Throughout the history of mankind, family has been an imperative aspect of the human experience. Why, though, is family still regarded as such an important part of our lives? Steven Herrick's vignette verse novel 'By the River', explores why we need these familial bonds through the viewpoint of a family in rural Australia. He invites the audience to contemplate the importance of family relationships through various hardships and challenges in the novel. Consequently, Herrick conveys how familial bonds help us overcome grief in periods of loss, how they impact our identity/sense of self, and celebrates the resilience of family relationships through adverse times, which in turn helps us understand why family is so important to society. Therefore,