Point of View of David

Author's Note: This is a point of view essay on the book, A Child Called it by Dave Pelzer. I was trying to work on having strong body paragraphs so I only wrote 2 because I wanted to see if I could get a 10 in "body paragraphs".  

In A Child Called it, a young boy is being abused by his mother.  The father is afraid to stand up to the mother, because he does not want to get abused either.  The name of the little boy is David, but the mother refers to him as "it".  She has 2 other sons, but for some reason, she likes to pick on David.  The story is written in David's point of view.  From this perspective, a lot of events and characters are described in a way that creates the reader to feel bad for David because he is being very abused and neglected. David's father feels very bad for him, but he is too much of a coward to say or do anything.  When young David gets thrown down the stairs, the father tries to yell at the mother, but she just yells back and storms out of the room.  "Its" brothers, are also afraid to stand up to their mother because they don't want to get awful punishments along with "it".

From David's point of view, the reader feels sympathy and compassion.  When David is forced to eat his own feces, the reader feels disgusted, but at the same time they felt bad for him because he did nothing wrong and he was getting treated this way.  In the mothers perspective, David is the most annoying, brattiest, rudest, disgusting child there is out there.  She treats him poorly because she doesn't know how to take her anger out on anything else but him.  When I was reading this book, I felt as though David was getting treated this way because his mother was always drinking.  My opinion on the mothers perspective; well I could never feel that way about a little innocent boy.  She just doesn't get how to handle bad situations when they occur.  And yeah, I mean David eventually learned to stand up for himself when he got older and stronger, but if he never got the opportunity, he maybe wouldn't be alive today.

 On the contrary, the reader would feel a lot differently about David if they were put in the perspective of his mother.  If you were her, you would be fed up with his stealing and lying too.  Well, maybe if you were drunk all the time like she was.  The reader might feel anger, zero patience, and the lack of love for this child.  I personally, would always love and care for my child no matter the circumstance.  If the novel was written in the dad's point of view,  you would feel shy and empty inside because you have no guts to fill it.  If If the reader was in the dad's point f view, they would be saying, "Oh, I can't stand up to her, she'll kick me out of the house".  I think that the dad needs to put his big boy pants on and stand up for what's right.  He needs to tell off his wife and lay down the lay in the house and tell everyone who's boss. 

  As you can see, the point of view of a story makes the reader only see one side of the story.  Which in this case, the reader can only see David's point of view.  In A Child Called It, the narrator's perspective makes the reader feel sorrow.  I think that in this story the author was trying to send a message across. What message I got from David's perspective is, "Be strong, stay strong, and MOVE OUT and go live with your dad".  I can't have a message from the mom's perspective because it was only written in David's point of view, and I would never be able to think/act like her.  Just remember, don't take things for granted because there will always be someone who has lesser than you!

Comparing a Book to a Movie

Authors Note: This is a compare and contrast essay.  I am comparing and contrasting a book to a movie that we watched in social studies.

The Revolutionary War was a very sad time for many families, towns, and villages.  The movie, The Patriot by Roland Emmerich, was about  a father and his 2 sons that fought with him during the war.  Both of his sons end up dying during war, but the father stayed alive.  The book I read which was, Cast Two Shadows, by Ann Rinaldi, is about a family of 3 that only can stay on one room of a house.  It’s a girl named Caroline and her sister named Georgia Ann and their mama. There are many more differences than similarities from the movie that I saw, and to the book I read.

One of the many differences from the movie to the book are the main characters.  The theme would be participation in the war.  In the movie The Patriot, Benjamin is a widowed father of 7 children. But, in the book, Cast Two Shadows, the main character is a little girl named Caroline.  As you know women were not allowed to fight in the war so that is a big difference between the two.  Benjamin has to fight at war to protect his town and his family.  Caroline has to stay in her one room to pretty much protect herself.  It is very rare when she can leave the house.  On the other hand, Benjamin is rarely AT his house.  He is always busy fighting at war and planning schemes to kill the British.

