Many people influence us in our lifetimes, but there are no relationships more influential than the ones we share with our families. As a person matures, he or she models more those who have raised him or her. These maternal figures can serve as both positive and negative examples, and their relationships with us mold our psychological and social nature as we mature into adulthood. .
Our natures are not only influenced by our parents, but also by our distant ancestors. Besides residual physical traits received from your family's bloodline, such as a perfect skin tone or burdensomely wide hips, our ancestors indirectly affect our personalities. Etheridge Knight said in his poem "The Idea of Ancestry," "I am all of them, they are all of me- .
Considering this, the only way to preserve family heritage is to install it in a child. Without children, family heritage and history are much harder to save. Knight, not having any children, felt as if he were damned. He wrote, "I am me, they are thee, and I have no children to float in the space between." .
Sometimes what our parents give us in life is not always what we asked for. Bell hooks" autobiography, Bone Black recounts her memories of watching her mother's vibrant spirit weaken as her abusive father beat her mother. Watching something so violent takes a piece of a child's innocence away that can never be given back. The conflict between the author's mother and the father managed to give way to fighting between the author and her mother. Hooks wrote, "I am always fighting with mama. Everything has come between us In some way I understand that it has to do with marriage, that to be a wife to the husband she must be wiling to sacrifice even her daughters for his good." .
Hooks" also situation shows, however, that poor family situations can sometimes be beneficial. Because of the trails and turbulence that hooks experienced as a child, she became a stronger woman.
