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A case study on the effect and impact of child abuse
Child abuse and its effects
A case study on the effect and impact of child abuse
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I am writing to you to protest the School Board’s proposed banning of the book A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer. The book spent six years on the New York Times best-seller list, was an international best seller, and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination. As an award-winning author, Mr. Pelzer has shared his true-life story based on a childhood where he received physical and mental abuse by his alcoholic mother. A Child Called “It” brings our attention to mental abuse that adults may inflict on a human being and in this particular case, a child. David’s mother respects the family’s dogs more than she respects her own son. The dogs are fed every day, yet she attempts to starve David. Although David has two other brothers, they learn to call him “the boy” and to pay no att...
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.
_____. “The Child by Tiger.” Saturday Evening Post 210, number 11. Reprinted in The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe, edited by Francis E. Skipp. New York: Scribner’s, 1987.
During the hard times of the apocalypse, the family from The Road completely fell apart. One of the sacrifices the parents make for their son is their family. Between the hazardous conditions of the now post-apocalyptic world, as well as the birth of their son, the family’s unraveling was inevitable. In order to provide efficient care for the boy, they had to let one another
This story speaks of a married woman who fell in love with a man who was not her husband. She bore this man a child and realized that she could not live without him. In the event, she decides to leave her husband to be with the child’s father. However, there is only one problem and that is that she has two other children by her husband. She has a daughter who is 9 years old and is very mature for her age, and a darling son who is 5 years old. As she leaves to restart her life again with this other man, the 5 year old son is left behind to stay with his dad, and the little girl is tragically killed by a pack of wolves. The little boy is devastated by his mom’s decision to leave him behind. He is constantly haunted by dreams and images that come to his mind surrounding his mother’s...
After reading A Child Called It, I think that it is a tearjerker and a heart felt story about a child abuse case that took place in Daly City, California. This book is about a little boy named David and his abusive situation that he is in but this book is a twist! David does not just start out with a bad situation, at first his family was like any other family loving, caring, sweet and awesome memories and fun times with his mom and dad and brothers, he even refers to his family as the “Brady Bunch”(Pelzer 17). His mother was a stay at home mom from my viewpoint and his dad was a firefighter. The mom was like me on being a clean person, she was a good mother and took the kids on trips and like most moms even had a garden. He also mentioned that she was a fabulous cook and made amazing meals and loved the holidays as well. She was the typical mom. One day her relationship with David changed dramatically for the worst. The first time he got punished he was put in the corner. Her voice changed from the nurturing mother they knew to one of a wicked witch (Pelzer30). She moved on from putting David in the corner to smashing his face against a mirror and made him repeat, “I’m a bad boy! I’m a bad boy!” (Pelzer 31) She sent him on searches to find things around the house that she had misplaced. She was also a different person around his father; she did not beat him, yell, or punish him. She hurt his arm terribly one day while punishing him, popping it out of place. She burnt him on the stove holding his arm over a flame! (Pelzer 41) One thing his mother loved to do was the “Gas Chamber”. David’s mom would lock him up in the bathroom while he cleaned and put a bucket of mixed up cleaning ingredients/s...
The story of David Pelzer, explained through the book A Child Called It, is prominent and inspirational throughout America. It attracts the attention of countless people, and broke the hearts of many people. David Pelzer was knocking on death 's front door, as a result of his own mother´s physical, and emotional abuse. As a young boy Dave´s mother was exceedingly abusive and an alcoholic. He must escape her evil wrath and grow to be finally be free. David´s goal of a carefree life renders to be a very difficult goal to accomplish, which makes up a numerous amount of his hero’s journey.
The story provides many sources for the boy's animosity. Beginning with his home and overall environment, and reaching all the way to the adults that surround him. However, it is clear that all of these causes of the boy's isolation have something in common, he has control over none of these factors. While many of these circumstances no one can expect to have control over, it is the culmination of all these elements that lead to the boy’s undeniable feeling of lack of control.
A Child Called "it" In his two novels A Child Called "it", and The Lost Boy, the author, Dave Pelzer explains about his childhood. During that time, author was a young boy from an age 3 to an age 9. David’s mother has started to call him " The Boy" and "it." The author mainly covers the relationship between his family. His main focus point is the bond between his mother and him. He describes his mother as a beautiful woman, who loves and cherished her kids , who changed from this " The Mother," who abused him because she was alcoholic and was sick. The Mother used David to take her anger out. An abusive mother who systematically closed down any escape he may have from her clutches. Shuts out any source for food for the poor starving child. Poor Dave had nothing left as hope, she convinced neighbours, his teachers, social workers, his younger brothers that Dave was a ‘bad boy’ and asked them not to pay attention to his condition. David’s description of his brothers went from, loving brothers to mother’s slaves. He describers how the love went to hate for his brothers had grew more and more toward the book. He tells that his brother’s behavior changes as his mother attitude changes. His brother’s starts to take their mother side and start to treat David as non-member of the family. He looked upon his father as a saviour, but the man had no spine. He always thought this ordeal would end someday but it went on increasing. Nevertheless, he found out ways and means to outsmart her, escape her, avoid her. Such a life may seem a dead-end for anyone, but not for Dave.
Throughout the chapters of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry describes personal experiences based on the lives of individuals he has encountered. The correlation among the characters described in Skin Hunger, The Coldest Heart, and The Boy Who Was Raised
Levin, Diane E. Childhood Lost: How American Culture Is Failing Our Kids. Westport, Ct: Praeger publishers, 2005. 139-54. Print
Bockern, S. V. & Brokenleg, M. (2003). The science of raising courageous kids. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 12 (1), 22-26.
In the end of this story one hopes that the boy becomes aware of the abusive cycle, and makes a promise to his “friend” that he will break the cycle of abuse. That he will not become his father, and that he will be better than him. If for no one else, but his one true friend, the dark brown dog. The impact that physical abuse brings into people’s lives leaves scars deep within, but with a little love here, and there, the cycle begins to
This story also has the purpose of teaching children the values of being a part of a family, how to treat family members, and respecting family members. Two of the punishments given to the little boys in the story vary on many levels. In the first punishment is physical while the second one, almost worse, is psychological. For the second punishment, the listeners do not know what happened to the little boy while he was away for what sounded like years. Ambiguity in the story leaves audience to fill in the blanks with their own imaginations. Children listening in may imagine up a punishment far worse than having a hand cut off by your
The image of a short rope hanging from the dog’s neck is repeated throughout the piece to symbolize both, a past struggle, as well as a current obstacle, hindering his ability to move forward smoothly on his journey. Furthermore, the rope represents a past mentality of slavery and how even though this slave is now free, he isn’t really ‘free’ at all. The dragging rope is a constant reminder of where he has been and who he is on the surface. Society has fixed this idea that he carries no value and although he is persistent with repentance, this chastisement is seemingly perpetual. When the child introduced the dog to the family, “scorn was leveled at him from all eyes” as he made his case to the “family council,” announcing why this dog is worthy enough to become a member of the house (Crane 13). As it becomes evident that the dog is no longer being accepted, he becomes internally embarrassed and filled with shame as he is put on a display of mockery. The father returns home from work “in a particularly savage temper” and decided the dog could stay, but only because he believed it would provoke hostility in the family (Crane 13). Soon after, the child took the dog to his room and cried softly, while the father began his typical violent outbursts on the wife. The father’s ill humor is what permits the ‘acceptance’ of the dog in the family. A few nights later, the father storms the apartment drunk and throws the dog out of the window and the dark-brown dog falls to his