David Pelzer's 'A Child Called' It

719 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Research study on domestic violence

Child abuse is a broad topic as it includes an action that brings about harm to a child - this can be through physical, sexual or emotional methods but, according to the NSPCC, it can be brought about through 'a lack of love, care and attention'. It is a highly concentrated on topic in the UK because of the sheer number of children (over 580,000 in 2016 by figures from NSPCC) who suffer in the hands of their close family and others.

Awareness needs to be brought to as the devastating effect that they have on a child's life can be everlasting; there are some people who have no relief for their whole lives, even with psychological help. In one of my literary texts, "A Child Called 'It'", David receives psychological help to attempt to overcome …show more content…

Humiliation was a way in which David's mother Catherine Roerva Christen Pelzer, whose name is hidden throughout the book, kept control of her son. The autobiography not only presents physical abuse but emotional also. One constant theme of the autobiography is the fact that David attempts to escape the situation that he is placed into, often relying on his father to show his mother's weakness. David Pelzer, the author, has spoken out about his abuse and for this has won numerous awards for the gravity of awareness he brings within his story. He uses his autobiography (of which there are three parts) to show the internal strength that he gained from the trauma that he faced. This is a vital piece of text to those who are suffering abuse at the hands of their parents because it gives a large amount of detail about the trauma that a survivor went through.

Hellyeah's "Hush" is a non-literary text I the form of lyrics. The song is a presentation of a family who faces abuse at the hands of their father, unlike "A Child Called 'It'". The lyrics, although do not specify that abuse is occurring, do try to convey the misery of the people involved in the situation as well as give some information on the violence that is happening. The music video connected to the song is far more telling of the kind of danger that both the child and mother are in; it contributes a large amount of fear from the characters and a visual representation of the abuse that the child

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    “A Child Called it” is a phenomenal book. After reading Dave Pelzer’s story about the horrors he experienced as a child, I’m glad he had the courage to share his story. As a child, Dave’s alcoholic mother physically, emotionally, and mentally abused him. The author portrays to the reader just how bad his childhood really was by writing about the time his mother stabbed him, the times she would make it sit in a cold bath, the times she would put him in a “gas chamber”, and even about the time she purposefully burned him using the stove. Even though Dave experienced all this traumatic events early in life and had many risk factors that put him at risk for failure, his resiliency and his will to live is what saved him in the end.

    Read More

  • Summary of A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

    372 Words  | 1 Pages

    David was a young boy who got beaten everyday. He was very skinny, bony, and was beaten everyday. David wore threadbare clothing, he looked as if he hadn't changed or washed his clothes in months. This was the truth, his mother starved him and abused him. She never washed his clothes to embarrass him. This worked at first when people started making fun of him, but David got used to it. Bullies started beating the scrawny boy up everyday, it became a routine, but he was so frail and weak from being starved he couldn?t fight back. David looked muddled, he had a very terrible physical journey that made him mentally stronger.

    Read More

  • report on letters from a father

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    As mentioned, the parents’ pains, negative emotions and hatred are presented in the first part. Even from the first few lines from the poem: “Ulcerated tooth keeps me...

    Read More

  • Bruce Dawe - Americanized

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stanza three again shows doubtfulness about the mother’s love. We see how the mother locks her child in because she fears the modern world. She sees the world as dangers and especially fears men. Her fear of men is emphasized by the italics used. In the final line of the stanza, the mother puts her son on a plastic pot. This is somewhat symbolic of the consumeristic society i.e. manufactured and cheap.

    Read More

  • A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author is attempting to teach the readers that no one should treat people this badly. David is an innocent child and does not deserve his bad childhood. David does not even do anything wrong, and his mother continued to treat him like an object. Pelzer succeeded in telling how cruel the mother is. He also teaches that people can be cruel to each other, and that it is important to teach people that kindness can go a long way. The whole book discusses his childhood. Pelzer wrote some sequels to tell the rest of his child life for the interested readers.

    Read More

  • Child Abuse In David Pelzer's A Child Called It

    2246 Words  | 5 Pages

    A Child Called It depicts David Pelzer’s life and his incredible will of survival from an “It” to a man. David was emotionally and physically abused up until the age of 12, by his mother (Catherine) who was not only an alcoholic but a master of defamation. The cruelty David endured at the hands of his mother led him to believe he was nothing more than a worthless misfortune; he began to despise himself even more and started to believe that he was the cause of the abuse he suffered.

