Growing Up in my Family - Essay Example

Growing Up in my Family Growing Up in my Family is an essay written by Emily Adler. This paper summarized her family experience starting from the time her parents separated to the period of her reconciliation with her father. Most of this essay or at least the most interesting part happened in between of these periods and is dedicated on the alienation of the author towards her father. All in all, the essay is a story of the relationship of a daughter towards each of the parents and did not dwell much on the relationship of her parents to each other or the three of them as a family.

The author is vivid enough on being raised by her mother, her anger towards her father and the period when she has to cope with having no father-figure in the family. The essays introduction clearly stated what the paper was all about, which is her experience being raised by a single mother. Unfortunately, the preceding paragraphs would have problems regarding structure. For instance, after briefly and rightly summarizing the background of her family, she immediately skipped to the time when she entered college and illustrated the changes in her father.

This could have been an effective springboard to a forceful denouement in her piece but we find this account before she recounted her childhood. In my view, the essay could have been more effective if she followed the chronological order of her experiences. The stage of her childhood and her experiences in coping with having a broken family and living with a single parent should come first in the order of treatment so as to cultivate in the reader a sense of coherence and the build-up necessary to sustain interest.

The good thing about this essay is that it reflected the authors attitude which is not overly judgmental or moralistic. While there are accounts of faults on the part of the father, there was never any attempt to rationalize or interpret motives and behaviors. Growing up in my Family is an honest and down to earth account of an experience the author feels very strong with. She clearly knows what she is writing about and makes no attempts at melodramatic or self-pity one would normally expect from a girl her situation.

A Daughters Fear Rachel Zurek introduced her essay in a way a good writer would catch his readers attention. It was elaborately done as with the other descriptions to be found in the rest of the essay. Her thesis for example, which was her fear of ending up like her mother, was stated after one is treated into a vivid illustration of her mother. However, there seems to be a problem with her title. A Daughters Fear is too strong to represent a daughters anxiety over a particular aspect of her mothers life.

For example, her description of her mother is far from being wicked or undesirable. According to Zurek, she is beautiful with a radiance that had been there since her teenage years. She went on telling her readers that her mother is like superwoman grilling the best cheese and making soaps that would put Dial out of business. This piece sounds like an ode to a doting mother presenting her good sides as well as her frailties – a very human story. In fact, the strongest force that could have supported her opinion that she does not want to be her mother could have come from her mothers secret – that of being married once.

Unfortunately, this was used as a springboard to a turnaround. It paved the way for the author to see her mother in a different light and even see traces and hints of sameness between the two of them – the character of a strong and spirited woman. Had the title been more appropriate the reader could not have been left disappointed after reading the essay. Instead of presenting an argument that could have validated her fear of turning exactly like her mother, we find statements supporting an understanding towards a person Zurek clearly has high regard with.

There are other instances where contradictions are clear. One one part, for example, the author stated that one of her biggest fears was to feel the regret her mother must have felt from the speed of transition her mother experienced in marrying young and in an early divorce. But Zurek failed here when she pondered that the divorce might have changed her mother into a remarkable woman choosing to respect herself and forcing others to respect her. Rachel Zurek can effortlessly write a piece such as this, but she has to work either on choosing the correct thesis or stating the appropriate supporting statements.