Tony Frey
Claffey
English 2000
February 8, 2010
Word Count: 797
The Family’s Feud It is easy to come across stories in the news about husbands beating wives, robberies and murders in low-income areas. There is evidence that supports that the myth of the people who live in these areas and commit these crimes generally are unhappy, lack proper virtues, and have unhealthy lifestyles in this decade is true. The opposite pattern is true for those living in areas with strong family values. These neighborhoods generally have a happier, healthier, and more morally driven population. People who grow together as a married couple in the 2000’s tend to raise children that grow up to be happy and virtuous for the good of society. Roland Barthes explains: A myth, like the one mentioned above, “postulates a relation between two terms, a signifier and a signified”, families being the signifiers and their values being the signified (Barthes 112). The trends are that happy families tend to lead more productive lifestyles just as dysfunctional families are more prone to immoral ways of living. This essay will explain how nuclear families benefit society by providing children a better chance to live out successful lives. Families with one father and mother are essential for the proper and ethical upbringing of children. In her book, Urban Neighborhoods, Networks, and Families, Peggy Wireman contends that because “parents are the prime influences of a child’s life children tend to mimic their behaviors” (Wireman 24). They observe and pick up the same values that their parents maintain. Those who do raise children with good standards find their offspring to be productive members of their community; the opposite pattern is true for those who grow up in single parent families.
As a result of living without a father, some children find themselves in a position that can lead to