I read ‘A Child Called It.’ It was about the problems of a boy named Dave Pelzer. Dave was put through hard times and at some point lost hope in his dreams and doubted the humanity of mankind, but in the end because of his strong will he was able to overcome his problems and make a better life for himself. When Dave was younger him and his brothers, Ronald and Stan were happy in a normal family with a loving mom and dad, but as years passed things started to change. Dave’s parents became alcoholics. His dad never came home and his mom wasn’t as nice, and she couldn’t live without alcohol. She became miserable to live with.
Even though she became really mean to all the kids, she bothered Dave the most. At first she would pit his brothers against him or make him do many chores, but soon her meanness turned to hatred towards Dave. To her Dave was now just a slave and an “it” she referred to him as “the boy.” Although sometimes Dave’s father would try to help him or defend him, he would always give in to Dave’s mother. Dave had to learn how to play games with his mother just to stay alive in his own house. Besides telling her child that she hated him and wished him dead Dave’s mom put him through way too much physical pain and abuse. From a young child till the fifth grade Dave Pelzer had been made to sleep away from the family in the basement in a small cot.
The Essay on A Man Named Dave
A Man Named Dave is a sad story of an abused child named Dave and his life as a grown man. The book has to do with a persons mind and how it reacts to different situations and events, such as being abused. This story touches your heart and makes you appreciate life and all it has to offer. Dave Spencer wrote this book to tell the world the affects of abuse and to change peoples lives. Dave does a ...
He was starved for days and days on end. His mother longed for any time to severely beat him, it made her day, she would think of horrible things all day to do to him when he got home from school. Among many other things, Dave Pelzer was: stabbed, made to drink ammonia, bleach, and dish washing soap, he was also made to sit in a bathroom for hours with many chemicals making a gas chamber, put in freezing cold water for hours with just his nose sticking out of the tub, burnt on an open fire on the stove, and made to eat his little brother’s dirty diaper. These were only some of the things his mother could think of to do to her own son. To ger this was all a game, the only reason she wanted him to live was so that he could clean up after the rest of the family, he was like a slave in his own house.
By fifth grade Dave’s loneliness had become unimaginable. His own brothers had turned on him. By this time Dave was no longer a part of the family and he didn’t even try to play his mom’s games, his anger turned to hate to his family, and to himself. The one person that Dave talked to and trusted was the school nurse: Mrs. Moss took an interest in him and listened to the things of Dave’s everyday life. Because of her, Dave Pelzer was sent to a new home and was finally free of the terrible life he had lived.
He knew that he had finally won this game. From Dave Pelzer’s story I have learned that people can overcome hard times, and that no matter how bad things are never lose hope because things will always get better.
