Family, Parenting, and Legitimacy Theme Analysis

As the novel follows Juliet and reveals the past compositions of her family, as well as the compositions of other characters' families, it's telling that few of the families are conventionally organized with two married parents and biological children. However, this is seldom seen as a bad thing—in many cases, people are simply happy to be able to care for children after their parents' deaths in the war—and indeed, there are situations where one's biological family is actually regarded with fear and apprehension. In this way, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society suggests that there's no single correct way to form a family or for a family to look. Instead, what's most important is that family members, biological or otherwise, provide unconditional love and care for others.

Juliet's early childhood was very happy. She was raised on a farm by two loving parents, and she was able to read as much as she wanted. However, this all came to an end at twelve years old, when Juliet's parents died and she was sent to live with her elderly great-uncle, Dr. Roderick Ashton. The transition was understandably difficult for Juliet. After she ran away twice, Dr. Ashton took a friend's advice and sent Juliet to a girls' boarding school. At school, Juliet befriended Sophie Stark and the entire Stark family, who increasingly came to treat her more as a family member than a mere friend of their daughter's. Upon Dr. Ashton's death when Juliet was seventeen, the Starks continued to house Juliet during school vacations and supported her through early adulthood. The Starks' treatment of Juliet makes it clear that blood ties or formal ties (like marriage) aren't necessary prerequisites to providing love and care to children. Despite this, Juliet's inclusion in the family is later formalized when Sophie names Juliet the godmother of her son, Dominic. Taken together, this suggests that while relationships recognized by the state aren't necessary, per se, they do offer a sense of legitimacy—and in the event of a worst-case scenario like Sophie and her husband's death, it won't just be because of luck that Dominic has someone to care for him, love him, and guide him through life as the Starks did for Juliet.

Guernsey explores similar ideas of legitimacy and what makes a family in its consideration of Kit, the four-year-old daughter of Elizabeth McKenna and the German soldier Christian Hellman, both of whom are deceased by the start of the novel. Elizabeth kept her relationship with Christian and Kit's paternity a secret from the authorities, though it's suggested the German authorities were aware of at least the relationship. Two years later, after Elizabeth is taken to a concentration camp in mainland Europe, the Society takes turns caring for and parenting Kit, offering Kit a loving extended family—none of whom are related to her by blood, but love her fiercely just the same.

Later, Amelia tells Juliet that the secret of Kit's paternity persists to the present, as Kit's caretakers on Guernsey fear that if Christian's relatives were to find out about her, they'd attempt to take her away. Though it's impossible to know whether Christian's family is alive, or if any of them truly believe in Nazi ideals if they are, this suggests that as far as Kit's adoptive family is concerned, it's far preferable to be raised by people not related by blood but who are known to be kind and on the right side of history, than would be to be raised by blood family with horrific and dehumanizing views of life and other people.

A few months after Juliet moves to Guernsey, her integration into the "family" of the Society members is so complete that she's put in charge of caring for Kit while Dawsey is in France. During the month or so that Juliet cares for Kit, the two become extremely close and Juliet becomes increasingly interested in how to properly and effectively parent a child. Especially as Juliet listens to stories about the children of Guernsey being evacuated in the days before the German occupation, she comes to realize that the crushing love that caused Guernsey parents to send their children to England to keep them safe is something that she feels for Kit, despite the fact that Kit isn't her biological child. Notably, this helps Juliet to begin to think of herself as a parent, and shows again that a blood relationship isn't necessary to have a child's best interests at heart.

This also leads Juliet to decide to pursue formally adopting Kit, an idea that Amelia fully supports and Kit agrees with as well. However, despite the community's support for the adoption, Juliet recognizes that because she's unmarried, Mr. Dilwyn, Kit's legal guardian and the executor of Elizabeth's estate, may be unwilling to grant her request in full—indicating that, at least when it comes to formal parenthood, the lack of a blood relationship with a child combined with presenting an other-than-acceptable image of a parent (in this case, being unmarried) can keep people from being able to effectively protect and parent a child. Though the novel ends before tying up these particular loose ends, it's important to note that because Juliet marries Dawsey, she'll be in a much better position to adopt Kit within a week of the novel's close. The family that those three presumably create then becomes the novel's most successful and most compelling example of a chosen, adopted family, legitimized in the eyes of the law to nurture and protect a child.