Family

Family is a major and underlying theme in Sonay Sones's novel, "What My Mother Doesn't Know". Family, thematically, includes love, loyalty, compassion, emotional, and physical support for others who may or may not be blood related, but exist and operate in a traditional family structure. Here, the theme of family specifically refers to Sophie, her mother, and her father. Throughout most of the novel, it is actually a lack of family that affects Sophie more so than anything else.

Sophie's parents largely keep to themselves. Sophie's father is unaffectionate, distant, anf frequently away on business trips, while Sophie's mother wraps herself up in soap operas and tending to the house. Sophie frequently wishes that her father would wrap her up in his arms and hold her, and spend time with her. Sophie wishes her mother was not only the same way, but that she would show...