    Read More

  • Maltreatment In David Pelzer's A Child Called It

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    Pelzer informs the reader that his family was like that of “the ‘Brady Bunch’ of the 1960’s” and that “[their] every whim was fulfilled with love and care’ (Pelzer, 15). They would often go on vacation where his mother was known as the “mastermind” due to her excessive planning of fun activities upon their travels (Pelzer,19). As if “Everyday seemed sprinkled with magic,” things started to take a turn for the worse David himself states, “ My relationship with my mom drastically changed from discipline that developed into a kind of lifestyle that grew out of control. It became so bad at times. I had no strength to crawl away-even if it meant saving my life” (Pelzer, 19-20). David had the misfortune of having to endure emotional abuse from his mother. Emotional abuse can be defined as “rejection, terrorization, isolation, exploitation, degradation, ridicule, or failure to provide emotional support, love and affection” (Papalia & Feldman p. 161). An Example of such abuse that David had experienced, was when his mother degraded him by referring to him as an “it”. Proclaiming his own mother as, “the Bitch,” David’s experiences emotional maltreatment as his mother screams, “you’re a nobody! An It! You are non-existent! You are a bastard child! I hate you! And I wish you were dead! Dead! Did you hear me? Dead!”(Pelzer, 140). This quote is an example of emotional maltreatment

    Read More

  • Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz and Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays

    1713 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abuse is a difficult and sensitive subject that can have long lasting effects. These traumatic emotional effects are often intensified if the abuse happens at a young age because children do not understand why the abuse is happening or how to deal with it. There are many abuse programs set up to counter the severe effects which abuse can have. Even more, poets and writers all over the world contribute works that express the saddening events and force the public to realize it is much more real than the informative articles we read about. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz which looks carefully through the eyes of a young boy into the household of an abusive father. Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays is a similar poem from the perspective of a young adult reflecting back on the childhood relationship with his father and the abuse his father inflicted. These poems are important because they deal with the complex issues surrounding the subject of abuse and also show the different ways which children react to it. My Papa’s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are similar poems because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to create tension between the negative aspects of abuse and the boys own love and understanding for their father.

    Read More

  • Dave Pelzer A child called it and The lost boy

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dave Pelzer A child called it The Lost Boy. David Pelzer’s books, “The Child Called It” and “The Lost Boy” should be taught in high school English classes. I think most students in a high school English class are old enough and, mature enough to handle the contents of the books and to get an understanding of what David went through. At times the books are a little too detailed, but people have to understand it is something that happens in everyday life, and people cant be prejudiced towards the children.

    Read More

  • Child Abuse In California's Life In A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

    1769 Words  | 4 Pages

    The traumatic effect of the physical, mental, and emotional abuse marked Pelzer’s life. Through a psychological point of view, it is visible that there are many ways the abuse affected David. David was mistreated in ways that made him wonder why. I was also left feeling perplexed and sometimes feeling frustrated, I wanted to know why David 's mother singled him out for her abuse. Then, I realized that this was the same frustration David has lived with most of his

    Read More

  • Child Abuse in A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    In American society today we fail to address several issues that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, child abuse is one of the major issues that our country is plagued with, yet we neglect to bring this to the attention of the entire nation. It is often over looked because everyone has a different view of what exactly defines child abuse. The International Child Abuse Network (ICAN) uses four basis categories to docunment the child abuse cases. They are: emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. I will be describing the first three.

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In I Go Back To May 1937

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through diction, the tone of the poem is developed as one that is downtrodden and regretful, while at the same time informative for those who hear her story. Phrases such as, “you are going to do bad things to children…,” “you are going to suffer… ,” and “her pitiful beautiful untouched body…” depict the tone of the speaker as desperate for wanting to stop her parents. Olds wrote many poems that contained a speaker who is contemplating the past of both her life and her parent’s life. In the poem “The Victims,” the speaker is again trying to find acceptance in the divorce and avoidance of her father, “When Mother divorced you, we were glad/ … She kicked you out, suddenly, and her/ kids loved it… ” (Olds 990). Through the remorseful and gloomy tone, we see that the speaker in both poems struggles with a relationship between her parents, and is also struggling to understand the pain of her

    Read More

  • Horrific Experience in A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ngs. He bruised his son and created many scars on his body but Dave was determined to live. He says, “Mother can beat me all she wants, but I haven’t let her take away my will to somehow survive” ( 4). He was abused by his mother and treated les than human, but Dave never ceased to preserve his own life and sanity. Dave struggled to stay alive in a house he was unwanted and mistreated. He was treated like an animal, but Dave still struggled to stay alive and overcome all the abuses from his mother.

    Read More

  • Child Abuse Therapy

    2360 Words  | 5 Pages

    When the topic of abuse comes up, many different forms of abuse pop into individuals heads. Whether its Physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or even drug abuse, the list just keeps going. Now take all those different forms abuse and imagine them happening in a family. A father physically abusing his children, a mother verbally berating her daughter about her body image, a child growing up in fear. According to the research by David Wolfe in the Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, that the number of children that have suffered a physical injury due to physical abuse is between 1.4 and 1.9 million annually. With such a high number of physical abuse happening to children, one can imagine how high the number of all the

    Read More

  • Child Abuse Essay

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.

    Read More

More about David Pelzer's 'A Child Called' It

Open Document