Pep Talk- Forged by Fire

I think that Sharon M. Draper wrote the book, Forged by Fire, because she wanted to have the readers understand more about child abuse and neglect. In the beginning of Forged by Fire, Gerald was neglected by Monique when he was younger, left alone a lot, not changed (diapers), and not being watched enough. Gerald was also abused by Monique as well as neglected, when he did or tried to do something wrong, she would right from the start “teach him a lesson” by hurting him in some way so he wouldn’t do it again, or he’d get hurt again. Later in the story, Gerald meets his younger sister Angel, and evil step dad Jordan. Jordan would always abuse Angel in some way or another after he would come home drunk, from the bar. Jordan would leave Monique alone if she didn’t interfere with him or Angel when he was “occupied”. We could learn from this and be aware of this happening all around. When Gerald would come to live with them, Jordan would come home from work (sometimes drunk sometimes not) and hit Gerald if he felt like it, Gerald was never a match for Jordan. However, he always tried to stick up for Angel. Both Jordan and Monique would neglect Gerald and Angel, they would have to feed themselves, take care of each other, and watch out for one another. Mr. Washington was always there for Gerald, he had helped Gerald through all the hard, hard parts of his life. I think the message of this story was to have everyone’s back, and help people who need to be helped.