Their Families Back example essay topic

Life today is very different when compared to life back when my grand-father was my age. What we do (or more appropriately, the lack of what we do) in everyday life is taken for granted. Our society as a whole has become lazy when compared to back then. There were different events that completely affected and altered everyday life; such as inventions, wars, and depression. Family life is also very different today in most cases compared to the values and morals they placed on their families back then. We have many different expectations of our family than they did.

We take a lot for granted now. Things such as transportation, entertainment, even restaurants. Just two generations ago when my grand-father was a boy, they did not have all the luxuries we have today. For fun my grandpa would make his own toys from simple things. Like using a button and a piece of string, or taking the outside part of a wagon wheel and rolling it around the yard using a stick. Today kids are bought toys and they use them for a short amount of time and toss them aside, all the while asking for a new toy they saw on the television.

This is the biggest form of entertainment for children and the older generations now. Kid's can sit for hours glued to the television watching there favorite TV shows or playing there latest game on the hottest game system available on the market at the time. He didn't even own a bicycle then. He had to walk most everywhere he went, which included going to school, to the store, and to church. Now we just ask our parent's or sibling's for a ride to the local (or even not so local) mall to hang out with others. Places that took a whole day to get to before, only takes around 30 minutes to get to now.

Food was mostly all done at home to. Not just the eating, but making food to. They had to grow most anything they ate. From the wheat and corn fields, to the butter made from their cows' milk, they had to do it all. Yet, we can just pick up the phone during a commercial break and have the local pizza restaurant bring us our meal to the door. Even if he did have the luxury of the toy's and entertainment we have today, he still did not have time for any of it.

He would spend most all of his time working the field and taking care of the animals so they could eat later that. Not to mention having to go outside just to use the bathroom, which consisted of a deep hole in the ground covered by a wooden platform with a hole in it and closet sized building enclosing it. At age 12, he witnessed a tragedy so great it has been one of the most upsetting events in our history until the World Trade Center. The tragedy was the attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the growing war centered on Germany. This devastated and affected the nation as a whole very severely. Up until this point in history, most Americans felt very secure and invulnerable to outside threats.

Families were feeling threatened, including my grandfather. The war affected every part of American life. Economically, the nation was lifted out of the depression. During the war, many jobs were offered and many needed them. Women, who until then were mostly all house wives, were given jobs. Even blacks were more accepted as equals.

My grandfather watched people he knew go into the war and never come back. Recently, we have had a war but the war to us is very different than it was to him. We are so technologically advanced now that we have a big advantage over our enemies and they do not pose as big of a threat. Back then, there were good chances that if you went, you may not get to come back home. Many risked their life for their country whether they wanted to or not. During the 1950's, when he was in his 20's, there was significant social change taking place in America.

Young people were dissatisfied with certain conservative aspects of society and their conduct reflected this. They embraced the rock and roll culture, the new style of music and also the new styles of dancing and dress that were associated with it shocked the older more conservative people. While my grandfather was not as big of a part of this as some of the younger kids, I still feel it is relevant because of the big influence it had on society. Most of society was very traditional in their family values. Such as table manners, the youth of America were somewhat tame until now. It took the nation by storm as the youth rebelled.

Today, kid's still rebel in similar ways but it was not as big of a drastic change as it was back then. My grandfather was brought up as a child to be very well mannered and behaved, being very strict on rules. Fathers usually seemed somewhat emotionally distant from there kids. Now the kids started to rebel. A barrier formed between the older and younger generations due to a lack communication. This was extended by the media's inaccurate portrayal of the young people.

A lot of these same issues exist today that did not really exist before. Prior to this each generation had grown up treating their parents with the utmost respect and modeling their behavior and views on their parents. This change was made easier by the freedom brought about by access to a car, which lead to increased independence. The radical change from the way things were to way they are now in the sense of family values is mostly contributed to the rebels of the 50's. The 60's had it's own influence with the Vietnam war and the hippies, but this was not such a drastic change that the 50's had on society. Though, in many ways the typical American family has changed, it is likely that it is just a matter of opportunity that caused families to be the way they are.

Your family values will only go so far, the population around you has just as much influence. Back in the times of my grandpa, technology wasn't as developed as it is now and families were more secluded from the rest of society and could be more controlled. If they had television and the transportation we have today, they would have probably rebelled and lost a lot of their family traditions long before. Family has a big impact on who you become, as a person. However, with the media (television, radio, movies, music, etc.) that is so easily available, it is only natural for the youth to try and embrace it and become their own self. They just want to be a unique individual, so they rebel against conformity.

Ironically, they all conform against conformity. It is not really a factor of time in history, but how separated society was. The human being strives to be different so they will be remembered. The difference between my youth compared to my grandfathers is, as he was brought up by mostly just his family, most of the youth today is brought up by society as a whole. by Chris Lower.