I feel that family is very
important for many reasons. Your family loves you, cares for you, and is always
there for you. The function of family is simple, to create a safe place where
you are comfortable and loved. In the essay Stone Soup, Barbara
Kingsolver mainly talked about the judgment of abnormal families but she also
states that family is an important thing and that it shapes a child’s
personality. Also in the story A Tree
Grows in Brooklyn, There are obvious examples of family functions and
importances. In my opinion, Betty Smith wrote the story with a main theme of
family importance.
The
function of family as I stated before is to create a safe place where you are
comfortable and loved. At home I feel
more comfortable than any place I have ever been. It’s the safest place I know,
and I definitely have never been loved more than I have when I am at home with
my family. Your family teaches you more important things than any teacher at
any school could teach you. Your family teaches you how to be street smart
while teachers teach you how to be school smart. Your family teaches you
manners, how to love, how to take care of yourself, how to be whatever you want
to be, and a million more things. Your family is always right there to give you
advice and to help you whenever you need it. Family is so important to me
because I have a huge family. It may not be abnormal or mixed but after moving
here the holidays have been very lonely even though there are ten people in my
house. I’m used to having my eight cousins, my five aunts, my five uncles, my
two grandparents, my five brothers, sister, half-sister, and two parents. I
play my worst in my sports when my family isn’t there. Some kids think their
parents telling them to keep their heads up and telling what they did wrong on
the court or field is annoying but I love it. Even if it doesn’t seem like it
at the moment. In A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith writes, “Francie and Neeley got out of
bed and they all sat around the table and ate after Papa had put three dollars
down on the table and given the children each a nickel which Mama made them put
in the tin-can bank explaining they had already received money that day from
the junk…So Johnny and Katie talked away the night and the rise and fall of
their voices was a safe and soothing sound in the dark” (Smith, 52-55).This
quotes shows the safety that both Francie and Neeley feel. The sound of their
parents voices calms them in the tough time they are going through and that is
what family is for. The smallest actions can give the biggest sense of
security. Another quote from A Tree
Grows in Brooklyn is when Smith writes, “She listened to everybody’s
troubles but no one listened to hers. But that was right because Sissy was a
giver and never a taker” (Smith, 101). This quote shows how family is always
there, because sissy even though she isn’t there 24/7 she is always giving
advice and helping not asking for anything in return. A family is unconditional
love. An example from Stone Soup is
when Kingsolver states, “The cheering section includes his mother
and her friends, his brother, his father and stepmother, a stepbrother and
stepsister, and a grandparent. Lucky is the child with this many relatives on
hand to hail a proud accomplishment. I'm there too, witnessing a family
fortune. But in spite of myself, defensive words take shape in my head. I am
thinking: I dare anybody to call this a broken home” (Kingsolver, 1).
This quote explains how people see families that aren’t “pure” and although my
older sister is my half-sister, which I’ve actually never been able to call her
that, she is my family because family is not always about having the same DNA
it’s about loving each other un conditionally and not caring what they look
like what they wear or what they like. Because family is supposed to protect
the others from the badness of the world. Your parents protect you every day.
The smallest actions that you might take for granted are love. “Put your
seatbelt on,” or “Do your homework.” If they didn’t love you they wouldn’t care
if you had your seatbelt on or not and if they didn’t care about your future,
they wouldn’t care about the grades you get. Another example from Kingsolver’s Stone Soup is
when she writes, “I imagine it must be a painful reckoning in adolescence (or
later on) to realize true love will never look like the soft-focus fragrance
ads because Prince Charming (surprise!) is a princess. Or vice versa. Or has
skin the color your parents didn't want you messing with, except in the Crayola
box” (Kingsolver, 2). This quote supports my statement that family is love.
Just like the recent legalization of gay marriage. “Love is Love.” There are
all types of families. They don’t have to be married, of opposite sex, of the
same race. Because those things don’t matter to love. My Aunt and Uncle aren’t married.
They are filed as domestic partners because she feels that you get married to
have kids and she physically can’t have kids so she saw no need for vows, but
I’ve always called him Uncle Joe because he is my uncle, my family even though
he isn’t married to my mom’s sister because if he loves my aunt he is family
and that is that.
In
conclusion, Love is Love and Family isn’t DNA. Family is when someone is always
there no matter what even if you can’t see it or don’t notice it, family is
love and it always will be. Think of someone adopted. They call their adoptive
parent their mom, and dad. They don’t care that they don’t have the same genes
as them, they love their kid(s) and that’s all that counts. I am blessed to
have the family that I have and I will remember to always be thankful for that.
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