Preview

A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
975 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer
A Child Called “It” is a very tragic book that tells an amazingly true story about a real life little boy in California. Written by Dave Pelzer, the story reveals an extreme case of child abuse, one of the worst ever report in California history. A Child Called “It” tells the unbearable story of a boy who gets beaten day after day by his alcoholic mother. This story is an autobiography communicating very informative information of the severity of child abuse and how important school officials are in spotting this epidemic. Dave came from a typically good family. Dave’s parents loved him deeply, especially on holidays and special trips into town while his father was working a twenty-four hour shift. However, things began to change drastically in a negative way. A Child Called “It” focuses mainly on abuse in …show more content…
These nonfictional characters feel every emotion being dealt with and know how to get through anything that is thrown at them. Heading back to go to the fact that Dave would often spend time lying in the cold bath while listening to his mother sharing fun times with the other boys, he would have either had to make his own friends somehow, or learn how to get himself to be strong. Pelzer presents a powerful quotation, “Inside, my soul became so cold I hated everything. I even despised the sun, for I knew I would never be able to play in its warm presence. I cringed with hate whenever I heard other children laughing, as they played outside. My stomach coiled whenever I smelled food that was about to be served to somebody else, knowing it wasn't for me” (Pelzer). If this does not describe how many of the issues in Dave’s life were dealt with, then nothing does. People all over the world are completely different and deal with many afflictions differently. Dave’s way of dealing with these situations is more conservative and that is why he feels alone all the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    A Child Called It Summary

    • 2821 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The book, A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, is a true story of a man’s childhood from the ages of 4 to 12 and how things went from good to bad in a matter of a few years due to his mother’s abusive tendencies toward him. It is a moving story of how this child mustered up the strength to keep living, despite his harsh circumstances. This book, for the most part, is in chronological order and each chapter is a significant event that happened throughout the few years he was under his mother’s care, before he was taken away by Child Protective Services.…

    • 2821 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I have mixed feelings about the book, The Boy Who Owned the School by Gary Paulsen. Even though the book has a happy ending, the story is very dark. Jacob the protagonist thinks he is ugly, he is bullied at school, he tries to becomes the phantom student that roams from class to class, he has no friends, his parents are alcoholics and they pay no attention to him, and his sister hates him. If that were not enough, Jacob sleeps in a dark, dingy basement on a cot, while the rest of his family sleeps upstairs. His room is more like a dungeon than a bedroom. Although the book ends with Jacob and Maria going out and with his mother paying more attention to him, I expected Jacob to change and stop hiding from everyone, but the book does not give…

    • 215 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    While I read There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz, I had literally had…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is much to admire about Dave Pelzer. He proudly served his country during Desert Storm, and has received commendations from Presidents Reagan, Bush the First, and Clinton for his work as a motivational speaker. His other honors include being named California's Volunteer of the Year in 1990, one of 1993's Ten Outstanding Young Americans, and one of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World for 1994. In addition, he is a best-selling author and a loving husband and father. That's a lofty set of accomplishments for any man, yet what I admire most about Dave Pelzer is that he didn't grow up to be an abusive, alcoholic, psychotic mess. He certainly had reason to.…

    • 2120 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is a book of our times, and yet a period piece that pre-dates some of the more stringent child-abuse laws. The children tend the parents as well as themselves, and rise above their circumstances. Resilience, courage and society’s assumptions are addressed.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book I read was `A Child Called It' by Dave Pelzer. The book is an autobiography of Pelzer. He writes about his struggle to stay alive in a home where he is treated like a slave and an animal. The book begins with the people at Dave's school finally report Dave and his condition to the authorities. Then he tells us about his past when he still lived in a happy, normal family. Dave had a mother, father and 2 older brothers. While his Father is at work as a fire fighter, his mother turns to alcohol. She starts treating Dave like an animal and makes him lives in the garage and sleeps there too. She would grab him and smash him in the mirror, when the family is having dinner she would make him sit in a POW (prisoner of war) position. Sometimes she would make him starve..The book describes the worsening abuse which Pelzer suffered at the hand of his mother and her alcoholism. Among the many incidents discussed is that Ms. Roerva attempted to burn Dave on a stove when he was eight years old. She also stabbed him in the stomach, and did not take him to the hospital. By this point he was no longer considered as part of the family and lived in the basement denied basic contact, play and food. Ms. Roerva has stated that she did not want Dave to interact with "her family" demonstrating the lack of regard in which he was held.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Child Called “It” by David Pelzer is his own autobiography of his life as a child being abused by his alcoholic mother, Catherine Roerva Pelzer, who isolates him from the family, then abuses him, and nearly killed him through starvation, poisoning, and once stabbing him. Since Mother starved him for days, he began to steal food in order to survive, and when she finds out he has stolen food, she abuses him with her own “games”. Dave reflects on the “good times” in his childhood, because Mother was once a wonderful, loving mom, but the drinking habit, illness, and Father being gone took over her life, leaving both emotional and physical scars on her child which will haunt him for life. His father, Stephen Joseph Pelzer, a fireman in San Francisco, is a frightened man who as watches Dave is beaten, starved, and humiliated. Mother has stopped calling him by name; instead she would refer him as “the boy” to “it”. He was starved for 10 consecutive days, stabbed, forced to eat his brother’s diaper and a spoonful of ammonia, burned over a gas stove, stayed in the bathroom with ammonia resulting in a near fatal outcome, smashed his face into the mirror while screaming "I'm a bad boy", lying in the bathtub naked with freezing water for hours.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Child abuse is a growing epideictic in the world. Most of us will never understand why parents or caregivers would use violence towards a child, especially towards their own children. It's sickening and heartbreaking how so many children have to suffer throughout their life getting physically or sexually abuse and the majority of the time most of child abuse cases are never reported. A Child Called It, a very popular memoir about a young boy’s survival through child abuse, is a painful read. Dave Pelzer, a young boy was abused most of his childhood life by his alcoholic mother. There are many stories and reports of child abuse, for instance a mother comes…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dave Pelzer's Childhood

