"The best gift that parents can give their children is instilling in them good moral values." This is what my parents often say to me. It is not the expensive toys or beautiful clothes that make the best presents, but the good moral values that parents teach their children. Unlike toys and clothes, good moral values can be used by their children when they grow up. It is an everlasting gift which their children can use to live a better life. Nothing can be better than to ensure their bright future. It is a parents' dream to give their children a brighter future and the only way they can achieve this is to instill in them good moral values.
             The poem Breaking Through by Myrna Pena-Reyes is about a daughter recalling how her father instilled in her good moral values which molded her and helped her as she went on with her life. She is thanked her father for implanting these good moral values and that she saw it as the best present her father gave to her. In addition, this poem is told on a daughter's point of view.
             The title Breaking Through tells us how we can break through life. We cannot break through the harshness of life without knowing how to deal with the realities of life. That's why our parents try to teach us all the moral values that they can teach us so that when we live our own lives we can live a better life. It is the best gift that they can give to us children.
             The sound in the poem seems to be a sound of relief. There's a heavy sound in each line because of the words such as undo, labor, tight, lengthens, thorough, slapped and etc. The words seem to emit a sound of lowness and we are cut by such sounds in order to breathe. And by this deep breathing we are relieved just like we are relieved when we know that we held up by our good morals. We are relieved to know that we can face the realities because we are tied to the ropes of good morals.
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