When Dreams Become Reality

    People face reality in many different ways. Some face their fears with their head held high, while others face them with their emotions hidden. David Small, the main character in "Stitches: A Memoir" faces his fearful realities through his astonishing imagination, and through his vivid dreams.
    Growing up, David faces many brutal encounters with his family. Throughout his experiences, he uses his vivid imagination and creative dream sequences to escape the reality at hand. The communication between David and his family is very minimal, along with the care that is supposed to be provided withing an ideal family household. David's family is nowhere near the ideal family though.
    "During spring vacation [David's] family split down the middle" (Small 65). His mother took him to his grandmother's in the South, while his father took David's brother Ted East. No one exactly knows why his mother is not a very caring, loving individual; through the novel, David implies that maybe the reason for his mother's behavior is caused by her own mother.
    During the visit to his grandmother's we begin to see more imagination, along with dreams come out from David. His grandmother was a harsh woman, inflicting physical and emotional pain to David. To escape reality, he draws and escapes into a place like the place of "Alice in Wonderland". If only dreams could become a reality, but as always, all good things must come to an end.
    The most fascinating illusion, dream, is the man in the jar. When David discovers a growth on his neck, he imagines that inside of the growth is the little man. The little man resembles guilt. First, the guilt for disobeying his mother in the hospital (39-41), and also the guilt for the growth, as if he were trying to hurt his mother and her reputation purposely (119).
    There are multiple amounts, and various types of dreams and imaginative illustrations David has provided, but these are just a few. The way Small goes about his writing is very interesting and disturbingly funny. So I wonder: when will we finally see his dreams become reality?