There are certain things you don't want people to know, for example that you don't pay taxes or that you don't shower every day, or even that you're the biggest drug lord in the Southwest. In the TV series Breaking Bad, Walter White begins the show by discovering that he has terminal lung cancer. Since he is only a high school chemistry teacher, Walter decides to earn extra money for his family after his death by cooking meth with one of his former students. This is something he has to hide from his family and the entire world, and it begins to take over his life. Because of this secret he ruins his family's life and even slanders their reputation. This whole mess Walter created started out as nothing more than a man trying to support his family for when he's no longer around, but it spiraled out of control into a lifestyle that couldn't be shared with the outside world . Walter not only gave his family a means of survival, but also a lasting legacy that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. However, this legacy should not be cherished; in fact, it makes his family feel great shame that Walter will never have to feel after his death in the last episode. What Walter created for his family should have remained a family secret, because if that had been the case, the White family could still have been a normal suburban family living their lives normally in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Just like the White family, the Kingston family also had a family secret. They had a family member who had a child out of wedlock, which is very dishonorable in Chinese culture. After giving birth, she killed herself and her baby, and from that moment her name was never mentioned again. The Kingston family attempted ... middle of paper ... old-world knowledge without shame. All families have secrets, whether it's our former presidents, celebrities, or our neighborhood families. We all have something to hide, but what are we really hiding from? Our society is based on a set of norms and if someone breaks these norms they are seen as an outsider or immoral and may even be considered a criminal. But humans aren't perfect, so every now and then someone dives into the deep end and does something a little crazy, like build a meth empire. To avoid being ridiculed, the action is covered up and never spoken of again, so that their family does not become the next big gossip. It is not the action itself that constitutes a family secret; it is the fear of not being accepted that makes the family a secret. It wasn't the fact that Walter was cooking meth; it was his reputation that his family wanted to escape from.