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page

    Many people use their childhood as a way to justify the means of their adulthood. This is especially the case when we talk about abused or neglected children. Statistics comes to show that children who suffered from an abusive parent tend to grow up and become the abusers themselves. These children might even become involved in criminal activity. This was not the case for Dave Pelzer. When Dave Pelzer woke up one morning to an abusive mother, he didn’t use this as a reason to behave a certain way in the future. Instead he took it to himself as a duty. He took it to himself that as a survivor of this tragic event to help others and to spread awareness through his memoirs and self-help books.…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The book, A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer is an astonishing inside look at the life of an abused and neglected child. His journey allows the reader to see a horrible situation through the eyes of a helpless child, and has a profound impact on the emotions of his audience. After reading this book I felt compelled to read a bit more about the subject of child abuse and neglect. I have reviewed three different articles, which can be compared and contrasted with the writings of Pelzer. The articles that I read covered topics such as attachment styles and aggression in children who are abused, child maltreatment as a precursor to peer rejection, and the importance of neighborhood-based child neglect reporting. Each one of these articles touched upon topics that were significant issues in Dave Pelzer's story.…

    • 1526 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dave Peltzer the author of "The Lost Boy" tells his story from the time he left his abusive mother and alcoholic father, through his experiences in five foster homes and juvenile detention, and how he eventually made it into the Air Force. He was a defiant, rebellious boy who, despite his background and personality, managed to endear himself to many guardians, social workers, and teachers. Pelzer writes in an honest, sometimes rambling, style; he is never bitter, and his story will find many sympathetic readers. The main purpose for Dave to write this book is to show at what lengths children and adolescents have gone to over come the unmentionable hardships of and abusive family. The three most valuable things I have learned from this book are very hard to choose. The book was full of many things to help me in my everyday life. Ranging from how to deal with kids who have be through abusive situations to how kids of abuse act in general. The first one has to be, Dave was very tactful in how he handled his thoughts and feelings. Many children his age are running around chasing girls and hanging with the guys. Not him he was studying hard and trying to be better than his parents were. He would always squander away what he had, so no one could take what was rightfully his and that includes his life. The second thing that was useful was how Dave was never angry with his situation he would just look at it as another challenge. Many times through out the book Dave would have to change foster homes after being fairly settled in the way of living there. Most teens his age can't handle a great deal of change but Dave would just go with the flow and never bat an eye lash. The third most valuable thing has to be his willingness to help. I would think that since no one would help him he would not help anyone else. On the contrary, Dave was always helping with chores, making dinner, and doing little extra things he didn't have to do. I later found out through reading the book…

    • 1855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

    • 2364 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Bibliography: Cisneros S, Eleven, Health Communications Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, January, 1, 1997. (anthology), pp. 150-161.…

    • 2364 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although Dave was abused badly by his mother, he was able to be elevated from that situation and into a better situation and a better life. As Dave grew into an adult, still tormented from his past, he was able to have enough strength to share his story with the world. Most people are unable to be as courageous as Dave and that’s why I feel that people should read this book and see how Dave is able to come out of a bad situation and live life and prosper.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Child Called It Essay

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Child Called It is written by David Pelzer. It was published by Health Communications, Inc in 1995. The book is 184 pages. A Child Called It is a memoir of David Pelzer, who experienced one of California's worse cases of child abuse. As a child he endured the horrors of child abuse including physical torture, mental cruelty and starvation by his alcoholic mother. His mother would vent her rage of him and blame him for all the family unhappiness. David's faith and courage helped him defeat the torturous games his mother played on him and grow into one of nations most respected professionals. He took his tragic experiences and helped and inspired millions of children who are suffering from abuse. Since the book is a memoir, it gives the reader a first hand view of what the author went through. The reader experiences the tortures and emotions David goes through.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays