Independent Book response

Charlie Postman 802

ELA

Stitches Response

The memoir-graphic novel Stitches, by David Small, mainly centers around David Small’s childhood and teen years in the 1960’s and 70’s and shows the many challenges he was forced to face and overcome. One of the largest challenges he had to overcome as a child was cancer. He also had to face problems such as his parents and that they don’t really care about him and treat him with utter disrespect. Throughout the book, the author promotes and expands on the idea of independence because, as a kid, he didn’t have many friends and didn’t socialize, but made many independent, mature decisions for himself that occasionally benefited him and occasionally did not. I think what the author is trying to claim in this graphic novel is that, even if there are harsh conditions or circumstances, if you try hard, you can prevail. I believe that in David’s case, it was more exceptional because he prevailed through his independence.

David’s medical conditions strongly affect his independence. The first detail to show this is, “In those days we gave any kid born with breathing difficulty X-rays, two to four hundred rads… I gave you cancer.” This is especially powerful because David’s dad says this to him and David and his dad don’t have the most stable relationship. David’s independence is strongly influenced by the fact that he has medical conditions and isolates himself from everyone, his family included. In the end, though, by separating himself, he strengthened his virtues that enabled him to live on his own and survive for himself, allowing him to take his sketchy and sad past and use it to forge happinesses through experience in the future.

My second detail is when David is in the hospital and his mother decides to do something for him because she believes he is going to die. It states, “Well then, there is something you can get. I forgot to bring along the book I was reading. But oh, wait. I forgot. You stole that from my room and burned it up.” This signifies that he has become more independent because he is finally standing up for himself after having to follow all the nonsensical tasks she has given him during his childhood. He is beginning to realize that his mother really doesn’t care and once he realizes she was only going to get something for him because she thought he was going to die, that is the breaking point in David and his mother’s relationship.

Another example of David being independent is at the end of the book. David has a dream. In the dream, his mother is sweeping the path to what he realizes is his crazy Grandma’s insane asylum. His mom sweeping the path is symbolic because she is giving him the option of following in his grandma’s footsteps but he doesn’t want to. It states, “Suddenly, I realized the building was the one where grandma had been locked away. The old central state asylum. The figure was my mother, sweeping the way, clearing the path for me to follow. I didn’t.” This is David being independent and following his own path. I think David deciding not to follow that path shows who he is, and how he separated himself from his family as a person throughout the book. I think his independence matured him, which allows him to make better decisions, just like this one.

Overall, the claim in the book Stitches by David Small that occurs throughout the story is that just because you may have a difficult life situation, even if you have nobody to rely or lean on, does not mean you can not prevail through the hardships.