A Child Called It Essay

First, where was Pelzer’s father during this abuse? Pelzer’s dad wasn’t there because he was working and Pelzer never saw him and his mother treated him really different when his dad is there. Pelzer’s dad works every single day and he works morning to night around 3 in the morning. I think that his mother just wants to treat him like that because he did something wrong but otherwise she shouldn’t be beating him every single day.

His mother treats him like a slave, giving him daily chores and unbelievably ruthless punishments. He has become inhuman to her as she refers to him as “It.” The only hope of survival relies on his dad, in God, or in a miracle. His story promotes the courageous human spirit and the determinate to survive.

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

Dissolved oxygen is oxygen that is trapped in a fluid, such as water. Since many living organism requires oxygen to survive, it is a necessary component of water systems such as streams, lakes and rivers in order to support aquatic life. The dissolved oxygen is measured in units of parts per million (ppm). Examine the data in Table 4 showing the amount of dissolved oxygen present and the number of fish observed in the body of water the sample was taken from; finally, answer the questions below.

     The conflict of the story was Dave’s mother. She was cruel and unloving. She would drink and abuse Dave. For some reasons she never beat any of her other kids. Every time he stood up to her she would tell him he was a nobody or an “it”. She did cruel things for no reason. For example one time she tried putting him on the stove to burn him. Other times she would make a gas out of ammonia and Clorox in the bathroom and lock him in there for hours. The climax of the story is when people at school start noticing cuts and bruises on David. When a social worker is sent to his house, his mother starts treating him with love and pretends she’s sorry. Dave believes it and doesn’t say anything when the social worker comes. Dave thinks his dreams have come true and is very happy not knowing when the social

There are two reasons, the first being that Pelzer's tale is a testament to how much the human spirit can endure and remain whole. Pelzer tells of his resolve to not be defeated. With each incident, Dave managed to find some way to placate his mother. While he couldn't make the abuse stop, he learned how to manipulate his mother's behavior enough to keep the immediate situation from getting even more ugly. Each time his mother walks away from him, you get the feeling that he would like to shout out after her, "Ha! You didn't kill me this time, bitch, and you aren't going to kill me next time either!" It is

Dave's hopes for rescue initially lay with his father. Once an advocate on behalf of his son, Stephan Pelzer, also an alcoholic, eventually grew tired of battling his wife and allowed her to do what she would to the boy. When Dave told his father that he had been stabbed, Stephan responded by asking why. Upon hearing that the boy had been stabbed while doing the dishes, the intoxicated father told his son, "Well, you ah , you better go back in there and do the dishes." He did, however, promise not to tell his wife about their conversation so that the boy wouldn't get into further trouble. It was at this moment that the boy realized that no one in his household would or could help him. Eventually, the elder Pelzer left the family, allowing his wife to take her reign of terror to new heights of sadism.

Dave Eggers is a victim of circumstance, his life flipped upside down by the tragedy of his parent’s deaths, leaving him to raise his younger brother Toph to the best of his ability. Dave, going through this traumatic event in his early twenties, doesn’t have the opportunities that most people his age have to be young and carefree because he was forced to assume a parental role. This misfortunate, heartbreaking story is something that one simply cannot help but sympathize with, and what we learn in part III of the novel is that Dave knows that. He uses it to shape himself, to form his identity, and the way he responds to people and situations. By doing this, he creates a shield which makes him untouchable. Since people feel sorry for

     Most likely, the abuse stemmed from alcohol abuse of his mother and father. They just both handled their addiction in different ways. His father was passive, but still loved his son; his mother became violent and took her frustration and madness out on Dave. Not that alcohol is an excuse, but it was the key to the ignition of that family’s child abuse problem. Alcohol in this case

Dave had three brothers who never once were abused; his mother chose only to torture him. Throughout his terrible childhood, Dave somehow managed to maintain a hopeful outlook on life and somehow kept his will to survive.

stabbed and brutally abused. Dave was no longer considered part of the Pelzer family, he was

Problems that comes up in this case study appears to child; physical, emotional, mental, verbal and personal abuse, along with environmental factors that created the initial “family secret,” that Dave talks about throughout the book. His parents have their own personal conflicted problems, along with their abused in substances like alcohol. The family social economic status seems to range in the lower class, as Dave’ father occupation was a firefighter and his mother’s occupation is unknown. Physical abuse of children is a nonaccidental injury inflicted on a child (Crosson-Tower, p.180, 2013). Dave’s mother made him sit at the bottom of the stairs with his hands under his bottom, starved and slept with no blanket in the cold basement. His mother’s alcoholic problems made him, his mother’s sole target for frustration and anger, basically as his mother’s punching bag. Neglectful mother were more than likely to used words like shame and sad more than non-neglectful mother during the study (Camilo, Garrido & Calheiros, 2016). Dave’s mother called him “it,” while his

What did I learn from this book? The only thing that comes to mind when I'm asked that question is pain. I didn't know what real pain was until I tried to understand what this child went through. Everything that meant anything to him, his family, those who should be the closest, was drowned out. He didn't know what to think and so often in the world today, we are naive. We don't have a clue of how life could be, and of how lucky we truly are to have the kinds of backgrounds that we were blessed with.

The word ain’t is one of the most commonly-overlooked mistake in the English dictionary. It is used very often in TV, books, movies, media, and music, so we shouldn’t be surprised it is now in our real life. Even though our English teachers and grammar textbooks label the word ain’t as incorrect the use of the word has not been banished and we have no idea if it ever will be. Since, it continues to be in our language, and we often us it we should be informed of its origin and its development. However, there are different opinions on the development. Most writers on this issue seems to agree that the word ain’t has not been fully investigated and needs further research. A look at the history of ain’t can help determine how this simple contraction became a serious error in professional writing and speech.

Today teenagers wear different styles of clothing to express their personality. All high school students subject themselves to this wild time in their life. Many kids want to fit in with a click or gang, or just want to change friends. A teens unique character and individual style of dress sets them apart from all other kids.