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To what extent does this novel uphold traditional family values? The Gulden family and many of Langhorne residence provide a model of traditional family life and value to a substantial degree, as prevalent during the 1950s in America. In the novel “One True Thing” by Anna Quindlen we are presented with a paradigm of a “perfect family” who complies with gender-based assumptions. It portrays the father as the sole incomer-earner and decision maker, while the mother is the homemaker, economically and socially dependent and the children are dutiful and respectful. However it is thought Kates illness that the image of family life providing happiness and satisfaction is exposed as a myth, an illusion “of one imaged oasis after another”. The citizens, of Langhorne, display attitudes that are far from the lively ones of New Yorkers, such as Ellen’s, and its citizens value stability above all, preferring that it be undisturbed by matters such as cancer. In fact “acknowledging the disease” would require them to admit their fear, the danger, and the death and thus to accept reality. The resulting discomfort would shatter their surreal family patterns. The traditional family is at the heart of the novel. Quindlen