Graham's Family And My Own Family example essay topic

Katharine Graham's essay, "On Money, Religion, and Sex", the reader is informed that Graham's family rarely discusses the above named topics, which is the opposite of my own family. The difference between the way Graham's family and my own family discuss these subjects makes me aware of how different our families are. Her family is Jewish, wealthy and did not discuss topics such as sex. My family on the other hand is Catholic, middle class and with my brothers, there's always talk about sex.

Graham grew up in a different time than I did. Some things were not okay to discuss then as they are now. Graham's family rarely discussed her religion. Graham grew up barely knowing that she was half-Jewish because her family wasn't very religiously oriented. My own family, as Catholics, went to church every Sunday and my brothers and I attended catechism. Graham dealt with derogatory comments being made around her about Jewish people.

While in college, someone was asked about having another girl over the house and the reply was, "Oh, no, you can't have a Jew in your house in Chicago". (143). It always seemed natural for me to be Catholic. I was never taunted for my religion, even though I was made fun of because I did not have the money for all the stylish clothes for church. Growing up, Graham did not have lavish clothes or toys either, even though her family was wealthy. She was unaware of how prosperous her family was because her parents did not want them to feel they needed anything other than necessities.

My family was vastly different because we had financial difficulties when I was younger, but my parents tried to give us things we wanted if they could afford it. In the same way, Graham and I are similar because we both learned to never look at things we wanted as "necessary", which to me is a very healthy outlook. What I believe to be unhealthy about Graham's upbringing is the fact that she was never informed about sex as young child or adolescent. Katharine Graham was never told about how babies were made, about sex or about her body by her parents. This seems a little unhealthy to me because a female's body begins puberty at a young age and to have no one to help you understand the process must be frightening at first. Again, the differences between Graham and I shows because at a young age, my mother sat me down and asked me if I had any questions about where babies came from or my own body.

If I ever wanted to ask a question, I knew I could ask freely, and the question would be answered appropriately for someone my age. Comparing Katharine Graham's life to my own brought the difference of our family's values to light. Her family deals with personal feelings conservatively. My family is always willing to discuss subjects like money, religion and sex. As differently as Graham and I were raised, our separate values give us one thing in common. It taught us to not consider our wants as our needs.

The differences between us are so great that it is almost surprising that we have something in common. For completely different people, we do have similarities.