What are the motifs in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Sarah L. Delany?

Family ties is a recurring idea. The Delanys lived right on St. Aug's campus. Although the world was relatively safe for the family, the children were not permitted to go off campus alone. The structure of the Delany home was also discussed. Mr. and Mrs. Delany were frightfully busy people but always made time for their children.

Nanny was a loving mother and also a strict disciplinarian. This was surely due in part to having ten children. There was no thing as surefire birth control in those days. After Nanny had her tenth child a friend suggested that she could tell Nanny about a way to stop the pregnancies. Nanny was irate and claimed that she wanted each and every child.

Other family dynamics are discussed from nighttime rituals of Bible stories to morning inspection and expected behavior. The children believed that teachers were harder on them most likely due to the high standards of their parents and the high expectations that each would be an accomplished person.