The family nurtures our earliest perceptions of the surrounding world. The family is what remembers us and continues our legacy when we pass away. Alex Haley once said, "In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, a bridge to our future." What we know of our family heritage helps us fashion our own identity; the descendants we bring up is all that remains of us after. Without knowledge of our family, our own existence alone means comparatively nothing. .
Most of our societal rules and norms revolve around many of our basic needs. Food, shelter, and sexual drives are a few of the things most of our society revolves around. The world has become far more complex and civilized that bashing the heads of our fellow humans will not be the most appropriate method to satisfy these drives. Many Sociologists believe that our sexual drives come from an instinctive need to pass on our seed to the next generation. How we go about doing this is another issue.
Some people blaze a trail in the annals of this world before bidding farewell. They may not leave something behind physically as a son or a daughter to carry on their family name and traditions, but when they leave the world it is a changed place, and it is their legacy that continues on. We remember them for their acts of courage in the face of danger, victory when all odds are against them, and infamy enough to render the whole of history speechless. Most, however, have their children to honor their name after they depart this life. Though a little subtler than the former, it is an effective way human beings have survived, by passing down a piece of themselves to the next generation, through education, customs, food, culture, and genetics. Without family, a being would be neglecting him of something very basic in regards to survival in the grand scheme. .
Clara Holdfelder had many things that most women her age would envy: loving parents who raised her well, a job with a somewhat steady income doing something she doesn't loathe, and a prospective husband who has a solid and bright future ahead of him.