Cloudstreet

This is evident in Dolly's alcoholism, Sam's gambling addiction and Rose's eating disorders and her feuds with her mother. Despite their uneasy relationships they do love each other and help each other in times of need. This is evident in the scene where Sam is standing in front of the mirror with a razor blade to his throat. "The open blade of the razor had a cheery gleam, poised there at his unlatered neck wet from tears" (page 168) here Rose intervenes and comforts him and aids him. The differences between the family members are finally resolved, later on page 357, when mother and daughter are both weeping. With their differences resolved and the birth of Wax Harry the Pickleses eventually become a happy family.
             The old saying "blood is thicker than water" can be applied here, however it may not be as "clean". In other words Family members may not be as friendly or as loving. Winton stresses the fact that, though love may be absent from families, it is an essential ingredient for a loving and happy family. The Pickleses, is an example of this. In the parts before Rose and Dolly, reconcile their differences the family is almost never happy. In the brief moments when Dolly and Rose stop fighting, there is a little peace within the household. In "Fair Dinkum", when Sam brings home a parrot, there are moments of laughter within the family; this is a small moment of peace between them.
             Winton also tries to tell us that families will always quarrel, but in the end, they will resolve their differences and come to some sort of loving relationship. This is shown especially in the Pickles family. Over the twenty years they spend most of their time squabbling and fighting, living unhappy lives. However at the end of the twenty year period, the family members reconcile their differences between on another and their tenants. In the last chapter, "Sun poured careless into the quiet yard where vegetables teemed in the earth and fruit hung, where a scarfaced pig sang sweetly at the sky and a small congregation amassed in the light".