Imagine being a child stuck in a dark hole alone, and having to face terror for many years. Well A Child Called It shares the everyday battles of a child, David Pelzer, and it reflects the inhumanity of someone who’s supposed to be loving and caring. The story of the abused child, Pelzer, not only tells the insanity of humankind, but show how easy it is for child abuse to be hidden behind walls. At a very young age Pelzer started to suffer and live such a miserable life. Pelzer faced battles where he not only learned to stay strong, but survive the games from the abuser, his mother, the abuser. Throughout the book, Pelzer shares his experience as an abused child, and reveals such extreme mistreatment from his abuser. In this case, as a reader, …show more content…
At the beginning of the story Pelzer talks about the mistreatment that he has eventually grown used to it. For example, Pelzer says “I know better than to stand there and take the hit” (Pelzer 3) Pelzer is abused every moment of his life. In every way possible she has learned to hurt and abuse Pelzer, his son. Even in school, his mother controlled Pelzer’s misery. She made Pelzer wear old and dirty clothes with the purpose to humiliate him, so his classmates could make fun of him. Throughout time, Pelzer’s interest to do school work diminished. From day to day, the abuse took his motivation and energy. At home, Pelzer had multiple chores, and was also hit by his mother. One day, she even stabbed him. Eventually, Pelzer learned to bare the abuse, he said “Mother never seemed to stab me”(Pelzer 10) While he was known as the “trouble boy” in school, people never managed to wonder what could have been causing his behavior. For over a year, Pelzer was being examined by the school nurse, finally the nurse took in consideration of Pelzer’s marks and bruises. The teachers talked about Pelzer’s abuse and decided to call the police. In fear Pelzer didn 't expect any good from this; he thought he was going to jail. At the end, when Pelzer was told he was never to be hit by his mother again, in shock he couldn 't believe it, he said “I’m free?”
Pelzer introduced the
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This story shares the extreme abusive behaviors, and how easy it is for domestic violence to be hidden. This book is an example of many individuals who are physically abused every day. This story also reveals the horrible aspects of their lives and gives a voice to those who struggle domestic abuse. Even though Pelzer got away from his mother, in the end he was still mentally affected from his mother’s violence. Pelzer’s mother was someone who showed mental problems because no person who’s mentally right would physically abuse their child. In the end, Pelzer was lucky to overcome his abusive life, and share the untold stories from child
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
He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional
A Child Called “It” is a story based on a real life little boy’s tribulations with his mothers shocking abuse. The first part of Dave's life was idyllic in his memory--he says his family was "the Brady Bunch"--a loving mother and father with whom he enjoyed wonderful holidays and a happy trip to the Russian River. Everyone on the outside thought that David’s family was perfect. No one in their neighborhood would have suspected anything was wrong. All that changed when Dave was in first grade. For no known reason, his mother singled him out from his siblings and began abusing him. The abuse began relatively mildly. When he and his brothers did something wrong, Dave was the one to receive punishment--at first simply banishment to the corner of a bedroom. Then, his mother began spending her days watching TV and drinking beer. Easily irritated, she yelled at Dave for the slightest reason, or sometimes for no reason at all. Soon, instead of making him go down to the basement, Mrs. Pelzer smashed Dave's face against the mirror, then made him repeat, over and over, "I'm a bad boy! I'm a bad boy!" He was forced to stand for hours staring into that mirror. Dave's father soon joined The Mother, as David called her, in her drinking. He, too, knew David was a "good boy." He did not join in the abuse, but he did not to 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. After school, o...
'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.
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.
According to Papalia and Feldman, an estimation of a tragic 905,000 cases were received by child protective services in response to about 3.3 million referrals regarding maltreatment within six million children in the year of 2006. One of the six million children include, David Pelzer. David, in his awe-inspiring novel, A Child Called It, takes the reader upon an unfortunate path as he reflects upon the deplorable life struggles he experienced from the cruel actions of his abusive alcoholic mother. Despite the never ending struggles throughout his daily life at such a young age, David learns to become resilient as time progresses. Keeping in mind that writing this autobiographical
I have come to enjoy reading poetry; I may not always understand the meanings behind them however, when reading “The Child Who Walks Backwards” by Lorna Crozier I automatically could relate and depict exactly what this poem was about. Child abuse is something that happens all over the world and in every culture. Every year in the United States alone there are over 3 million reports of child abuse, involving more then 6 million children, this also does not include all the unreported cases. (childhelp.org) This poem is a narrative poem written from a neighbor’s point of view, how he or she can see the what is going on but is told otherwise from the parents. In this essay, I want to explore the on look of child abuse from an outsiders point of view ranging from denial that the situation is going on, to skepticism, and final the realization that this could be happening to a family member or a neighbor like in the poem. Sometimes seeing child abuse is hard and it not always blatant and in our faces nor do we always want to see it, seeing a child be abused is not an enjoyable task. However, noticing, reacting, and calling authorities could save a child’s life.
Besides telling her child that she hated him and wished him dead Dave’s mother put him through tremendous physical pain and abuse. From a young child till the fifth grade Dave Pelzer had been made to sleep away from the family in the basement in a small army cot. He was starved for days and days on end. His mother longed for any time to severely beat him, it made her day, she would think of morbid things all day to do to him when he got home from school. Among many other things, Dave Pelzer was; stabbed, made to drink ammonia, bleach, and dishwashing detergent, made to sit in a bathroom for hours with many chemicals creating a small gas chamber, put in freezing cold water for hours with just his nose sticking out of the tub, burnt on an open fire on the stove, and made to eat his little brother’s dirty diaper. These were only some of the torturous things his mother could think of to do to her little boy.
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 ...
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
A Child Called “It” brings our attention to mental abuse that adults may inflict on a human being and in this particular case, a child. David’s mother respects the family’s dogs more than she respects her own son. The dogs are fed every day, yet she attempts to starve David. Although David has two other brothers, they learn to call him “the boy” and to pay no att...
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.
“One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime” (Nicole Kidman). Abuse has an effect on women that cannot be put into words. It makes women feel lost and ashamed. In their confusion they hide in their abuse without moving forward. In Nicholas Sparks’ novel Safe Haven the author demonstrates the importance of overcoming obstacles when being faced with abuse. Overcoming obstacles is tricky but there are 3 important steps involved, going through hardships, building new relationships, and defeating fears. The main character, Katie is faced with many hardships. She is physically abused by her husband so she tries to escape and fears being found. After moving Katie finds it difficult to trust others but ends up
Imagine being a child and having your own father or mother hitting or burning your body, making sexual advances towards you, or just never being there for you when you need them. Becca, who decided to keep her last name anonymous, told about her experiences with being abused as a child in the Admit to Child Abuse web page. She told of her story by saying that she was "the victim of child sexual abuse and was abused for approximately 7 years by my father. Even at my age (22) now it is hard to put what happened to me into words" (Admit to Child Abuse). Well, more abuse like Becca's happens to children in today's society and they are victims of just those things. Many people may not realize this but child abuse has become prevalent in the United States throughout these past couple of years. Not only are children being physically abused but they are also being sexual abused, emotionally abused and neglected by people that are suppose to be the closest to them. There are many signs and effects of abuse, depending on the child that is being abused. Throughout this paper, each form of abuse will be addressed and those forms will be analyzed to find a proper treatment for these problems.