Family

Augusten operates through much of the novel without a standard family unit. Even when his parents are married, they fight often and violently. The divorce comes as a relief to Augusten; he sees it as a time to start over.

The Finch family, Augusten realizes, is not a normal family. They communicate in rude and selfish ways, frequently yelling and name calling. They fail to take responsibility around the house, for the comfort of their fellow family members.

Yet Augusten becomes apart of this family. The very girls that scare him at first quickly become his closest friends. Though the Finch's are not normal, Augusten feels that they understand what he goes through more than many of his peers. Augusten feels that someone in a normal, nuclear family cold not understand homosexuality or the stress of a mentally ill mother.

The Stewart family appears it the story in...