Essay 20

Jeffrey Cho
English8-B
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Final draft for grade
Family.

There is a saying goes. "Blood is thicker than water." I have been away from the rest of my family ever since I was ten years old. Five years away from my parents and my brother might have weakened our relationship. However, instead of dimming our relationship, we developed a special kind of love between each other. In the book "Romeo and Juliet," I saw a similarity between the bond of Romeo and Juliet and the bond among our family members.

One thing that I really admire about my family is the fact that we are so united. Although this might sound ironical, my family live separately. My father and my younger brother live in Seoul because of the quality of education my brother can get in Seoul. My mom lives in my hometown, Seosan, with my grandmother because she has to take care of the restaurant. Finally, I live in the United States, as you can see. However, our family is always united over time and space. We occasionally live for weeks without calling each other or mailing each other, but we still trust one another to do what they need to do. Without trust, my mom would never have let my dad take full care of my little brother. Without trust, my dad would never have let my mom take full care of our restaurant. Our family might be away physically, but we were, and we will be together no matter where we were.

In the book, "Romeo and Juliet," the main characters show this kind of unity that I admire in my family. Romeo and Juliet are born in families that absolutely despise each other. Nevertheless, they fall in love at first sight. Due to the cold atmosphere between the two families, Romeo and Juliet had no choice but to be apart. However, as my family love and trust each other completely even if we live far away from each other, Romeo and Juliet's love is invincible. In one part of the book, there is a part where Juliet says, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." This shows Juliet's unconditional and unchangeable love toward Romeo. I believe that my family's love for each other is just as inflexible as Romeo and Juliet's love.

My family members might not spend as much time together as other families do. My family members might not have as much conversation as other families do. However, I can firmly declare that our invincible, consistant love and trust toward each other will not lose to any other families; Not even to Romeo and Juliet.




Self assessment:

1. On first draft, I confused Juliet's line with Romeo's, so I think I should research my resources more carefully next time.

2. I still have some trouble trying to use different words for the same meaning. I should use thesaurus more often.

3. I think writing intro and conclusion after the body paragraphs got a little more natural. I believe I will get better as time passes