Everyone has hard times to overcome, and Doug has gone through many. In the story “Okay for Now.” by Gary D. Schmidt, Doug went through abuse, neglect, and a lot of change. Doug’s father abuses him and hits him, everyone in Doug’s family neglects him, and he has to move constantly. Dougs whole family is falling apart and Doug’s in the middle of it all. Doug’s life gets tough and when Doug moves to Marysville, NY everything and everyone changes. These challenges in Doug’s life have helped him overcome hard times.
Doug’s father is a father of 3 boys, all of which, he abuses. He’s a drunk and he takes out his anger by violence, which has affected Doug greatly. “My father’s hands are quick, that’s the kind of guy he is” (Pg: 4). That was a quote from the book “Okay for Now” which explains Doug’s father perfectly. Doug takes all his dad’s bad influence and turns it into something good. Doug doesn’t want to become his father, so he tries his best to not take his anger out on other people. Doug takes his father’s abuse and changes it into a lesson so he can overcome other challenges in his life.
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Doug goes through this everyday and although his family loves him, they aren’t very reassuring. His family neglects him. On top of Doug’s father abusing him, so does his brother, Chris. Chris abuses Doug for different reasons, most of the time it’s because he wants something Doug has. “I couldn’t even scream it hurt so bad. And he told me to decide if I wanted a broken arm or to give him Joe Pepitone’s baseball cap...I choose the broken arm” (Pg: 2). That was one example of when Chris beat up Doug just for something that Doug had when he didn’t. Doug has never really had a great family life, and he takes that and makes it into a challenge for him to get through and turns it into a lesson for when he has a