One Child’s Courage to Survive: “ A Child Called It ” Abstract This is one of the best, yet saddest books that I have ever read. There are so many bad things out there that are happening to good people. We just have no idea. You never know what is going on behind closed doors. I am so lucky not to have experienced anything like this growing up. There is so much reality in this book, but I never knew that reality was ever this awful. It brought me to a realization that I have never known before. It is extremely sad that something like this really did happen to such a sweet little boy. Summary A Child Called “It” is a story based on a real life little boy’s tribulations with his mothers shocking abuse. The first part of Dave's life was idyllic in his memory--he says his family was "the Brady Bunch"--a loving mother and father with whom he enjoyed wonderful holidays and a happy trip to the Russian River. Everyone on the outside thought that David’s family was perfect. No one in their neighborhood would have suspected anything was wrong. All that changed when Dave was in first grade. For no known reason, his mother singled him out from his siblings and began abusing him. The abuse began relatively mildly. When he and his brothers did something wrong, Dave was the one to receive punishment--at first simply banishment to the corner of a bedroom. Then, his mother began spending her days watching TV and drinking beer. Easily irritated, she yelled at Dave for the slightest reason, or sometimes for no reason at all. Soon, instead of making him go down to the basement, Mrs. Pelzer smashed Dave's face against the mirror, then made him repeat, over and over, "I'm a bad boy! I'm a bad boy!" He was forced to stand for hours staring into that mirror. Dave's father soon joined The Mother, as David called her, in her drinking. He, too, knew David was a "good boy." He did not join in the abuse, but he did not to stop it, either. David was treated like a slave in his own home. His mother treated him as if he wasn’t even a member of the family like a nobody or an “It”. She first referred to him as, “The Boy, then it quickly changed to It”. Nobody at his school liked him, they called him "Pelzer Smelzer" because his mom never washed his clothes and made him wear the same thing every day. After school, o... ... middle of paper ... ...er of the Year. In 1993 Dave was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans (TOYA), joining a distinguished group of alumni that includes Chuck Yeager, Christopher Reeve, Anne Bancroft, John F. Kennedy, Orson Wells and Walt Disney. (Dave Pelzer Biography 2002, Para. 2) In 1994 Dave was the only American to be selected as one of The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP), for his efforts including child abuse awareness and prevention, as well as for instilling resilience in others. During the Centennial Olympic games, Dave was a torchbearer, carrying the coveted flame (Dave Pelzer Biography 2002, Para. 2) References American Psychological Association. (2001) Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed). Washington, DC: McLaughlin & Reinking A Child Called It. (1995). Health Communications, INC. Deerfield Beach, FL: Dave Pelzer The World of Psychology. (2002). A Pearson Education Company. Boston, MA: Samuel Wood & Ellen Green Wood p. 593 Dave Pelzer Biography. (1997-2002) Book Browse LLC, Davina Morgan-Witts, CEO. San Jose, CA. (para.2). Retrieved 04/29/02 from http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm/author/authorID/145.htm
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2010). Psychology. (2nd ed., p. 600). New York: Worth Pub.
'You are a nobody! An It!?(Pelzer 140). These were the raw, disheartened remarks that came from the disgusting coldhearted mother's mouth. These painful hurting remarks at her son was how the book got its title and that's what interested me in reading this book. A Child Called 'It', by Dave Pelzer, is a life-changing story about, a young boy who is starved, beat, and tortured by his mother and her cruel games, yet he manages to turn his life around when he grows up. This young boy uses his faith, self-discipline, and will power to overrule his mother's destruction and life damaging obstacles.
This is where mother played many games of torture with Dave. She played 'Gas Chamber' which is a dangerous game where Dave has to stay in the bathroom with many different chemicals causing him to choke. She also made him swallow ammonia and made him sit in a bathtub of freezing cold water for hours.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
A Child Called It depicts David Pelzer’s life and his incredible will of survival from an “It” to a man. David was emotionally and physically abused up until the age of 12, by his mother (Catherine) who was not only an alcoholic but a master of defamation. The cruelty David endured at the hands of his mother led him to believe he was nothing more than a worthless misfortune; he began to despise himself even more and started to believe that he was the cause of the abuse he suffered.
According to Papalia and Feldman, an estimation of a tragic 905,000 cases were received by child protective services in response to about 3.3 million referrals regarding maltreatment within six million children in the year of 2006. One of the six million children include, David Pelzer. David, in his awe-inspiring novel, A Child Called It, takes the reader upon an unfortunate path as he reflects upon the deplorable life struggles he experienced from the cruel actions of his abusive alcoholic mother. Despite the never ending struggles throughout his daily life at such a young age, David learns to become resilient as time progresses. Keeping in mind that writing this autobiographical
"The Child Called It" was nominated the Pulitzer Prize (Pelzer.) His trilogy that stemmed from this book is highly recommended by many of his adoring fans. These books tell the stories of Dave's abuse, his time in foster care, and the life he lives today (Burmester.) In summary, the first book of the series outlines his early childhood and the physical and psychological abuse of his mother. "In an effort to cope emotionally, David searches for the ‘mommy' who has been replaced by this mother," says Becky Burmester in her article, "Dave Pelzer's Books May Change Your Life."
In Rowling’s series, muggle born witches and wizards are readily assimilated into the Wizarding world with no barriers, only facing hardship once they arrive in the form of the discrimination discussed previously in this essay. This open-door style of immigration encouraged in Rowling’s series is lacking in most nations, which maintain preservationist laws that make immigration difficult for many individuals. However, Rowling makes some of the most talented characters in her series muggle born witches and wizards such as Hermione Granger and Lily Evans Potter. These characters serve to represent the exceptional immigrants which the home nation, in this case the wizarding world, can benefit from accepting.
In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s world, however, things couldn’t get much worse with the main figures, knowing that the end of them is programmed in the title of the play. As adaptation, ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead’ happens to be locked in the end set in the initial play. This causes a deep pessimism sense in the play that cries over the absence of change and action, based on the knowledge of the audience that the only change possible will happen to cause the protagonists death.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a play centered on a theme which tries to explain the basic mysteries of the world. Our two main characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, find themselves in almost the entirety of the play, in confusion, and lacking basic knowledge, for example, their identities. The play starts off with our two heroes unable to remember their destination, the purpose for their journey, and a constant misunderstanding and confusion of the world around them. This constant confusion and lack of understanding results in the demise of our heroes.
But then, his mother changed. Slowly at first, but drastically. Her behavior became unusual and her drinking increased heavily. She became easily frustrated, and it seems that her biggest source of frustration was Dave, the loudest and wildest of her children. And thus, Dave's nightmare began. Pelzer is never clear on what caused this harsh change in behavior; most likely, he doesn't know and never will. Dave struggles to stay alive in a home where he treated basically like an animal and a slave. Catherine
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
On the surface, the Harry Potter series is set in a world that is colour-blind, one where those of any foundation can ascend on account of their capacities alone. Underneath this surface, however, Harry Potter explores profound racial themes and, as the books go on, develops a complex and very stratified racial order; the books explicate the social and genetic predispositions of its characters. Furthermore, they highlight the revulsions propagated by individuals who seek global racial purity, i.e. Voldemort, while offering multi-layered feedback of the egregious racial stratification that is maintained
Edited by Raymond J. Corsini. Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition, Volume 1. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead follows both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and they both ponder on all sorts of things just as they did when they were developing in Hamlet, and the play ends with their deaths...