Dave Pelzer's Childhood

In his essay “The Battle for My Body” Richard Rhodes relives the two of the most difficult years of his childhood, the period during which he lived with his father and his stepmother, Anne. She was a selfish and sadistic woman and as Rhodes says, “we never did call her Mother…” (45). Anne made it her mission to abuse Rhodes and his brother and she employed a variety of methods to do so: she beat them, she fed them spoiled foods, and she refused to let them used the bathroom at night. The boys, too young fight back, had no choice but to suffer. The first method Anne used to abuse the boys was to beat them viciously if they broke a house rule.

Everyone faces problems everyday. It is part of life. As well as trying to figure out who you are. The challenges you face help shape who you are. As for Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, she decided to share her story.

If you wanted to change your situation in life, all you had to do was work hard in your endeavors and you could have a better life. This was what all of his books were about that he wrote. He became a very established author and wrote over 100 books, stories, and songs mainly about the “rags to riches” ordeal. There were at least 200 million copies of his books sold, which put him in the category with Stephen King. But, when he was younger, this was not the case.

He was separated from his mother at an early age. As an adult, he conjectured that this separation was “to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 24). Once separated, Douglass saw his mother only four or five times in his life and could not “recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day” (Douglass 25). Douglass (28-30) remembered as a young boy hearing the piercing screams of his aunt as she was stripped, tied and then whipped into unconsciousness. The incident struck him “with awful force.

He did not have a rough childhood, moneywise because his father was a successful person in his profession. Most thirteen year olds are into sports, and some people could not even imagine doing it later in their life. He has been an overachiever since he was that young, and his adult life was nothing shy of success and perfection. In his life, many historic things happened, but as already stated, they did not have a high impact on his life. While George was at West Point, he was awarded brevet second lieutenant in the United States Corps of Engineers.

I believe that an obstacle or disadvantage can be turned into something good. Lance Armstrong, the most successful cyclist of all time, had to overcome cancer before achieving such greatness. Another possible example is Louis Armstrong. Louis was born to a single mother and lived a rough life. He was convicted of a crime and was sent to prison which is where he learned how to play the trumpet.

Many people face obstacles each day and hour. In these stories many people face obstacles in many different way. Many people cope with obstacles by appreciating the things they have and get. In these three stories people are coping with obstacles in In the story Against the odds there is some text evidence that supports the idea of people getting over obstacles from appreciating what they have. On page 446 it says “ Sullenberger knew that the situation was to dire for the plane to stay in the air”.

Overcoming advers requires being brave and noble. Also, being able to look on the positive side in life in tough situations. Overcoming illnesses, disabilities, or disfunctional families can be very hard to deal with. Sometimes you just need to keep going and not look back and by doing so a lot more opportunities may appear in life. Christy Brown in My Left Foot, Bethany Hamilton, and Jeanette Walls in The Glass Castle are all examples of people who had to deal with great hardships in order to push them to become the successful and mature people that they are today.

Who said that life was easy? Sometimes, -almost all times- life pushes us to the limit and presents itself with many challenges. But what do we do when we are faced with a new challenge? Some people might take challenges as if they were just burdens in life -behaving negatively about them- while others tend to consider these experiences as if they were the way of pushing themselves to the limit. They probably seek to transcend themselves and become better persons.

Adversity can take us by surprise, but everyone at some point in life experiences it. The way our personal identity can be shaped is through our phases of adversity. The experiences of dealing with difficulties can shape the way we view life and the actions that will show our persona. When we persevere adversity and obstacles it shows our reputation and our true type of identity. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare, illustrates the way Hamlet, as well as other characters, deal with adversity through the types of motives they are seeking.

Barriers throughout someone’s lifetime could shatter them, or help them to build and become a better person. Either way, it is a decision one makes on their own. Some people’s hardships are worse than others, but that does not mean it was not tough for them to handle. Conflicts could even help shape the person going through a tough time. Simone Biles was determined to become stronger from her challenges, mentally and physically.

Even though his childhood was difficult he worked hard through it which lead to a successful

Obstacles can be challenging, and difficult, but people can overcome them by never giving up, always trying their best, and surrounding themselves with families and friends. Two stories that I have read that show adversity are “A Work in Progress” by Aimee Mullins which is about a little girl losing her leg. The other story I read is “So Far From the Bamboo Grove” by Yoko Kawashima Watkins about a little girl that has to leave her home because of war and has very big obstacles to overcome. Aimee Mullins and the Kawashimas both face obstacles that include losing family members, walking very far in intense weather, and people doubting you and trying to stop you. In the end they all make it through the the challenges mentally and physically.

When difficulty occurs, I am more likely to form the judgment on myself. Always ask me a host of questions of “why”. The latest example of my life challenge is when my father last entered the hospital, he suffered a lot of the unbearable pain and I could not do anything for him. I could only stay with him near the bedside. Every night, I could barely sleep.

In our life, there are periods of challenges that we must face, but the real challenge is how we grow and learn from overcoming them. Being naive children, we believed that life was simplistic and effortless. Well, we were wrong, we can only yearn for life to be easy. Growing up, we continue to face countless hurdles that only get bigger and bigger. My life, in particular, has been filled with numerous up and downs.