Essay on Severe Childhood Abuse in "A Child Called It"

Some of the most painful situations in the book were when Dave seemed to be on the cusp of being saved from his terrifying home life, either by his father, school faculty, or a neighbor (Pelzer, 1995). There were too many times that someone knew of Dave’s condition and failed to protect him when they had the opportunity, due to fear, bureaucratic rules, or apathy. By using Urie Bronfenbrenner 's Ecological system’s model, a person can better understand the different ways David was helped or hurt. Dave was not only failed in his microsystem, but in his mesosystem as well. The school staff could clearly see

In 1995, David Pelzer wrote a book describing his childhood, a book that is highly recommend as a must read. The book starts off with a happy home and quickly turns into his very own nightmare. Pelzer is a survivor of child abuse. This story is so nauseating that while reading it you find found yourself praying that his parents would rot in hell for all eternity.

No one ever considers who may have had an abusive past. Take for instants Kane Blacque, a successful and happy man from Edmonton, Canada. He is a loving husband with a wonderful job and a new puppy. However, few people realize that he suffered from child abuse from his own mother and multiple foster homes. Blacque’s mother mistreated her children so poorly that she had killed his baby sister. From that point on Blacque and his brother bounced from one foster home to the next. Blacque claims that he was abused emotionally, sexually, and physically at the various foster homes he lived in. He eventually ages out of the system, but that did not bring happy times. Blacque found his way into drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and he even tried to commit suicide multiple times. It took Blacque many years to find actual purpose in his life, but when he did he understood that the past made him into the person he is today. Blacque only brought up the painful memories of being abused as a child to Global News after a four-year old girl was abused to death in the care of a foster family. Blacque himself states that “social workers had noticed bruises on my arms, or burns-but nothing was ever done.” Blacque’s point is that the system he was in thirty-seven years ago, is still turning a blind eye to the abuse that is happening in foster homes. Very few people can make the slow recovery from abuse like Blacque could, however, many end up like the unfortunate four-year old. In

From the beginning the reader reads about many of the aweful and cruel abuse Dave has to go through and how diffrently he acts because of it. Even starting on page 3, it explains how his mom is doing this to him after the dad left and started working more often. But overtime the reader can wee how Dave overcomes the avuse and is able turn his life around. The way he acts, reacts, or who he is today can/is diffrent or altered because of the expirances he had growing up. Compared to the way he could or would act if he didnt go through

Throughout the story, his parents and grandparents do numerous horrible things to him. His grandmother abused him, his mother lied to him and was constantly mean towards him, and his father gave him cancer. David’s childhood was incredibly rough, and in order to make it feel a bit less overwhelming he painted the city of Detroit as the ‘bad guy’. In this story there are numerous examples of this ‘neglect’ and other tragedies David is faced with. For example in chapter two David discusses this neglect, “Around that time Dad must have gotten a promotion or a raise.

Throughout the short story the reader can tell that Dave is eager to leave his childhood

Dave Pelzer has endured so much in his past. The years of abuse that seemed like a never ending maze of torture, were like a routine of beatings to him. The wicked games that his mother played on him and the bizarre ways of practicing them, felt like an eternity for a 12 year old boy. Nevertheless, for every darkest storm there is a shining ray. The ray of hope that has fueled Pelzer's motivation to strive for the best, for his freedom, and for a brighter future. Pelzer's journey to finding the power to continue begins by acceptance; accepting the fact that he is an abuse victim. Once the acceptance has been initialized, the healing process begins to take place.

David presents himself as a wayward lost soul caught in a shaky tower. Growing up, David never truly had a childhood. His parents argued to the point of physical fights, his dad would ridicule and beat him in drunken rage, and for the most part this was how life was. David lived in fear waking up the next morning to the next challenge or emotional trigger. Little did David know, the triggers of his dad yelling down the hall activated more than just a startle response and negative thoughts of worthlessness and feeling unloved and unwanted leading to “toughening up” while he was hit (Beck & Beck, 2011).

Dave’s childhood was a horrible one to say the least. Dave’s Mother was a drunk who beated him, starved him, and did many more horrendous things. It wasn't always bad though; he was approximately 3 when his mother was a wonderful woman. Dave’s father was a firefighter who cherished his wife and children. They had many pets, such as exotic fish and a turtle named “Thor”.

