A family is a group of people who love, respect and help each other, regardless of circumstances. Family members are not limited to people you are related to or have married; may include friends, acquaintances, etc. In this second paragraph on page 283, Howard states: “If our relatives are not, do not wish to be, or for any reason cannot be our friends, then by some complex alchemy we must try to transform our friends into our relatives.” This shows that blood relatives should take precedence in a matter or family, but there are circumstances where this is not true. For example, there are several family members with whom my immediate family, consisting of my mother, father, and I, no longer associate, nor do we intend to. My aunt (my mother's sister) recently started drinking alcohol heavily again. This causes her to become unstable and ferocious, and as a result she lashes out at anyone who tries to help her. He started yelling at my mother for no reason and called her a myriad of rude names accompanied by several swear words. I discovered this fury myself and wanted to make her understand that what she was doing was wrong, so I told her that she had no right to call my mother any of these names. We argued a bit and she took it out on my mother once again. My uncle heard this news and took my aunt's side, fully understanding the whole story. It goes without saying that we refrain from talking to them for fear that they will cause further drama. As Howard suggested, we befriended our neighbors and groomed them to fit our definition of family. We love them, respect them and help them every day. Key question: What effect is Howard trying to achieve with a metaphor with... middle of paper... a counting on and vice versa. In the first paragraph of the essay, Howard states: “Even if you live alone, even if your solitude is elective and exuberant, you still cannot do without a clan or a tribe.” In this line, Howard states that no one can live without family. Of course, this is not literally true. Its core audience may have been doing this for a long period of time. The author really means to say that it will not be possible to become a useful and healthy member of society until you have a family. This is true because families often teach you the difference between right and wrong and how to treat others. Without these teachings, we would become ignorant and likely fail to treat others positively. While you don't need a large family group, you need to have at least one person you can count on to grow as a successful human being.