Family Traditions

The traditions of a family serve to help create the collective identity of that family. For some people, this is a benefit because it helps them find their own sense of morals and ethics and allows them to enter the larger world with some of the basic questions of life already answered. To some people however, the pressures of the familial culture can be an inhibitor of their individuality as their own inner sense of what is appropriate is counter to the rules put to them by their family's traditions. The influence that the family has on the individual seems to be up to the individual; they have the option of living up to the customs and traditions of their family or in rejecting those customs and accepting an identity altogether different. The two types of traditional influence can be seen in various short stories from American literature...
[ View Full Essay]