Family and Relationships

It is Edie's eating problem and subsequent weight that draws the family together, but the story is about more than Edie and her health issues. The title is The Middlesteins because the novel is about the entire family and throughout the novel the theme of family and relationships constantly appears.

The novel highlights relationships between both husbands and wives and parents and their children as well as the results of the violation of the natural law of the family in favor of man's law.

Readers first meet a young Edie, her mother, and her father. This family unit follows the natural law of families. The narrator states that her mother and father didn't agree on a lot of things that man's law of the family deems to be necessary for couple compatibility. They were from different countries, had different views on how to spend...