Far From the Tree

While all three main characters in Far from the Tree deal with issues surrounding family, love, and trauma, Benway uses each character's story and unique struggles to craft a clear theme. In the case of the youngest sibling, Benway uses Maya’s adoption story and internal struggles to address the idea that a person may not always feel like they belong in their family, even if that family is picture-perfect from the outside looking in.

When Maya was younger, a classmate reminded her that her younger sister Lauren is “biological” while Maya isn’t. Years later, Maya still thinks about this passing comment and wonders if she doesn’t belong in the family that adopted her. Her family’s home is full of family photos in which Maya stands out in sharp contrast to the rest of their family, and she jokes that looking at her family portraits is like playing a game of “one of these things is not like the other” (54). Although Maya’s parents did everything they should to normalize Maya’s adoption and show their love, their efforts backfired. After seeing how her parents “read all these books about adoption, and adopted kids, and how to accept and love your adopted child,” Maya realizes that she has “never seen them read a single book about their biological kid” (222), which makes Maya feel like she is more difficult to raise than her sister.