(433 words) When people want to say that the child is similar to their parents in everything, they pronounce the phrase: "An apple does not fall far from an apple tree." It means that children repeat the fate of fathers and mothers: they are on the same social level, without leaving the group in which the family is. This is natural, because an apple cannot move far from the place where it fell, and a person often cannot change the level that dictates the origin. Therefore, I agree with this popular wisdom: only exceptions to the general rule can circumvent this pattern. I can prove my opinion using literary examples.
So, in the novel-epic of Leo Tolstoy's “War and Peace”, the Kuragin family is an indicative example of the close genetic and social relationship of fathers and children. Prince Vasily was a hypocritical and mercantile cunning, in people he saw only profit or loss. It was he who almost deprived Pierre of his legal inheritance, because the theft of a will for him was a perfectly acceptable means to achieve his goal. In the same spirit he raised children: he taught them to get their way at any cost. Helene married by calculation for Bezukhov, while she cheated on him openly, without fear of publicity. Anatole was looking for a rich bride, and in the intervals between matchmaking and going out, he lived in a big way, creating only debts and scandals. He almost dishonored Natasha Rostov by deciding to trick her into fleeing the house. Thus, the children lived on the same level as their father. Not only their worldview coincided, but also the way they positioned themselves in society: wealthy, arrogant and unscrupulous people to whom the law was not written. The apples lay near the apple tree.
But there are exceptions that only confirm the rule. You can escape from your environment thanks to a risky and cardinal breakthrough that will turn life around. For example, A. S. Pushkin in his work “Station Warden” describes the situation when a simple girl from the outback became the wife of a noble officer from the capital. Dunya lived with her father in a house where guests from time to time stayed, waiting for a change of horses. Among them was Minsky, who immediately noticed the beauty of Duni. He pretended to be sick, got to know her better, and then took him secretly from his father. Samson found the kidnapped daughter, but the captain drove him out of the apartment and deleted him from the life of a newly-made young family. The old man died of grief, because the daughter, the meaning of his being, did not want to know the poor and not-so-proud parent. Be that as it may, Duny’s cruel act is an example of a scenario in which an apple moves away from an apple tree. But her case is exceptional, usually this does not happen.
Thus, it is necessary to agree with the popular wisdom on the continuity of generations, because it denotes the pattern of development of the family: usually children continue the path of their parents, even duplicate it. They will remain hostages of the social field where their family tree sprouted.
