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Sandy Lu
Miss Pasche
AP Language & Composition
August 4, 2013
Stories Worth Telling
A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling; it must have something more
unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and woman. This quote, by
Thomas Hardy, means that a story shouldnt be told if it isnt adventurous. A story must always
include extraordinary moments in the life of the main character that is something that would not
happen in everyday life to a typical person. The story must have meaning. It must be
unpredictable. The novels, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and A Child Called It: One Childs
Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer, supports the statement by Thomas Hardy because of the
journey that the two narrators have to go through is something that people would want to read.
Invisible Man is a story about a man who is expelled from college, travels to Harlem, and
joins a brotherhood. From that point on, his journey through the brotherhood is an adventure. In
the beginning, the narrator talks about his invisibility. He is invisible to others because he is
black. People dont know who he really is and therefore, they view him stereotypically. He once
bumped into a man at night. As a result of it being dark, the narrator was not seen because he
was black. The man begins insulting the narrator and the narrator responds by beating him up.
The narrator calls the man a Poor fool, poor blind fool, I thought with sincere compassion,
mugged by an invisible man (Ellison 5). This story shows that you should not use stereotypes to
judge a person. Towards the end of the story, the narrator falls into a manhole and it gets covered
up, leaving the narrator down there in darkness with matches and his briefcase. The narrator
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decides to live there. That is quite unusual. Most people would not want to live in a manhole, let
alone be in one. In the epilogue, the narrator decides to come up from underground. The
hibernation is over (Ellison 580). When the narrator is in the manhole, he is invisible to the
outside world. No one knows hes in there. The second he decides to come up is the moment his
invisibility vanishes, making him vulnerable to others.
After traveling to Harlem, and attempting to find a job, the narrator is sought out by a
man named Brother Jack after he witnessed the narrators speech about an elderly couple being
evicted. The narrator decides to give Brother Jack a phone call. Upon joining the Brotherhood,
the narrator is given a new name, a place to live in, and money to pay off his debts. This easy
way out of debt doesnt happen often. The journey through the Brotherhood is most certainly an
adventure. The narrator also becomes enemy with a man known as Ras the Exhorter who later
becomes Ras the Destroyer. Ras starts a riot in Harlem and calls for the narrator to be hanged.
Ras shouts, Hang him up to teach the black people a lesson, and theer be no more traitors. No
more Uncle Toms. Hang him up theer with them blahsted dummies (Ellison 557)! Eventually,
the narrator ends up throwing a spear at Ras, watching it catch him as he turned his head to
shout, ripping through both cheeks (Ellison 560). Normally, when you become enemies with
someone, that enemy would try to ruin your life, not attempt to kill you and start a riot in a big
city. The narrator calls himself invisible because he is black. When people see him, there are
stereotypes involved. For example, when the narrator joins the Brotherhood, he is asked to sing
by another brother. All colored people sing (Ellison 312). This happens throughout the entire
novel. Although being invisible may sound like a bad thing, it is not. Even though the narrator is
invisible, he believes that he has a role in society. Perhaps thats my greatest social crime, Ive
overstayed my hibernation, since theres a possibility that even an invisible man has a socially
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responsible role to play (Ellison 581). Not only does this apply in the book but it applies to our
life today. Everyone has a role in society no matter what race you are.
The novel, A Child Called It: One Childs Courage to Survive, is a story about a
person named David who was abused as a child by his mother. If you were to judge this book by
its cover, you wouldve thought it was just a sad story about child abuse. This story is
unpredictable. This isnt an ordinary story of child abuse where the child is just getting punched
and beat up by their mother or father. Not only is that happening to David, he is being tortured to
the brink of death. Mother smacked, punched and kicked me until I crumpled to the floor
(Pelzer 37). Mother then ordered me to climb up onto the stove and lie on the flames so she
could watch me burn (Pelzer 41). The punishment that David received from his mother are
brutal and something that one wouldnt expect. David had to steal food in order to prevent
himself from starving to death. Once, his mother even starved him for 10 days straight. When his
mother found out about him stealing food, she would make him vomit. Mother rammed her
finger into my mouth as if she wanted to pull my stomach up through my throat (Pelzer 64).
Davids mother had cruel ways of punishing him. She sent me to clean the bathroom with her
usual time limits. But this time, she put a bucket, filled with a mixture of ammonia and Clorox,
in the room with me and closed the door (Pelzer 107). As I breathed in the fumes, I collapsed
and began spitting up. My throat felt like it was on fire (Pelzer 108). Downstairs I coughed up
blood for over an hour (Pelzer 109). David is a smart child. He knows what can aggravate his
mother. Even when he wasnt being fed, he was able to find ways to get food into his stomach.
Even though he got caught, he managed to fight through it. Davids story is heartbreaking. This
is Davids story of survival.
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What makes Davids child abuse even worse is that his father and siblings dont do
anything about it. They just stand back and watch. The man who had helped me in the past, just
stood like a statue while his son ate something even a dog wouldnt touch (Pelzer 67). Usually
the footsteps I heard were one of my brothers going to their bedroom. Sometimes one of them
came into the bathroom to use the toilet. They just glared at me, shook their heads and turned
away (Pelzer 113). Sometimes, Davids siblings would even intimidate him. At times when I
laid in the tub, my brothers brought their friends to the bathroom to look at their naked brother
(Pelzer 114). Once, Davids mother accidentally stabbed him in the stomach. She acted like
nothing happened with no remorse in her eyes (Pelzer 88). His father just brushed him off and
tells him to finish the dishes when David informs him about being stabbed. When Davids father
was home, his mother punished him less. Davids mother really loved her husband but her
husband always spent time at work. She misses him, drowns herself in alcohol, and takes all her
emotions out on David. Davids father would constantly assure him that he would save David,
but in reality, his father is a coward. Davids parents even got a divorce, leaving David to fend
for himself. This book is truly compelling and difficult to put down. David is a fighter. His
childhood experience is one that is definitely not ordinary.
The novels, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and A Child Called It: One Childs
Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer are stories worth telling. The events that takes place in these
stories are extraordinary. A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling; it must have
something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and
woman. The narrator in Invisible Man goes on a journey after being expelled from college. He
struggles in finding a job until he joins this Brotherhood where things get a bit hectic. He faces a
near death situation when he is almost killed by Ras the Destroyer and ends up living in a
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manhole. The narrator claims to be an invisible man because he is colored. Throughout the story,
when people would treat him a certain way, he thinks they do it because hes black and they
dont know who he really is. Even though he is black, he has a purpose in society. In the novel, A
Child Called It: One Childs Courage to Survive, Davids story is painful to read and to
visualize the terrible abuse that he experienced as a child. Davids abuse is not a typical story of
child abuse. It is both physical and emotional. His mother starved him, placed him in a gas
chamber, fed him ammonia, and even accidentally stabbed him and acted like nothing happened.
He is a survivor. These two stories are stories worth telling.















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Works Cited
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, Inc., 1952. Print.
Pelzer, Dave. A Child Called It: One Childs Courage to Survive. Deerfield Beach: Health
Communications, Inc., 1995. Print.