Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country and Kent Haruf's Plainsong are both stories in which the theme of family is prevalent. Although there are common elements in each author's portrayal of family, ultimately family is portrayed differently in the two novels, and it affects what happens to the main characters.
In In Country, Sam's family is a fragmented one, leaving Sam disenfranchised. Her father has died in the Vietnam War and her mother has remarried and started a new family in another town. Sam lives with her uncle, Emmett, who has suffered a variety of ill effects from serving in the Vietnam War, and while the two of them spend time with their grandmother, there is no real family unit to be found anywhere in their family. Everyone is struggling to understand both themselves and others in the family. Family for Sam is a collection of individuals that are mostly gone from her life or living a disjointed existence that interfaces with hers only at a superficial level.
In addition to the issues with her family, Sam is uncertain about her plans for the future. She is not sure that she wants to marry her boyfriend Lonnie, although she is aware that she is on a track toward that and is expected to do so. When her friend Dawn gets pregnant, Sam has to evaluate whether she herself would like to start a family or not, and in the meantime she finds herself attracted to Tom, who has suffered aftereffects from the war much like Emmett has and who is impotent. Thus, Sam is not only part of a fragmented family but also in the midst of an unsettled life that does not appear to be heading toward an outcome that will result in a cohesive family unit for her, either within her existing family or in her future marriage.
Plainsong is similar to In Country with respect to the fragmented families and disenfranchised people, but it differs in that it is not just a portrait of one family trying to bring itself
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