Family

Ibi Zoboi’s representation of family in Pride demonstrates the diversity of family structures and the various effects those structures have on individual members. She portrays three kinds of family structures in great depth: a large, noisy, but tight-knit family; a smaller, less close family; and an unconventional, sprawling family built on community bonds and not blood bonds. The first example is represented by the Benitez family, the second is represented by the Darcy family, and the third is represented by Madrina’s friends and relatives, all of whom make up a larger Bushwick family centered around her leadership.

The Benitez family is composed of seven people, and their number is associated by Zuri herself with poverty and their ethnicity as well. She says that the Darcy family’s perception of her own family must be full of such stereotypes: the poor, Latinx black family whose...