with Richie’s best friend Eli Cash in order
to keep her mind off her unhappiness.

6. Developmental Issues
~Richie~
Richie falls in love with his adopted sister, Margot, at a young age. His parents
are too distant to realize what’s happened before them. Royal denies any of the
other children attention, besides Richie. He becomes an accomplished artist, doing
portrait after portrait of his sister. Richie also gains an extreme amount of success
at a young age by winning five junior tennis championships in a row. After suffering
a major mental breakdown on court, in front of thousands of people, he goes on
tour of the world via cruise ship.

7. Developmental Issues
~Chas~
Chas became a math and international business genius, beginning in his
early adolescence. He started in real estate and his corporations grew.
Because he started it when he was a minor, Royal was the primary signatory
on his accounts. Right after his parent’s divorce, Chas finds out Royal has
stolen the majority of funds from his accounts, and stolen bonds from his safety
deposit box. Chas disowns his father due to his deceit. He then suffers the
unexpected loss of his wife Rachael in a plane crash. He becomes obsessive
over safety and decides to move back in with his mother Ethel when he deems
his place of residence an unsafe environment for him and his two children.
He’s also extremely jealous of his attention-gaining brother Richie.

8. Etheline
Ethel makes the children’s education a top priority in their development. She
maintains a career in archeology and is an accomplished author, all while raising
three children. She offers support and nurturing throughout their growth, yet
maintains an awkward distance with them. Ethel is disgusted with her estranged
husband throughout the decades of betrayal and failure. She later falls in love
with the family accountant, Henry. Ethel is a hard woman who loves her family.

9. Royal
Royal Tenenbaum paid little attention to his children. He gambled, he
stole, he was erratic and insensitive. He held many secrets, leading to the
ultimate toxic secret that would destroy his family’s trust in him forever. He
engaged in acts of verbal and physical abuse towards his children. His
attention to Richie, caused major pain to both Chas and Margot. Royal
goes through the process of role relinquishment when he divorces Ethel.
He no longer provides a father figure for the children and spends his days
drinking and gambling. He did very little to provide for the family, at all. He
only added extra stress and dysfunction in the already complex structure
of the family.

10. Divorce
“Separation and divorce, variations in the family life course, are transitional crises that create
emotional and practical upheaval.”
(Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, Pg. 296)
“Divorce tend to be the result of unhappiness and problems that have developed over time, not
just the result of one negative occurrence in the marriage.”
(Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, Pg. 296)
“A systematic view of divorce assumes that both parents contributed to the dissolution of the
marriage, although specific individual issues such as addiction, abuse, or severe mental or
physical health problems may be presented by one partner.” (Pg. 296)
The divorce was caused by Ethel and Royal being on two very different pages
in life and realizing through years of negative occurrences due to Royal’s
irresponsible nature, that they weren’t happy together. It caused much upheaval in
the Tenenbaum family. Since the family was now transitioned into a single-parent
family, the children weren’t shown the appropriate amount of attention and lacked a
father figure in their life, ultimately causing developmental issues that stayed
permanent through adulthood.

11. On/Off Time Life Course Events
“How a family responds to stress depends on it’s organizational structure, prior to
the stress.” (Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, 2012, pg. 242)
“The developmental perspective assumes that change occurs throughout our lives;
we adapt our communication behaviors to our individual changes relational changes
we experience as others’ lives transform as well. The family mobile shifts according
to the winds of developmental change and outside stressors. Every family
experiences stresses at different points across the years.”
(Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, 2012, pg 241)
Since all three of the Tenenbaum children experienced high levels of success at
very young ages (off-time events), their traditional life course was immediately
thrown off- This caused their family as well as the public, to view them in a very
adult light. Not being able to experience a more normal amount of time for childhood
development was detrimental to their psychological outcomes.

12. Secrets
Essential secrets, which support necessary boundaries defining a
relationship. (Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, 2012, pg. 89)
Richie holds the secret that he’s in love with Margot, in fear of ruining
their relationship they’ve based off trust in a family setting.
Margot holds her smoking habits and unhappiness from her husband
and family, in fear of judgment and change.
Toxic secrets poison family relationships; key family issues and
stories remain untold and unexplained. (pg. 89)
Royal plays a dishonest role through much of the children’s
childhood. He steals from his son and lies to their mother. He then holds
the most toxic secret of all, where he fashions a story of his own cancer
diagnosis, in hopes of getting his family to like him again in his “last six
weeks.”

13. Deception
“Deceiving another violates their relational understanding. Most people expect
family members and loved ones to be truthful as a sign of connection or relational
commitment.” (Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, 2012, pg. 146)
For Chas and Royal’s relationship, deception was the ultimate killer. Chas full-
heartedly disowned his father after all his deception throughout the years. Chas
never expected his own father to commit crimes against him and deliver such
dishonesty. The role of trusted father was forever thrown out after such displays of
behavior.
When it is found out that Margot has been having an affair with Eli Cash
(Richie’s lifelong best friend), Richie slits his wrists in hopes of committing suicide.
Richie is bewildered how Margot could do such a thing and it completely disrupts
their relational understanding.

14. Role Conflict
“Role conflict may occur when a divorced parent remarries, bringing a
stepparent in to the family system.” (Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, 2012, pg. 167)
Ethel begins a relationship with the family’s long-time accountant, Henry.
The family experiences difficulty seeing him playing a different role around
their family. Chas especially, can’t even bring himself to call him anything but
Mr. Sherman.
Royal as well, couldn’t handle Henry stepping in on “his territory”, even
though he had abandoned the family years before.

15. Final Personal Views
“Just as there is no one right way to be a family, there is no one family scholar who
has all the answers.” (Galvin , Bylund, Brommel, 2012. pg. 333)
“A healthy family recognizes the interdependence of all members and attempts to
provide for the growth of the system as a whole, as well as the individual members
involved.” (Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, 2012, pg. 334
As dysfunctional as the Tenenbaums may seem throughout their daily life-course
events, they do love each other greatly and try to maintain somewhat of a support
network through their relational dialects. All members feel connected, perhaps not
all to all, but most definitely some to most. They may be stubborn and strange, but
they do find themselves committed to each other and willing to change.