Another big theme was family problems.  Caroline got her Mama taken away from her.  Benjamin got his family taken away from him.  Caroline only was with her mom for 3 years of her life, then she got her taken away.  Benjamin is fighting in war so he obviously can’t be with his family.  So in both stories the family is being torn apart.  I would be depressed if any of my family members got taken away from me because even though we aren’t the closest family, we still love and look out for each other.

One of the other big themes I caught onto was bravery and courage.  In The Patriot, Benjamin has to show bravery and courage by fighting in the war for his family.  He has to protect them and be a smart man to not do or say anything stupid to the British.  And in Cast Two Shadows, Caroline has to show bravery for herself as well as her sister. Her sister, Georgia Ann, likes to tease her sister Caroline a lot, so if she doesn’t show bravery her sister would make fun of her for being scared.  I honestly would be so terrified of the war because I would be afraid that all of my brothers and dad would die.  Both characters show bravery and courage throughout the entire story.

In conclusion, The Patriot was a lot more gory and interesting than Cast Two Shadows.  However, they both shared some common themes, but there were definitely more differences.  I enjoyed The Patriot better, because personally I like movies better than reading.  To wrap things up, the differences were a lot more significant than the similarities. 

Bibliography

Emmerich, R. (Director). (2000). The Patriot [Motion Picture].

Rinaldi, A. (1998). Cast Two Shadows. Orlando, Florida: Hartcourt, Inc.

Bravery And Coping with Change

Authors Note: This is a theme essay about if you have bravery and you cope with change, you can fight off diseases.

In the book Between Shades of Gray, the main characters (Lina and her brother),  struggle with snow storms and very, very little food rations.  Most people are dying because of the temperature and no food.  The author teaches us that with bravery and coping with change, you can fight off diseases.

One of the major themes in this book, is bravery.  Lina is 15 and her brother is 11.  They struggle with very little food or nothing at all each day.  Lina is showing bravery by giving up herself to the NKVD or the "Soviets".  She has to do countless chores for them such as, collecting wood for them during the winter,  getting them food, and pretty much overall being their little slave.  Bravery is in Lina's character because she doesn't want to show fear because her brother might start to worry and freak out.  While bravery is in a lot of novels it is showcased a lot in The Hunger Games, and Twilight.

A great book/movie called, Twilight, also has bravery as one of its themes.  The main characters Edward, Jacob, and Bella, all have to have bravery in them because they are fighting for themselves and their daughter.  If you have read the book or have seen the movie, you know that Bella and Edward have a child.  But the "rulers" of the town think the child is dangerous because it's half mortal half immortal.  Bella and Edward show bravery by protecting their daughter from the "rulers" and they have to keep her safe where no one can see her.  This book/movie connects to Between Shades Of Gray, because in both stories the main characters have to protect themselves as well as their loved ones.  In Between Shades Of Gray, Lina has to protect herself, brother and Mom. Next, in Twilight, Bella, Edward, and Jacob all protect Renesme (Bella and Edwards daughter).  Another theme is Between Shades f Gray, would be coping with change.

Lina has to deal with change because she was used to living in a nice home, getting food every day, being able to be independent, and overall living a normal life.  She now has to deal with the EXACT opposite of that.  Her brother, her mom, her and a couple of other people are all living in a jurta in the Arctic.  They had to build this little shack out of sticks and moss.  Imagine living in a little hut with very little food and no heat for the whole winter with the temperature dropping as the days go on.  Pretty vivid picture right?  Well, Lina deals with this major change by taking the little things out of this situation and making them happy.   For example, she has a rock from Andrius (boy she likes and has a thing with but he works at a different camp), and she keeps it in her pocket at all times.  When something goes terribly wrong, or someone is ill, she just reaches in her pocket an rubs the stone.  I think that this is her way of escaping her life for just a couple of seconds.

To conclude, in the book Between Shades Of Gray, Lina and her brother end up staying in the arctic and continue to work for the Soviets.  On the other hand, in Twilight, Edward and Bella get to keep their kid because one of their relatives shows the rulers what’s going to happen if they try and take Renesme.  Both books tell you that if you really put your mind t something, you can achieve anything you want in life.