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Autobiography Review: The Lost Boy The Lost Boy is all about how the abuse victim Dave Pelzer writes about how he searches for the love of a family through the Foster Care system in 1970 at nine years old and continues until he is 18 when he joins the U.S Air Force. This book was a New York Times best seller for over 4 years. Dave Pelzer (1960-present day) is a #1 best-selling author, inspirational speaker, and internationally recognized humanitarian. Pelzer writes in a first person point of view and has the voice of a young child to when he grows up to become a teenager. Dave writes about his struggles with his abusive mother and then his long battle through the foster care system to find a loving family and home. In his novel, Pelzer talks about how his mother treated him like an animal and was both physically and emotionally abusive towards him at a very young age (4-12). At age 12, Dave’s teachers step in and Dave is then placed into the foster care system and searches for loving parents which carries out as the theme of the book. …show more content…
Gold”, discusses when his teachers step into his life and get him out of his abusive mother’s house and into foster care through the court system. He cried because he knew that teachers would now know the truth—that David had smelled bad, dressed in rags, and scrounged in the trash cans for food because he was abused at home. He describes this situation as a “long awaited answer to my prayers” (35) and being “rescued” (35) from his dreadful home life. All of this occurred when he was only 12 years old, being this young and enduring these hardships is extremely hard to overcome. In this chapter, Pelzer is terrified that his mother still has control over him. Ms. Gold helps him start to grow as
Dave Pelzer’s book “A Child Called ‘It’” told his story of growing up in an abusive household. Pelzer’s family at first was just like any other, his parents loved each other and their children and they would do many fun activities together. As time progressed a change happened and his mother began to always punish Pelzer rather than any of the other children. The small punishments soon began to grow and become more and more serious. Soon, Dave’s father and siblings could not help him out of fear that their mother and wife would turn on them. Dave was banished to the garage where he would have to sit at the bottom of the stairs waiting until his mother called him to do his chores. Usually Pelzer would be starved for very long periods of time
First, David’s mother gave him enough courage to keep hope his father would be all right after the Nazis arrested him. Because their own house was no longer safe from Nazi invasion, David’s family was staying with friends. However, Nazis burst into the house they were staying in on...
He, too, knew David was a "good boy." He did not join in the abuse, but he did not stop it, either. David was treated like a slave in his own home. His mother treated him as if he wasn’t even a member of the family, like a nobody or an “It”. She first referred to him as, “The Boy, then it quickly changed to It”. Nobody at his school liked him, they called him "Pelzer Smelzer" because his mom never washed his clothes and made him wear the same thing every day.
'You are a nobody! An It!?(Pelzer 140). These were the raw, disheartened remarks that came from the disgusting coldhearted mother's mouth. These painful hurting remarks at her son was how the book got its title and that's what interested me in reading this book. A Child Called 'It', by Dave Pelzer, is a life-changing story about, a young boy who is starved, beat, and tortured by his mother and her cruel games, yet he manages to turn his life around when he grows up. This young boy uses his faith, self-discipline, and will power to overrule his mother's destruction and life damaging obstacles.
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.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
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.
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
The life of David Pelzer began with horrifying odds; however, he managed to pull himself from the ashes of poverty to become the admired man he is today. He endured overwhelming amounts of psychological and physical abuse during his youth. He suffered brutal indignities endorsed by his mother and during his early years he was tortured in an inhumane and degrading environment. During the latter years of his youth, he was placed in the foster care system and he went on to service the military. During his career as an author, Pelzer published many successful biographies (Foster Club.) The first successful memoir was titled "A Child Called It." It was a non-fiction novel depicting Pelzer's childhood. As an adult, Pelzer became an advocate for children
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.
In the book it tells about him and his relationship with alcoholic mother, who beats him, starves him, refuses to give him new clothes, and doesn’t call him by his name but refers to him as "it" or "the boy". At first Dave and his mother have a perfect relationship. Soon his mother starts to drink and singles out one of her sons as the family "slave". She begins her abuse by sending him to school with the same cloths on for a year and no food at all. So for a while Dave steals food from others student’s lunch bags to fill his stomach. Soon his mother ...
David growing up as a child lived in a house where there was no love shown or caring relationships. He grew up not knowing what good relationships looked like or felt like. David did not think too highly of his dad or aunt and always had
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
The book “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff is a memoir written about the author’s childhood memories and experiences. The author shows many different characters within the book. Many of them are just minor character that does not affect the author much in his life choices and thoughts throughout his growth. But there are some that acts as the protagonist and some the antagonist. One of them is Dwight, the protagonist’s or Jack’s stepfather. This character seems to be one of the characters that inhibit Jack’s choices and decisions. This character plays a huge role in Jack’s life as it leaves a huge scar in his memory. The author here spends the majority of time in this character in the memoir to show the readers the relationship between Jack and Dwight.
A Child Called "It", by Dave Pelzer, is a first person narrative of a child’s struggle through a traumatic abused childhood. The book begins with Dave telling us about his last day at his Mother’s house before he was taken away by law enforcement. At first I could not understand why he had started at the end of his tale, but after reading the entire book it was clear to me that it was easier to read it knowing there indeed was a light at the end of the dark tunnel. This horrific account of extreme abuse leaves us with a great number of questions which unfortunately we do not have answers for. It tells us what happened to this little boy and that miraculously he was able to survive and live to see the day he left this hole which was his home, however, it does not tell us why or even give us a good amount of background with which to speculate the why to this abuse.