Today every one believes in something in their own household. They have there own beliefs and own customs that they follow. In the 19th century people believed in religion, family, and heritage. Now days, people believe in family and religion. People don’t really believe in heritage these days because they know where they came from and things have changed a lot.  In the three stories Barn Burning, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and Everyday Use all have the reoccurring theme of family. During that time family was very important and family would always come first and they would do everything with there family.

In Barn Burning even though the father was rude, causing trouble, and making the family move every time they settled in no one left him. They all stayed there for him because they knew he needed help and family would help him the most. He was abusive too and the boy never ran away because he knew if he did he would be leaving his sisters and his mothers to fend for themselves against the father. They had to pick up and leave as soon as they got there because the father would burn something else down, and then he would have to leave so he wouldn’t get arrested. The father only abused his son because the rest of the family is girls. The son never ran away because he didn’t want to leave his mother and sisters alone with the father to fend for themselves. He knew it wouldn’t be good for anyone in the family so he stayed around and helped get through it with his whole family.  This shows that family stays with you through anything.

In Everything That Rises Must Converge family comes in because the little boy was embarrassed by his mother for being so raciest. He would try to make her mad by having conversations with black people on the bus so that he could show her that they aren’t bad people after all. He tried to get her to stop being raciest by trying everything but nothing was working for him. On the bus one night the mother notices a little black boy get on and when they got off he wanted to give him change, she thought she was being nice. Her son told her not to because it would look bad that she was doing that. The mother of the little black boy took him and started to run away because she didn’t like what Julian’s mother was doing. Julian had yelled at her and she started to walk away but while she walked away she had a stroke and fell to the floor. Right before Julian’s mother had a stroke he said “I hope something happens to her so a Negro doctor can take care of her.” He jinxed his mother, but instead of her getting to a doctor she just laid in the street while Julian was standing over her.  Julian realized that he jinxed her by saying that and he felt very bad. He didn’t want his mother to die but he put her under a lot of stress so something bad happened to him, Julian was very upset and he realized that he caused this because he was causing her stress. Even though he always fought with his mother he still loved her deeply and was very upset that this had happened to his mother.

In Everyday Use family comes in because the mother and sister believed in the heritage and went through hard things in their life but the other sister didn’t understand and she didn’t care. Her sister had scars and she didn’t because she wasn’t with the family when the house burned down because she didn’t care about her heritage or her family. The sister went through so much with the mother so her and the mother could relate but the other sister couldn’t. She didn’t understand that the mother couldn’t relate to her because of what she went through with the other sister, the other sister had a stronger bond with the mother then she did. The mother was upset but realized that she wasn’t alone through it all and she had her other daughter. She was trying to find herself so she wouldn’t pay attention to her sister or her mother because she was “to cool” for them. She was trying to find herself so she could relate to her mother and her sister but it was hard for her. She couldn’t relate because she didn’t understand what the mother and sister went through, Eventually the sister realized that what she did was wrong, but she still couldn’t find herself or where she came from. Her mother and her other sister still have a stronger bond then she will ever have with any of them because one stuck around to help the mother, while the other one left because she though she was to cool for her family.

In all these short stories family is a big value because in the 19th century they valued family a lot. The families in all the short stories had to go through something rough in order to be where they were in the story. Each of the families had their own problems with in them but managed to get through them while helping their families out. Family is still something that we value today, just not as much as it was valued in the 19th century. All the characters in the short story realized towards the end of the book that even though they might fight with their families in the end they do love each other.