Inheritance of tools

In each family, there is something that has been passed down from generation to generation. A man named Scott Russell Sanders wrote an essay titled, “The Inheritance of Tools”. In this essay, he tells about a finishing hammer that has been passed down to him from his grandfather, to his father, and that will be passed down to his children. He reflects on the experiences he had because of this hammer and his father. He goes above and beyond describing why this hammer is so important in his family and what it actually means.
The hammer plays an important role in his essay; it ties together the generations in his family. He starts out by explaining the meaning of this hammer. He says, “The grain in hickory is crossed and knotty, and therefore tough, hard to split, like the grain in the two men who owned this hammer before me” (p. 185.) This quote symbolizes the way the story works. The hammer is connected to these generations and explains how the relationship between him, hi...