Many times when people look to define who they really are they turn to their family for answers. A family not only constructs the physical characteristics of a person, but also the different components that help mold a person's true character. People are confronted daily with evidence that the quality of family life is crucial to happiness, emotional well-being, and mental health. Authors Amy Tan and Barbara Kingsolver stress the importance of the impact of family structure in their own lives. They avoid putting events in their own lives in chronological order, as some authors are accustom, so as to share their stories using different dissertations that convey the idea of family structure and identity. Tan , author of "The Cliff notes Version of my Life" struggles to find a balance between her beliefs of faith and fate instilled by both her parents, while Kingsolver expresses her ideas of family values in a letter she wrote to her thirteen year old daughter. Both authors focus on specific parts of their lives that help them understand more about who they are while trying to share certain values and beliefs that were taught to them.
             Religion gives you a different outlook on life. This could also be true in teaching because what you believe effects your ways of teaching. Religion directs your way of life as well as teaching methods in the classroom. Amy Tan was influenced by religion more than anything else in her life. It was rather hard for her to be led off track because her father was an ordained minister in the church. She was taught that faith is a complete trust, confidence and reliance in what you believe. "Faith is the confident assurance that something is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we still cannot see it ahead of us," says Tan (23).It means absolute allegiance, loyalty and faithfulness to God no matter under what circumstances.
             Ta...