A Theme of Family Love that is portrayed through the characters in the

novel
The novel that I have studied is Step by Wicked Step, written by
Anne Fine. The theme of family love is shown throughout out the plot of
the novel, in which the characters in the story showed great appreciation
for family values and made attempts to reconcile and strengthen their
family institution respectively.
Colin demonstrated great affection for his father, albeit they are not
biologically related. When Colin was young, they did many things
together. His father would walk him to-and-fro from school and called him
by many nicknames, notably Mr Bluebird. When he had to be separated
from his father due to marital problems between his parents, Colin was
heartbroken and disappointed. He made great sacrifice of his time and
effort by selling three paper rounds so that he can accumulate enough
money to look for his dad. Such is the boundless love of son for his father.
Another character in the novel who showed family love is Claudia.
Her life was never the same when Stella stepped into her family affair.
Initially Claudia resented Stella for splitting her parents apart and behaved
hostilely towards her. Although she had reasons to despise Stella, Claudia
learnt to empathise her situation and made effort to make Stella feel
better. She boldly interrupted the dinner party wearing the green pyjamas
and thanked Stella for it. Since then Claudias relationship with Stella grew
steadily.
Pixie made compromises in order to preserve harmony in the family.
Pixie did not remonstrate when her private space was infringed by Hetty
although she was not consulted before the decision was made. she
sneakily tried to force hetty to move away from her room by frightening
her, imposing semi-silent treatment and so on, but to no avail. In the end
Pixie had a huge confrontation with her stepmom, Lucy, from which
onwards they understood each other better and their family ties
improved.
Furthermore, Roy also understood the importance of family love and
tried hard to build a loving and harmonious family. Although he was
constantly rejected by Callie, he still sent his stepchildren to school and
bought Callies favourite cereal. All he wanted was to be accepted as
family by Robbo and Callie. He chose not to leave the family because he
did not want Dumpa to grow up in an imperfect family environment.
All in all, we ought to appreciate our family members and constantly
inculcate the value of family love in our family.