A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer Essay

Peter's Lullaby, is the most disturbing true story I believe I have ever picked up and read, and such child abuse and heartache and pain of a child's memory of abuse that is clearly unimaginable. I thought I understand what child abuse is, but reading this book in detail, it's not only what I have heard or seen in the news or in new paper articles of a child being shaken to death which is ungodly in itself. The abuse the author, Jeanne Fowler and siblings, went through daily, including seeing her little brother slowly murdered by her parents is beyond understanding. Her mother didn’t hang pictures on the wall, in her abuse of her children she hung them on walls, in closets and bathrooms, for days at a time without food or clothes. It was her brother, Peter's lullaby hushed Jeanne, which he would sing after a beating to comforted her and himself, to allow them to sleep. Jeanne would listen

David's mother got worse and she began to think of new ways to torture David. David was one of a few brothers, but only he was targeted. The other brothers pretended he wasn't even there. There was only one person in the family that still loved David was his father. David’s father would fight for David and would protect him from the mother. But, he would always lose. Whenever David's father went to work, David would get beat. Dave became the scapegoat for his mother's mistakes. David became a slave of the house and did all the chores. If he did not finish his chores with an unreasonable time, he did not receive dinner. David was starved for three days at a time. Once, David got stabbed by his mother for not completing her dishes. Whenever David came back from school his mother forced him to throw up to see if he got any food at school. This happened every

When a child experiences trauma, it stays with them for the rest of their life. When a child experiences abuse, one of the highest forms of trauma, they can do little to stop it from affecting everything they do. Tobias Wolff’s memoir, This Boy’s Life, Illustrates this. While it can be said that Rosemary, the mother of Jack, was in many ways responsible for his life, she herself can not solely be blamed. The trauma and abuse she experienced as a child contributed greatly to her choices, and her son’s life. This shows that adversity in Rosemary’s life lead to her not being able to act normally, and this caused the life of her son.

As a child Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother; a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her sons nearly dead. She no longer considered him a son, but a slave; no longer a boy, but an 'it'. His bed was an old army cot in the basement, his clothes were torn and smelly, and when he was allowed the luxury of food it was scraps from the dogs' bowl. The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors. Dave dreamed of finding a family to love him and call him their son. It took years of struggle, deprivation and despair to find his dreams and make something of himself. A Child Called 'It' covers the early years of

Dave Pelzer’s book, “A Child Called It” (1995), chronicled the unforgettable accounts of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California’s history. The book is an intriguing, yet intimidating journey through the torturing childhood of the author, himself. The child, Dave Pelzer¸ was emotionally and physically tormented by his unstable mother. He was the victim of abuse in his own home, a source of ridicule at his own school, and stripped of all existence. This book left me in suspense as I waited with anticipation for the end of this little boy’s struggle to live. Throughout this paper, I will focus on the events that took place in this book and discuss my personal feelings and the effects this story had on me.

Everything David did that was courageous. Most importantly, he survived the Nazi’s horrible control, showing his mother had influenced him. Even though David had a difficult childhood, David’s mother helped him a great

According to Feldman (2015) Urie Bronfenbrenner took more of a biological look at human development, using a system that gave five levels of environment which one is influenced by during the developmental period (The Biological Approach to Development, para 1). We will be looking at the mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem levels to see how David suffered or benefited because of these systems. As Feldman (2015) explains the mesosystem is where the connection between parent and child, or student and teacher influence each other and the relationship between the two people (The Biological Approach to Development, para 3). David encountered many situation where this system may have hurt and helped him. One example would be when he had a

The book I read is called A Child Called It. It is written by Dave Pelzer. The theme of this book is to keep hope alive. You should have faith and dreams to have something to look forward to in your future especially when you feel you can’t go on any more. Like Dave, he felt trapped as if he was never going to be free. He used his dreams and illusions every time he was hurting to help him get away from the pain. This is what kept this little boy alive. He had something to reach for and never quit.

At the age of 5 years old, not only did he began to take showers with his father, but when they went to the beach club, his mother bathed him in the shower in the presence of other naked women. By the age of 6 years old, David noticed the power men had over women, “when a male entered the women’s side of the bathhouse, all the women shrieked”. (Gale Biography). At the age of 7 and 8 years old, he experienced a series of head accidents. First, he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. A few months later he ran into a wall and again suffered head injuries. Then he was hit in the head with a pipe and received a four inch gash in the forehead. Believing his natural mother died while giving birth to him was the source of intense guilt, and anger inside David. His size and appearance did not help matters. He was larger than most kids his age and not particularly attractive, which he was teased by his classmates. His parents were not social people, and David followed in that path, developing a reputation for being a loner. At the age of 14 years old David became very depressed after his adoptive mother Pearl, died from breast cancer. He viewed his mother’s death as a monster plot designed to destroy him. (Gale Biography). He began to fail in school and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania. He sets fires,

In Dave Pelzer’s A Child Called “It”, the author writes about his own abilities to persevere through his mother’s hideous abuse. He uses his willpower, imagination, courage, and faith in God to retain his motivation to survive in situations many people could not. David suffered unthinkable abuse whilst in the care of his mother. Many people could not imagine going through the ordeals he had to suffer through.

Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior. This study includes abnormal human behavior. You can't get very much more abnormal than David’s situation. This book demonstrates severe mental problems and the effects it brought about.

INTRODUCTION The topic I chose is childhood experiences, and how it affects the individual and their future. This topic shows how in an individual’s childhood, problems such as abuse, domestic violence, depression, etc. can lead to issues in the future. The reason why I chose this topic is because I previously read a book called A Child Called “It”, a novel by Dave Pelzer. This book is about a boy who was abused by his mother from ages 4-12. The autobiography highlights all the cruel things done to him, and how alcohol drove his mother into being abusive and violent.

(Hord Zinn). David is a telepathic boy living in a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, called the “Tribulation” in the book The Chrysalids. David manages to change the world and the vision of mutation and deviants. David would have never able to do that without the people around that changed him. This Essay will explore how Sophie, Uncle Axel and Gordon though minor characters have a major impact on David's development.

Developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner first introduced the Ecologicial Systems model in the 1970’s. Bronfenbrenner argued that to understand human development, the environment in which the person belongs must be understood (Bronfenbrenner, U.1979). The Ecological Systems model concentrically depicts how a person’s development is influenced by their wider environment. In the original model there were four ecological levels in the system, however in 1979 Bronfenbrenner added an additional fifth level (Bronfenbrenner, U. 1994). With the developing person in the centre, the five progressive levels of environment include the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, marcosystem and the chronosystem.

Observing the Bronfenbrenner’s socio ecological model it can be seen that it consists of five systems that are linked to the child, in two ways: indirectly and directly. In this case it will relate to Jason Wilson. The systems that comprise the Bronfenbrenner model are the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and finally the chronosystem. These systems are described by Landsberg and Krüger and Swart (2011:14).