The Importance of Family

Have you ever thought what life would be like, without parents? Without them driving you places, shopping for you, tucking you in at night, or just giving you a plain old hug? Well, I have. And it would be horrible. I’d miss them too much, just like Ponyboy, Sodapop, Darry, and many other characters in the book The Outsiders. So many people in this book have troubles with their parents, which is never good. Everybody deserves a good relationship with their parents.


Ponyboy (the main character in the book) and his brothers Darry and Sodapop only lived with each other once their parents died in a car crash. They have only had each other to look after, and no one to keep them safe like a parent would. This family has other people to look after them, like their “gang” the greasers, but it’s not the same as a family. But they don’t take good care of themselves. They always keep their front door unlocked, which is extremely dangerous in the type of neighborhood they live in. People could just walk in there and murder them. Think of how dangerous it would be if you didn’t have a parent living with you. Think of how it would be living with only your siblings, while you live in a bad neighborhood where a lot of people get beat up. Think of how sad your life would be. Life just wouldn’t be the same, and you would suffer, thinking that you could’ve stopped that car crash when your parents died, only if you were there, maybe you would’ve been the one that died instead. Your life could completely turn around. Just like this family’s did.


Next to the three brother’s sad home life, there’s Johnny’s. His dad gets drunk all the time, and beats him up. He gets abused, and can do nothing about it. There’s no one to go to, not even his mom. His mother doesn’t care if her husband beats their son, she lets it slide by. It doesn’t cause a problem for her; it keeps him out of her hair. Since he doesn’t care for his dad, or his mother, he never wants to be home. He usually sleeps at friend’s houses or in alleys to avoid getting hurt. And even when Johnny was wanted to go to jail because he killed a guy, they didn’t care that he ran away. They probably didn’t even notice he was gone. If they did notice, they wouldn’t go after him. It’s not like they’re doing this because they love him, because that would be horrible. If you love someone it doesn’t mean you go around abusing them. Now that’s plain cruel.

Many different stories have parents that aren’t always the greatest. In The Absolute Diary of a Part Time Indian, is an example. Arnold’s parents were there for him, but they weren’t whenever he was in trouble. It makes the story more interesting when they’re not really part of the story because the main character controls the conflict, and he gets more freedom, and he controls his own life. There are many other stories that have parents gone, or not in control of the story, like the Harry Potter series, the Maximum Ride serious, and many others. If the parents were in control Ponyboy would’ve never run away, and Johnny wouldn’t have gotten killed. It makes a huge difference when a parent is dead because they take care of their kid, and if they’re dead, then they can’t do that. If in The Outsiders Ponyboy’s parents were alive, a whole bunch of things wouldn’t go wrong if something was different in this story.


That’s why family is really important to a book. Not all the time, but most of the time it gives it a twist. But in real life, everyone should be able to have a good relationship with someone in their family, even if it means being best friends with a sibling, and parent, or even your dog. It’s important that that everybody has someone to look up to.