A Child Called It Analysis

Donna
A.P. English
Essay
"A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling; it must have something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and woman." --Thomas Hardy. I agree with this quote 100% because most people don’t like to see something they see everyday. In order for a story to be worth reading, it must be different and original. A Child Called “It” is a story about a young boy who was harshly abused by his alcoholic mother; this is a true story and not many people come forward to tell their story. In his book, there are so many creations of imagery that makes the readers create different images than they’re used to. Invisible Man talks about what it was like for an African American man in the 1930s and how life is like after slavery ended. The narrator in this book demonstrates how a person may have to go through a lot in order to find success at the end of the tunnel. In A Child Called
“It” his mother has beaten David Pelzer pretty badly. She loved playing “games” that would hurt him; for instance, she would even lock him inside the bathroom with a bucket of chemicals that burns the inside of his throat to the point where it was raw. He mentions how his mother wanted to burn his entire body over the stove. David says, “Mother held it in the orange-blue flame. My skin seemed to explode from the heat. I could smell the scorched hairs from my burnt arm.” This is something that no one would ever imagine a mother doing to her own child. Dave (author) put in a great deal of descriptions to inform the readers of what was happening at that exact moment; what the flames and his skin looked like, and what the burning hair smelled like. When the readers read something like this, it keeps them wanting to keep on reading to find out what happens next. Not everyday do you read a book about a mother burning her son’s arm over a gas stove, let alone abuse the child in a very cruel way where he wishes for her to just kill him. Further speaking of A Child Called “It”, David was basically given nothing to eat.
He was surviving on scraps that were in the garbage after dinner, and stealing from other kids from lunch and from the store. The first time David’s mother suspected him of eating something actually edible, she surprised him with something new. In the memoir David says, “Mother rammed her finger into my mouth, as if she wanted to pull my stomach up through my throat…She finally let go, only when I agreed that I would vomit for her…Chunks of red meat spilled into the toilet…ordered me to scoop the partially-digested food…Globs of thick saliva slipped through my fingers, as I dropped it in my mouth.” David is such a brave author for being able to share his horrific experiences with the rest of the world. Not everyone can going through such tragic events and tell about it. Reading the life changing stories of others always fascinates audiences. This book informs others about how to never give up and it actually teaches a lesson to its
readers. Another great novel is Invisible Man, which is basically about an African American man who worked his way up to success. The narrator in this book believes that he is invisible to the white people. After not being able to go to college after something he has done, the narrator goes to New York with “letters of recommendation” for jobs that actually turned out to be the opposite. After being told that the letters were about the narrator being expelled from school, the interviewer tells him that he can get him a job at a paint store. Later on, the narrator was offered a job to be one of the speakers for the Brotherhood organization that he ended up taking on. In the novel the narrator says, “Then it was brighter and I could see a spotlight blazing the smoky haze. We moved silently, Brother Jack following two very black Negroes and two white men who the procession, and now the roar of the crowd seemed to rise above us, flaring louder.” As readers can tell, this isn’t a common thing to see. The narrator went from being a “nobody” to a well-known speaker who people loved to hear speak. The way the narrator went through the obstacles without knowing what will happen in the end is remarkable. To become a speaker wasn’t a part of his plan, because good things come to those who wait. Some people are always in a rush to get what they want, but in reality a person must work their way up in society. As a final point, I agree with Thomas Hardy and I do actually believe that a book need to be different and have originality in order for it to be extraordinary. It’s like a teacher reading an essay; the essay must be different for the teacher to notice it out of all the other essays. Same thing applies to stories; authors want the readers to say “Wow!” at the end of it. If the book didn’t leave the reader speechless in a good way at the end, then to the person who read the book it was just like any other book they have read in their life. Given these points, A Child Called “It” and Invisible Man are not your everyday books. These two novels are different from any others that you may come across and read. A Child Called “It” tells us about a child who was abused from ages four to twelve who found the courage to survive and not give up or lose hope. If a young child can do that, it shows the reader that simply giving up is not the answer. The same goes with Invisible Man, there will be success in the end if you don’t give up and try your best at everything you do.
Works Cited
1. Pelzer, Dave. A Child Called "It" One Child 's Courage to Survive. Deerfield: Heath Communications, 1995. Print.
2. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.