“A Child Called it” is a phenomenal book. After reading Dave Pelzer’s story about the horrors he experienced as a child, I’m glad he had the courage to share his story. As a child, Dave’s alcoholic mother physically, emotionally, and mentally abused him. The author portrays to the reader just how bad his childhood really was by writing about the time his mother stabbed him, the times she would make it sit in a cold bath, the times she would put him in a “gas chamber”, and even about the time she purposefully burned him using the stove. Even though Dave experienced all this traumatic events early in life and had many risk factors that put him at risk for failure, his resiliency and his will to live is what saved him in the end.
Children all over the world are exposed to the many risk, just like Dave. Dave did not face any biological risk factors like low-birth weight, being a premature baby, or prenatal alcohol exposure. However, Dave was faced with many environmental risks. One risk is the fact that he lived in a household with two alcoholics, this put Dave at even more risk of having emotional problems than children that live with nonalcoholic parents. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry’s Fact for Families page, “One in five adult Americans have lived with an alcoholic relative while growing up.” They go on to state, “Alcoholism runs in families, and children of alcoholics are four times more likely than other children to become alcoholics themselves. Compounding the psychological impact of being raised by a parent who is suffering from alcohol abuse is the fact that most children of alcoholics have experienced some form of neglect or abuse.”
Another factor that put Dave at risk is the fact t...
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...ays look into anything that may look suspicious to me. It was amazing that Dave went through five years of school while getting beat everyday at home and nobody said anything. I am so glad that Dave was able to overcome all of the factors that put him at risk and I hope that teachers, parents, children, and professionals alike can learn from his story so that no other child has to be put at risk.
References
American Psychiatric Association. () (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx
Children Of Alcoholics. (n.d.).American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.aacap.org/aacap/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/Facts_for_F amilies_Pages/children_of_Alcoholics_17.aspx
Pelzer, Dave. (1995). A child called "It": One child's courage to survive. New York: Health Communications, Inc.
Being exposed to his family’s drinking and violence influence him in a profound way. He will grow up to think that leading a chaotic life is acceptable in society. He is doomed to become an alcoholic himself if his parents do not wake up from their substance abuse haze and get him away from such a negative environment. Children who grow up with addicted parents are predisposed to becoming addicts themselves. According to Robert Priedt, author of Many Alcoholics Suffered Childhood Trauma, “patients being treated for alcoholism were likely to have experienced one or more types of childhood abuse or neglect” (Priedt). He also found that a history of emotional abuse was associated with an increase in the likelihood of the patient having depression. This is important concerning that while Victor is not being physically or sexually abused, he is forced to live in an unhealthy environment. This is a form of emotional abuse. Aside from that, Victor is neglected the basic necessities such as food and safety. With his family constantly under the influence and fighting, they do not have time to give Victor the emotional support that a child desperately needs to grow into a functioning member of society. He is also growing up poor. This is not always a bad thing. In fact, some people that grow up in poverty learn the best coping skills and grow to be resourceful,
'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.
A Child Called It is written from a child’s perspective. Dave’s book is an eye-opener on how children are abused by even their own mothers. Child abuse is not something new in our society as I t occurs everywhere. Many cases of child abuse stay unreported, as the society and the people around do not care (Crosson-Tower 47). This book is about the struggles of a young boy who was put through hard times. Dave was a victim of child abuse for a period of about 13 years, when he was removed out of his abusive home. Dave was treated badly compared to his brothers but he never gave up but fought to rise above it all. Even though he had lost hope in his dreams and doubted humankind, Dave was able to overcome this trauma and make his life better.
The main characters are David, his mother, and father. David, the abused child, cannot escape his mother’s punishments. David’s mother is a drunken, abusive mother that refers to her child as “It”. David’s father is caring and understanding, but cannot help David escape. The mother and father drastically change after the alcohol abuse. David also changes in his attitude towards his parents.
A Child Called "It", by Dave Pelzer, is a first person narrative of a child’s struggle through a traumatic abused childhood. The book begins with Dave telling us about his last day at his Mother’s house before he was taken away by law enforcement. At first I could not understand why he had started at the end of his tale, but after reading the entire book it was clear to me that it was easier to read it knowing there indeed was a light at the end of the dark tunnel. This horrific account of extreme abuse leaves us with a great number of questions which unfortunately we do not have answers for. It tells us what happened to this little boy and that miraculously he was able to survive and live to see the day he left this hole which was his home, however, it does not tell us why or even give us a good amount of background with which to speculate the why to this abuse.
