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

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

David Pelzer, the main (and perhaps only) protagonist, has struggled with a lot throughout the book I read. The story is mainly about Dave’s determination to withstand his abusive, alcoholic mother, who will, without a second thought, beat him if he doesn’t get his chores done. Even if he does get all of his chores done, he is starved and forced to sleep on an old army cot in his basement while his family lives in the luxury of the upstairs section of the house. The writer, Dave Pelzer, changed the names of his family to keep their anonymity, which was nice of him due to what goes on in his story. This essay is about a book called A Child Called “It.”

Through his experiences, Dave Pelzer struggle to find his self-existences and self-worth as a human being. The struggle for self-existence and self-worth is depicted in his novels A Child Called “It” and The Lost Boy. The two novels discuss about the autobiography of Dave Pelzer. The autobiography of Dave Pelzer‘s life highlights issues concerning the youth. His novels, A Child Called “It” and The Lost Boy demonstrated the awareness of abuse and mistreatment in the homes of family members and sometimes non-family related members. Pelzer‘s story is not the first of many stories to depict a child trying to survive in a home where there is many afflicted injuries. In other words, the afflicted injuries represented abuse. The work of Pelzer suggests

A Child Called “It” is a powerful book written by Dave Pelzer about his childhood and the hardships he encountered with his family, peers, and community. Middle childhood can be a life altering point in a young child’s life, which many theorist have studied over the years. This paper will review a few of those theorist thoughts, and how their theories apply to young David’s childhood. The theorist work that will be covered will be Bronfenbrenner and his ecological systems model, Piaget’s theory of development, and lastly Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. It is important to understand what was going through David’s mind as he dealt with this trauma and how he was able to survive it.

He always thought his father was going to save him and take him away. As time passed by, he saw that things were just getting worse between his mother and him and his father wouldn’t do nothing about it. He lost hope and didn’t care about anything. But he started to dream at night that one day he would get out of the hell hole he was living in. He realized that if he wanted to survive he would have to be strong and beat his mother at her torturing games. He just kept thinking to himself one day I will get out of here. He started building a self-esteem. He started realizing what was happening wasn’t his fault and one day decided to tell someone at school.

A Child Called It, is an astonishingly horrific true story of “one child’s courage to survive”. Once said “Such a story cannot fail to move.” this is exactly how I felt about this book. Dave Pelzer the author and protagonist of A Child Called It tells the story of his life as one of the worst seen cases of child abuse in the state of California. Dave’s mental strength and resilience is what truly drives the theme of the story and the physical and mental abuse that he had to endure.

The beginning of the book talks about what it was like before things went horrifyingly wrong. The family took vacations together, his mother was a loving mother and wife, and Dave's father was his hero. This eventually changed, as did everything in Dave's life. His father never turned out to be his hero, but a drunken firefighter who left him, and at times he wished his mother dead. When the torture and abuse began it was minimal, Dave describes it in the book as punishment instead of discipline but as the book progressed so does the intensity. As the story progresses Dave's feelings are expresses, he speaks of his mother, as either "The Bitch" or just "Mother" there is absolutely no love in the way he speaks of her at all. His anger is also expressed and shown in way he talks about his, once beloved hero, his father and his brothers.

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

The Lost Boy was written by David Pelzer. David pelzer was born in California and was abused by his Mother in childhood, he is currently 55 years old. The genre of this book is an autobiography because it is written by David Pelzer himself. The age group of this book is anywhere from about 13-18 the years of your life where you begin to mature. Dave is rescued from his mother. He makes a

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.

It is amazing, ridiculous, and sometimes scary how the brain deals with trauma. It is also ludicrous to believe that your environment and how you are treated are not always believed to strongly affect children. The first story in this book is a very moving one. I thought it interesting and appropriate that that was his first child patient.

My personal reactions to the book The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, were positive and enlightening. I would describe my reactions as enlightening because the content was written in a different perspective than I originally expected. This book is a small memoir of the author’s growth and development as a psychiatrist working with children suffering from severe trauma. It is rare to find a book so informative and practical and yet inspiring to read; I’m glad this was a required piece for this course.

It started when I was in the 10th grade. My teacher at the time assigned us this book as a class reading. Initially, I completely hated the book. I would think my teacher was crazy for having us read such a “depressing” book. I guess you can say a young girl at my age is naive to the fact that wrong doing’s can come from anyone , even your own family. It didn’t dawn on me the severity of the abuse Pelzer faced until I noticed it became relatable in my own past life. However, over time this book has become one of my favorites because it was one that taught me a life lesson.

Pelzer’s characterization and detailing through the book is amazing and honestly why I feel in love with the book. It one to to relate to the book but it's different when you can just understand where they are coming from and have been in situations like the situation your reading and I myself can very much relate to his experiences. Pelzer stated "All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself." These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. These words truly stuck with me because no I wasn't beat or abused physically in any way but mentally my mother tortured my mind with thoughts that I was unloved and unwanted because she was never there. Never there to feed me, never there to make sure I woke up the next day. Pelzer was taken away from his horrible abuse at twelve I didn't get my mother till a few years after he got his new foster mother, I was 16. I don't hate her I thank her for making me who I am today. Its is truly show n this book how the worst can be done to you but there is always room to grow and become a stronger and even better you than you’d ever thought you’d