“Stitches” by David Small is a graphic novel where he depicts his unhappy youth. Small shows how he observed the world being prevented to display his self expression. When Small was young, he underwent surgery to remove a throat cancer that his father gave him through x-ray radiation. Due to his family’s dysfunctionality, Small took it as punishment for something he had done. His parents did not take responsibility for this event. This was partially due to his family nonverbal “language”. To add to Small’s childhood trauma, he had to live with a father figure that was absent and a mother who, was lesbian, did not love him. As Small grew up, this affected his choice of friends and his need for a psychiatrist. Years later, Small became an illustrator