An individual’s values are shaped by the people around them and help influence their decisions.

Family is something in life that you can never avoid. Ever since you were born, your parents and siblings have been helping you learn lessons on life and how to grow up. Most of the time, the things that your family has taught you will stay with you and become your core values and beliefs in life. Even when you are grown, you are subconsciously following the values that you had been influenced by since you were young. This is because an individual’s values are shaped by the people around them, and help influence their actions and decisions.  

In A River Runs Through It, it can be seen from the very start of the film that Reverend Maclean plays a huge part in his children’s lives – mainly Norman’s, whose own values and life decisions are influenced by his father’s expectations and values. He had learned a lot from his father in his childhood that can be seen throughout the rest of the film. Some of his main character traits are parallel to the foundations of fly-fishing, a lesson taught by his father: fly-fishing was an art that required structure, discipline, and grace to be done properly, and it is reflected in the way that Norman is as a person. By the father teaching his sons how to fish, he helped to foster their core values not only when they were fishing, but also in their life. The activities, where we connect most with our parents, can impact our own interests and values acquired through sharing and learning from these activities.  Norman’s father also homeschooled Norman from a young age, making sure that all of his work was perfect and there were no errors in it – holding him to a high standard. Reverend Maclean would correct Norman’s writing with a red pen that would later be used to symbolize how the father was still correcting Norman in his adult life. This was shown in a later scene between adult Norman and the father are in the father’s study where he used to be homeschooled. Norman is explaining to his father he wants to work in forestry and the father – with the red pen in hand – is instantly correcting him, telling Norman that it is not a good idea. The father picking up the red pen at this time parallels from when Norman was just a boy. The father only puts down the pen when Norman says that he wants to become a professor, pleasing the father enough. Norman’s profession has always been influenced by the father. Even when he was a child, he said that he wanted to be a minister because he assumed that was expected of him. He was thinking realistically until he was asked if he could be anything, what would he choose to be? He quickly changed his answer to a boxer. He chose to say minister first because he thought that it was just what was expected of him to do and that he had to do it, but deep down, he wanted to follow his dreams and become a boxer. When Norman gets a job offered a job from the University of Chicago as a and English professor, pleasing the father, Norman is still happy because it is something that he wants to do as literature and writing are another value and interest in his life. He had become his father in a way, teaching people and correcting them when they made a mistake, the same way the father did to Norman when he was being homeschooled.  For many people, like Norman, they follow in either the footsteps of their parents, or work towards a future that is expected of them by their family because it brings a sense of achievement and pride in their life – finding success for them and honour for their family.  Norman accepted the interests and beliefs of his father, allowing them to influence his professional career, his own family’s values, and his hobby for fly-fishing.  The Reverend Maclean’s influence over Norman led to both his success and happiness.

Although Paul was younger than Norman, he still had a lot of influence in his brother’s life. He played the role of Norman’s brother’s keeper and influenced some of his actions greatly when they were children. Paul was the idealistic one out of the two of them; when thinking about what he wanted to do when he grew up, he decided he wanted to be a fly fisherman. When told that it wasn’t a real job, he changed his answer to a boxer as a more ‘realistic’ answer but it was still idealistic. By changing his answer, Norman is prompted to do the same, changing his answer to the boxer as well, thinking more idealistically. This scene was shown to see the differing beliefs that the boys had- Paul always thinking more ideally while Norman thought realistically. Although they thought very differently, Paul was usually able to influence Norman to think more like him. An example of this is in the scene where Norman, Paul, and their friends all steal a boat to go down a waterfall. Their friends back out, thinking realistically of the consequences. Paul, on the other hand, wants to do it and persuaded Norman to join him. Paul was in the front of the boat, leading, while Norman was in the back. This shows how Paul is guiding Norman’s ideas and influencing him to be more like Paul, thinking more idealistically. It can also show how Paul is more reckless, irresponsible, and passionate while normal is thoughtful, cautious and responsible, but can still be persuaded to be reckless like Paul. Once their boat crashes, Norman is seen isolated from the rest of his friends and shifted in personality. He is more solemn and quiet because he realizes the consequences of his actions and how it could have gone badly, unlike Paul who is just focussing on how much fun the experience was. Norman is later seen making a sandwich, still shaken up by what happened during the boat scene. Paul comes in as his usual cheery self and begins to ‘fix’ Norman’s sandwich. The whole time, Norman is saying that he doesn’t want Paul to fix it, that it was fine how it was. This was to symbolize Norman rejecting Paul’s influence in Norman’s life. The sandwich reflected Norman’s ideologies and when Paul came to fix it, he was trying to impede his way of thinking onto Norman. But, Norman rejected this, not allowing Norman to influence his values and beliefs. This is why when they are grown up, there is such a contrast between their characters. Norman is more affected by his father’s influence while Paul is living life his own way. It could be examined that by Paul not being influenced by his father’s beliefs, his actions that he decided to do throughout his adult life could have caused his death. He was violent and hot-headed, unlike Norman, and eventually died from his actions.

I have also been heavily influenced by my family. All throughout my childhood, I was told that I wanted to be a vet. My parents would constantly tell me that being a vet would be the best course of actions for me when I was an adult because it paid well and I got to help animals. I believed them and throughout my whole childhood, my actions were influenced by the idea of me becoming a vet. I would read only animal and vet books and pretend to be doing surgery on my stuffed animals all so that I could make my parents proud of me. Helping animals became one of my values growing up and it affected the way that I handled situations, like taking care of my own pets. But as I began to get older and the animals that I had had since birth began dying, I started to realize that I wouldn’t be able to handle the idea of some of my animal patients dying. I loved animals too much to watch them in pain, and I realized that I didn’t want to be the reason that an animal was in pain as I was trying to help them, so I needed to find another profession. I started noticing that I liked to make people feel good- I liked making them happy and being the reason that they smiled. My friends would come to me with problems that they had and I was excited to help them work through it. I had found a new purpose in life, to help people instead of animals. I would still hold my core value of helping something, but I could direct it to people instead and not have to worry about hurting them physically. By my parents influencing me at such a young age to help something in need, I was able to find something that I really want to do while still following their wishes. Helping is one of my core values in life and I try to help at least one person a day because that’s what my parents have taught me to do.

Family is one of the biggest factors in shaping an individual’s values and beliefs that will influence their actions and choices in life. Even if you do not have the strongest relationships with your family, what they had taught you in your childhood remains with you as you grow old. The memories that you share with them, the experiences that are taught will guide you through life, for better or for worse. But, you are still able to become your own person, you can learn from your family’s mistakes and become someone completely different than them, later teaching your own children your personal values and beliefs.