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Part III: Personal Relationships: Parents and Children |
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We experience many relationships over the course of our lives. However, the relationship we have with our parents is especially crucial and can influence all future relationships—including those with our own children. This section will challenge you to explore the variety of parent/child relationships as seen through the eyes of a number of writers and as expressed in a number of genres.
As you read the selections in this section of The Conscious Reader, you will likely recall your own experiences as a child (and in some cases as a parent). It is these recollections that can spur you to write. You may be inspired to write, as were Barbara Kingsolver and Elizabeth Spencer, to address cultural problems with the way we raise children. You might write as a way to reflect upon problems in your relationship with your parents or children, as did Diane DiPrima, Sylvia Plath, and Theodore Roethke. You might write about the disturbing things we sometimes learn about our parents’ after we have become adults, as did Aryeh Stollman. Or you might write a tribute or remembrance, as did Thomas Lynch and e.e. cummings. In any case, the urge to write about such crucial relationships can be very strong.
For you, this urge to write might take many forms. You might write in response to the other authors you read. You might be moved to write your own narratives, essays, or poems using these pieces as models for analyzing your own relationships. Or you might find ways to bring together the ideas of various authors in this chapter, looking for points of contact among them. In any case, you will surely have something to add to the dialogue on this topic.
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