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.