We live in a culture where we fear each other, hate each other, and even kill each other. How bad do things in our culture have to get before we stop and look at what brought us to this place? I believe that a key part of the answer to that question lies in the family. Although I know there are many good single parents in our culture I want to draw focus to the traditional family as I write this. If we look up the definition of the traditional family we find that it is a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children. Since time began this was how the family was meant to be. A mother and father jointly raising their offspring with their values and beliefs so that those offspring would then continue to improve their culture. Somewhere along the way the family unit has diminished and we are stuck with the consequences. If we look at what the family has to offer we can see that it plays a big part in our culture and how it can change it. Family is relevant in today's culture because it helps to decrease crime, can offer the support we need to succeed, and can help prevent suicide and emotional turmoil within our children. The crime rate in America seems to be growing as the American family disintegrates. If we look at the past and present we can see that each year our crimes have become caustic and incessant. The alarming part is that crimes are being committed by the younger generation. Francine Hallcom, a professor at California State University did a long-term study of street gangs. She explains that “...at this crucial point, somewhere between grades 6, 7, and 8—between childhood and adulthood—many grow weary of the harsh living conditions that surround them, of never having any spendable cash on hand, ... ... middle of paper ... ...etter. In conclusion, if we want our culture to improve we need to get back to the basics of the traditional family and values. Works Cited Hallcom, Francine. "Gang Membership Can Fulfill Many Adolescent Needs." Contemporary Issues Companion: Gangs. Ed. J.D. Lloyd. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. 13 July 2010 Moon, Susan. “Sons and Mothers.” Writing on the River: An Anthology for Composition I. Second Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 312-316. Print. Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. “Where Have All the Parents Gone?” Writing on the River: An Anthology for Composition I. Second Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 317-323. Print. Zinsmeister, Karl. "Divorce Harms Children." Current Controversies: Marriage and Divorce. Ed. Tamara L. Roleff and Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Web.
Hewson, Marc. ""My children were of me alone": Maternal Influence in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying." Mississippi Quarterly 53.4 (2000): n. pag. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Apr 2011.
An Anthology For Readers and Writers. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 1283-1296. Print.
Hewson, Marc. “'My children were of me alone': Maternal Influence in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.” Mississippi Quarterly 54.4 (2001): 595-95. Literature Resources From Gale. Web. 18 Apr. 2010.
A family is a group of people consisting of the parents and their children who live together and they are blood related. The family is always perceived as the basic social units whether they are living together in the same compound or at far distance but are closely related especially by blood. Therefore, the family unit has had a great influence on the growth and the character traits possessed by the children as they grow up and how they perceive the society they live in. the family also shapes the children to be able to relate well with other people that are not part of their family and with a good relationship it impacts to the peace achieved in country. This paper addresses the reasons as to why the family is considered the most important agent of socialization. It’s evident that families have changed over time and they have adopted different ways of living. This paper also tackles on the causes of the dramatic changes to the American family and what the changes are. Different people with different race, gender and preferences make the family unit and this makes the difference in marriages. This will also be discussed in this paper.
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer – An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
Seidman, Barbara Kitt. "Native Son." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (2006): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. fifth ed. N.p.: W.W. Norton, 2005. 2120-2121. 2 Print.
Influenced by the style of “plainspoken English” utilized by Phillip Larkin (“Deborah Garrison”), Deborah Garrison writes what she knows, with seemingly simple language, and incorporating aspects of her life into her poetry. As a working mother, the narrator of Garrison’s, “Sestina for the Working Mother” provides insight for the readers regarding inner thoughts and emotions she experiences in her everyday life. Performing the daily circus act of balancing work and motherhood, she, daydreams of how life might be and struggles with guilt, before ultimately realizing her chosen path is what it right for her and her family.
The presence of gang violence has been a long lasting problem in Philadelphia. Since the American Revolution, gangs have been overpopulating the streets of Philadelphia (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). Most gangs in history have been of lower class members of society, and they often are immigrants into the U.S (Teen Gangs, 1996). Gangs provided lower class teens to have an opportunity to bond with other lower class teens. However over time, the original motive of being in a gang has changed. In the past, gangs used to provide an escape for teens to express themselves, let out aggression, and to socialize with their peers. It was also an opportunity for teens to control their territory and fit in (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). In the past, authorities would only focus on symptoms of gang violence and not the root. They would focus on arresting crime members instead of preventing gang violence. Gangs are beginning to expand from inner-city blo...
Traditional family in today’s society is rather a fantasy, a fairy tale without the happy ending. Everyone belongs to a family, but the ideology that the family is built around is the tell tale. Family structures have undeniably changed, moving away from the conventional family model. Nowadays more mothers work outside of the home, more fathers are asked to help with housework, and more women are choosing to have children solo. Today there are families that have a mom and a dad living in the same home, there are step-families, and families that have just a mother or just a father. Probably the most scrutinized could be families that consist of two moms or two dads. These are all examples of families and if all members are appropriately happy and healthy then these families are okay and should incontestably be accepted. So why is the fantasy of the traditional family model still so emphasized in our society? This expectation is degrading and misleading. Progressing with times one ought not be criticized or shunned for being true to their beliefs. It is those living falsely, living as society thinks they should that are the problem. Perhaps as a society, if there were more focus and concern for happiness and peace within ones family and fewer worries for the neighbor then there would be less dilemma.
Wasley, Aidan. "An overview of “Mother to Son”." Poetry for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Eiseley, Loren “The Flow of the River” from Fifty Great Essays 2nd ed. 2002 Penguin Academics New York.
Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” does not have as complex of a story as Tennyson’s. The poem is short and sweet, a piece of dialogue of a ...
To thoroughly elaborate on the institution of family we most look at the family as it was before and how much it has changed over time. Throughout the years we are recognizing that the family is slowly being replaced by other agents of socialization. Families in the past consisted of a mother and a father and most times children. We are, as many societies a patriarchal society; men are usually the head of the households. This has always been considered the norm.