In the article “Children of Alcoholics” produced by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the author explains the negative effect of parental alcoholism on their children’s emotional wellbeing, when he writes, “Children with alcoholic parents are more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, antisocial behavior, relationship difficulties, behavioral problems, and/or alcohol abuse. One recent study finds that children of drug-abusing fathers have the worst mental health issues (Children of Alcoholics 1). Walls reflects upon her childhood experiences in which her father would become drunk and not be able to control his behavior, as she writes, “After working on the bottle for a while, Dad turned into an angry-eyed stranger who threw around furniture and threatened to beat up Mom or anyone else who got in his way. When he’d had his fill of cussing and hollering and smashing things up, he’d collapse” (Walls 23). The Walls children, who frequently encounter their father’s abusive behavior, are affected mentally in the same way that national studies have shown. Jeanette Walls describes how, after drinking, her father’s behavior becomes cruel and intolerable through his use of profanity, threats, and angry, even violent, actions. In a conventional family, a parent has the responsibility of being a role model to influence their children in a positive way as they develop. Unfortunately, in the Walls family and other families with alcoholic parents, children are often subject to abuse and violence, which places them at risk, not only physically, but mentally. Rex’s irrational behavior when he is drunk is detrimental to the children’s upbringing, causing them to lose trust in their parents, have significantly lower self-esteem and confidence, and feel insecure. Rex’s behavior contributes to Jeanette’s
The sympathy I felt for Dave was so great, I just wanted to take him away from his mother and have him live with me. At times reading this book I got emotional because it is hard to read and visualize a 4-year-old boy getting neglected, mistreated and torn apart. One of Dave’s jobs was to clean the bathroom, his mother set up a bucket full of ammonia and Clorox then locked him in the bathroom. Later in the day he would cough up large amounts of blood due to the toxic fumes he was inhaling. This made me feel sympathy towards him because he was in a very dangerous and life threatening situation. He did not know anything but hatred from his family. This was so horrible to visualize the trauma he was experiencing while I was reading. Being abused certainly does a lot of harm to ones self-esteem. Growing up, Dave is going to think that it was his fault his mother abused him. Being abused could also cause depression. This is no way to live, especially if you are a child. Children are supposed to have fun and not have a worry in the world. Books like this create an emotional thread between the author and the reader because the author is telling, in detail, about his tragic life. This makes the reader visualize how it would feel to be abused as a child. It also shows the reader the how serious child abuse
Imagine being a child stuck in a dark hole alone, and having to face terror for many years. Well A Child Called It shares the everyday battles of a child, David Pelzer, and it reflects the inhumanity of someone who’s supposed to be loving and caring. The story of the abused child, Pelzer, not only tells the insanity of humankind, but show how easy it is for child abuse to be hidden behind walls. At a very young age Pelzer started to suffer and live such a miserable life. Pelzer faced battles where he not only learned to stay strong, but survive the games from the abuser, his mother, the abuser. Throughout the book, Pelzer shares his experience as an abused child, and reveals such extreme mistreatment from his abuser. In this case, as a reader,
In the heart-rending novel, A Child Called “It” author Dave Pelzer tells the horrendous abuse his own mother made him suffer through at the young ages of four to twelve years old. This story is officially considered non-fiction, an autobiography and a memoir. Before being rescued in 1973, Pelzer lived in Daly City, California with his parents, Stephen Joseph and Catherine Roerva, and his brothers; Richard, Robert, Steven, and Kenneth. In the younger years of his life, his mother was a caring, loving woman who treated him as a real person, and absolutely adored her family, until one day Pelzer remembers she suddenly became monstrous towards only one family member, which was, himself. She would find any reason to punish Dave and not her other children. Although Pelzer’s mother,
Slutske, W. S., D’Onofrio, B. M., Turkheimer, E., Emery, R. E., Harden, K. P., Heath, A. C., et al. (2008). Searching for an environmental effect of parental alcoholism on offspring alcohol use disorder: A genetically informed study of children of alcoholics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 534-551.
In the United States, twenty million children are experiencing physical, verbal and emotional abuse from parents who are addicted to alcohol. Growing up in an alcoholic house can leave emotional scars that may last a lifetime. This is tragic because we consider that childhood is the foundation on which our entire lives are fabricated. When a child’s efforts to bond with an addicted parent are handicapped, the result is confusion and intense anxiety. In order to survive in a home deficient, of healthy parental love, limits, and consistency, they must develop “survival skills” or defense mechanisms very early in life.
Like all children, Dave Pelzer, the main character in the book “ A child called it” .He looked at his parents as great people and respectful .At first his parents to protect. His father was his hero or so he thought at first, Dave begins to notice a difference in his family since soon after many things began to change, in her family. Dave began to realize that things changed.When His relationship with her Mom drastically changed from discipline that developed into a kind of lifestyle that grew out of control.
This book is about a little boy who is constantly battling the fear of coming home to abusive parents and always getting chastised. Dave is put through a series of punishments that life has thrown at him. Dave is trying his best to cope with his life and all of the fears that go along with it, but it is very hard. This title has three contexts in this title which are; the fact the boy is called “it”, that his name and what people call him are different and the last reason is he isn’t treated like a human.
“For every family that is impacted by drugs, there are another 10 to 15 families impacted by alcohol abuse. It's a pretty big deal. We have a tendency to only look at part of the puzzle.” (Kevin Lewis). As a society we tend to categorize the severity of addiction in a way that drugs are the most dangerous and alcohol being just a problem. Because alcohol addiction can be a slow progressive disease many people don’t see it in the same light as drug addiction. An addiction to drugs is seen as being a more deadly and dangerous issue then that of alcohol because a drug addiction can happen more quickly and can kill more quickly. Alcohol is something that is easy to obtain, something that is found at almost every restaurant. People with an alcohol addiction can not hide from alcohol as easy as a drug addict. Approximately 7 million Americans suffer from alcohol abuse and another 7 million suffer from alcoholism. (Haisong 6) The dangers of alcohol affect everyone from children with alcoholic parents, to teenagers who abuse alcohol, then to citizens who are terrorized by drunk drivers.
Personal Credibility: My neighbor’s son started drinking at a young age and had many problems. This made me wonder how alcohol is made and how it affects people differently.