Imagine getting physically abused by your own mom for many years. This story is about a boy named Dave Pelzer. Dave Pelzer got under fed and abused by his mom. Dave's Mom was as mean as the devil. Whenever his dad came home, she didn’t want him to see her abusing David and comes up with an excuse for why he is hurt. His brothers ignore David so that they don’t get hurt or abused. Dave’s mom calls him “It” and “The Boy” because she says that he is a “bad boy” and doesn’t like him. In the story, A Child Called “It”, written by Dave Pelzer, the main character, Dave Pelzer, demonstrates that in life we should sometimes let go and make the best out of life. In the beginning of the book, Dave was dependent on his parents.

At the end of the chapter Dave is called in by his teachers and a police officer who ask him to share what’s been going on with him. At the end of the chapter the police officer takes him away and calls his mother and lets her know that Dave would not be going home. Chapter 2 is titled Good Times. In this chapter it recalls the good times for Dave and his family. There was a time when Dave was happy and more importantly he was loved and nurtured. They lived in a nice home where his father was a firemen and his mother would take care of the family. In the chapter it reveals that his mother loved her children and that she was a very determined and caring woman. She would go out of her way to make her children happy. At the end of the chapter Dave mentions that he had never felt as safe and warm than he did at that very moment. Throughout chapter 1 there are countless examples of both physical and mental abuse inflicted on Dave. Right off when the chapter starts Dave is smacked while doing dishes. Dave states “Smack! Mother hits me in the face, and I topple to the floor” (Pelzer, 1995, pg. 3). There are also signs of mental abuse; I saw many signs where the mother would play mental games with Dave to

The central character in which the story takes off upon is Mitchell Stephens. He is drawn into this case by his own anger. He has his own sense of suffering and confusion toward his own daughter. Stephens is torn by his urge to save her and his fear that he can't possibly do so. He recalls the flashback of his little girl as a toddler at a near death experience and him as her father while singing to her, held her life in his own hands prepared to perform an emergency tracheotomy. And in that way, Stephens' own experience bonds together with the nightmare of those pain stricken parents: the ultimate unbearable burden of caring for children where strength will be tested beyond its limits. Stephen's own daughter in whom he loves dearly has been taken away from him although she is not dead; she is practically gone out of his life. He is pissed off, "enough rage and helplessness, your love turns to steamy piss." (101). Stephen is set to find the cause, something or someone to blame for their misfortunes and to rage against whatever forces took their child, "I don't know if it was the Vietnam war…I don't know

At some point things started to change and the mother started to behave erratically. Dave started to be punished perpetually. She would sleep through the days only getting up to prepare minimal meals or to get herself another drink. Dave would be punished and was sent to a corner of his parent’s bedroom. At some point, Dave graduates from banishment to the corner of the bedroom to standing for hours in front of a mirror. His mother would smash his face against the glass and forces him to repeat “I am a bad boy” over and over. His mother would constantly punch on Dave and on one occasion she grabbed him by the arm and when she lost her balance she wrests his arm out of its socket.

Dave courageously cleans the wound himself and because of it saves himself. Chapter 6 is titled While Father is Away. The dad is Dave’s safe haven; his is his only sense of comfort in the house. That quickly changes when the dad starts to spend less and less time together. Dave is incredibly sad when his dad becomes less and less around. The mom’s torture strategies become more and more harsh. She starves Dave for 10 days straight, she suffocates Dave by putting a bucket of ammonia and Clorox and locking him in the room, forces him to lay in cold baths for hours and then has him put on his clothes without drying himself and has him sit outside in the cold. Until one Sunday the mom tells Dave that she is sorry and wants to start fresh. That night he is treated like part of the family and for once is treated human. The next day the social worker arrives and Dave realizes why she started to be nice to him. He is crushed when he realizes this, soon after the social worker leaves things return back to normal. Chapter 7 is titled The Lord’s Prayer. Dave has begun to lose all hope in everything. He hates everyone including himself and begins to care less and less. He becomes very angry and this is noticed at

I knew that as long as I stayed by his side, no harm would come to me.” We could see that he really wanted to help Dave at first. He would stay by his son’s side and tried to guard him, but that doesn’t last for long because the mother becomes more and more violent as he tries to help