Theme and message

The main theme of the short story “Streamlining” by Muli Amaye is family relationships and the way they affect adult lives. This theme is enhanced through motifs like psychotherapy and yoga therapy, two modern techniques that people often appeal to in order to deal with childhood scars.

The message that the author wants to convey with this short story is that people are deeply influenced by their parents’ attitude and their family interactions. The story shows that people’s upbringing plays a very important role in the development of their personality. The text focuses on negative consequences as a result of parental neglect and favouritism. However, the ending of the short story sends a powerful liberation message and it shows that as adults we have the power and freedom to break away with negative patterns of behaviour in our family interactions.

Family relationships

The story illustrates the negative impact that certain parental attitudes can have on people. The main character, Jocie, was raised in a family in which her mother preferred her brother and only her father seemed to understand. When her father left the family, Jocie became the outsider because her mother constantly pampered her brother Brandon and blamed Jocie for everything bad. The mother’s biased attitude has led to Brandon growing up to be irresponsible, immature, and opportunistic. Jocie, on...