Author’s Note: This
piece was written to explain my knowledge of Conflict/ Resolution.
There is not a single way you can explain the conflicts in
the book A Child Called It. Many
disturbing things happen, but they all center around one issue, the mother
abuses the son. David takes on loads of abuse from his mother. Fighting against
his mother, we see a great example of person vs. person conflict, but we also
see a struggle with person vs. self, too.
It’s easy to see how this is an example of person vs.
person. The mom is literally fighting the son, by hitting him, kicking him,
making him eat poisons substances, and ruining his life, but in this book he is
also fighting himself. When somebody is constantly telling you that you are not
good enough, you start to believe it. When literally living in Hell, David had
to fight against himself to make sure he didn’t let the things his mom was
telling him, get to his head.
Getting out of hard situations can be the most difficult
thing ever. In David’s case though, he had to sneak his way out, and take risks
while doing it. One day when he was at school, he told the teachers what
happened, and that got him out of the conflicts with his mother, but how did he
resolve the ones with himself? He told himself that even though his mother was
telling David those things, they weren’t true. She was lying to make herself
feel better. Even though it was a long road, David eventually gained back his
confidence.
These two types of conflicts may be hard to find in other
novels, yet I found extreme similarities to these problems in the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. In that
book, Melinda was fighting against other people because of popularity issues,
her social issues, and her past issues with a boy; much like David was fighting
his mom. Also, she was fighting herself because she was sexually assaulted and
felt like she was worth nothing. That, once again, sounds like David.
Throughout fighting with other people, and yourself, you
gain a lot…but also lose a lot. These conflicts were things that nobody should
have to deal with, yet we now know that they can be resolved.
I really liked your comparisons between the two books because, although they were fighting person v. person about different things, they still encountered the same type of alone feeling. I think if you were to revise it, you could go into more detail about the conflicts and how David's life was effected by them. Good job!
ReplyDeleteWow. Mrs. Reagles was right when she suggested we read this piece on your blog. I have really been struggling this year with reading responses, finding no good way to do them, but you've given me a great example. I think the only thing that I could find was a few sentences that didn't sound as well put together as the rest, but nothing that could take away from the thought. This was a very advanced piece, the way you smoothly transitioned from summarizing the book, to relating to real life, to comparing it to the book "Speak" was great. I really liked it.
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