Importance of Family

Authors Note: I wrote this piece because it was my essay for my next conference(the Outsiders theme essay). But I would like feedback on if you think that I had enough connections to The Outsiders.


Have you ever thought to yourself “Who are the people that are really there for you?” Well, wouldn’t it be family? Whenever I’m having a bad day,I know my family is always there for me. No matter how close or how far away your family is from you at the end of the day, they are always there for you.

When you are growing up, you are dependent on your parents to do everything for you. As you get older, you still have them buy stuff for you until you have a job or something, but they become a different person in your life. Your parents want to know what’s going on in your life, like all the time and I know this because my parents are always trying to get in my business. But I think that they want to know everything because they are just simply concerned about you, and they care about what you’re doing. Even though they get annoying at times, and sometimes you say that you wish you didn’t have parents, imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t have parents.

In the book that we just finished reading,The Outsiders, many characters had issues regarding their families. Johnny was abused by his parents. Because he was abused he then later ended up killing someone named Bob. So the lesson learned is the way you are raised, and the environment you grow up in effects how you are as a teen and an adult. Also there is Darry and Ponyboy. Darry is the basically like a father to Ponyboy because their parents were killed in a car accident. That would be really devastating if my parents both died, but I would probably do the same thing with my sister because I would want to stay together. There are also times when family comes together to face the harsh reality of disease in a family member.

I read another book called Breathless, and this book was about a high school boy named Travis who has cancer. His family was shocked when they found out that their brother and son had a terrible disease. Right away came together to support him, but his family actually ended up trying to push things for him too much. The doctors said that they could send him to another country to receive a different treatment, and right away his parents thought that would be a great idea. Travis started getting sicker and losing hope and he really just wanted to die. Then time went on, he never went to the other country. Sadly one day he ended up dying, probably what he wanted, but imagine how the family felt. For that family it ended really sad.

Family is something that means so much to people. When everything goes wrong, you know you can always turn to your family and they will have your back. No matter how close or how far, they are always there for you.