Wendell Berry's Essay: Family Work

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Wendell Berry’s essay, “Family Work”, is about the influence of technology and the need to return to traditional values. Berry argues for the reduction of technology by reinstating the traditional family values and learning to be a better parent. I agree with Wendell Berry. When I was a small child, my family always went over to my grandmother’s house for Easter. My older cousins would hide the Easter Eggs and leave the hunting to the smaller kids. There were always two special crystal eggs. (The eggs weren’t really made of crystal. They were just shinny plastic eggs.) If you found one of the two crystal eggs, you’d get a special prize. Sometimes the prize would be a stuffed animal or a dozen of our grandma’s special brownies. I loved going there for Easter. Our visits stopped after my brother was born. After my brother’s birth, we ended up staying home and watching Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail by Rankin and Bass. When I think back on my life, I wish we could …show more content…

He told me that bringing a baby everywhere was hard work. At the time, it made sense to stay home to take care of the baby. My mom would put in the Peter Cotton Tail VHS just because it was an Easter movie. After a while, my parents decided that watching a movie was easier than traveling for Easter. The ‘convenient’ TV replaced our Easter tradition. As an adolescent, a child’s first role model is their parents. Most children watch their parents do something and then try to replicate it. Imitating is one of the first instinctual actions for most humans. An example of this can be seen in my life. I remember watching my dad separating his food into different corners of his plate. When I asked what he was doing, he told me that he didn’t like his food to touch. This simple action of him not wanting his food to touch each other has made me feel the same about the food on my plate. Even now, I don’t like it when my peas touch my mashed

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