Same Kind Of Different As Me

At the beginning of the book, there is a traditional definition of family: blood relations. Denver Moore and his brother live with their grandmother in Louisiana, and Ron Hall grows up with his family in Haltom City, Texas, and spends summers with his grandparents on their farm. Later in life, Moore’s lack of his own family is presented as a significantly-missing component of it, while Hall’s wife and two children indicate his successful integration into American social life.

As the story progresses, though, these blood ties become more ephemeral. After his grandmother dies, Moore and his brother are split up to live with different relatives, and they lose their bond because of it. After leaving prison, he returns to Fort Worth to live on the streets,instead of staying with his sister, Hershalee. By the time he and Hall go to Red River Parish, Hershalee’s house is long since abandoned, and a distant aunt’s life of squalor in a shack in the woods demonstrates how little Moore has in common with her or his other relatives there.

Much of Hall’s life is spent moving up rungs of the social ladder as quick as he can, and his family suffers because of it. After he transfers to TCU, almost no mention is made of his parents, brother, or grandparents again. The drive for material success through his career as an art dealer almost wrecks the family he creates with his wife and their two children as he’s almost always on the road making deals, and this leads to an affair. In fact, he’s ready to be divorced and move on, but his wife doesn’t allow that to happen. 

As the story progresses, the idea of family becomes as much a social construct as being based solely on shared genetics. Moore first becomes a member of the “family” of the Union Gospel Mission, which consists of the staff there and the homeless people they serve. He informally “adopts” Mr. Ballantine, a hateful old man, and looks after him, despite the abuse he receives in return. By the end of the book, Moore has become a full-fledged member of the Hall family.

Much as the concept of friendship in the book ultimately requires significantly more thanmerely being social acquaintances, family comes to be more complex than blood relations alone. That is, being related to someone doesn’t automatically create an unbreakable bond. Instead, being family requires an ongoing commitment to and responsibility for another person. In that sense, Moore and Hall can be seen as brothers by the book’s conclusion because of their commitment to each other.