Preview

Child Called It Summary

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
356 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Child Called It Summary
A Child Called It: Book Summary "A Child Called "It" is David Pelzer's tale of abuse and neglect as a young child. David begins his story talking about the physical hits he is taking from his mother while doing dishes and trying to find out where he can find some food. After finishing the dishes he is rewarded with the leftovers from one of his brother's cereal bowls. When he arrives at school he finds social workers there who have to interview him, and he is removed from his home. He has been rescued. David then begins on a journey through his childhood. He talks about some a good time when he went with his mother to a park and had some frightened moments thinking that he might fall into the pond. She had comforted him by taking his hand. One day during kindergarten he had also felt her hug him from behind and he had felt great pride security and love. David's life began to change. He had become the child that seemed to behave the worst and had a voice that carried. His mother's discipline went from punishment to verbal, mental, and physical abuse. His mother's physical appearance had also changed. She looked rough and would spend time on the couch in her robe and seemed very unhappy. She yelled at the kids a lot, but targeted David. David was finally reduced to living in the basement of the house. He was given very little food and spent most of his time going through trash cans in search of food. The physical abuse increased significantly. The more his father traveled at his job, the worse the abuse seemed to become. David came to realize that he was not wanted. He no longer received Christmas gifts nor was he included the family events or holiday activities. For David, school was not much better. He was mocked by other students and had no friends. He was isolated from others and had no where to turn. Finally, he was freed from his life and taken to a better life where he could be free from

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The book describes the worsening abuse that Pelzer suffered at the hand of his mother and her alcoholism. Most speculate that she had some other addiction or a chemical imbalance but none is known. The abuse escalated when Dave was seven years of age when he was told he would stay back in first grade for another year. It's not made clear whether the school or his mother made this decision. He would steal food from the kids' lunch boxes because he never got fed. The kids started to notice that some of their food was missing and then he got caught, and the teachers called his mom not knowing that he would be getting more abused then he already did. When he got home his mom punished him for taking food from the kids. At this point he began to be punished severely, made to do extra chores, and was banned from family activities. The beatings began to increase and now began to happen with his father around as well. The "good days" were becoming few and far between. That summer he was excluded in a family vacation. At first he tried to stop the abuse but as time went on felt unable to intervene. His mom never once excluded his other siblings. They were all treated nice and never once got in trouble by his mother. She had no reason to just go after Dave.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this Novel the growth of David from a small boy to a courageous man is focused. David is a seventeen year old boy from Scotland with the nickname of “Davie.” David is a young boy who tragically lost his father and mother and who is now left alone with no parents. After being left alone, David becomes an orphan. David is then led into a house where his father lived in his childhood. David there meets his uncle Ebenezer ,“Is your father dead?” “I was so much surprised at this, that I could find no voice to answer, but stood staring” (Stevenson 23). Ebenezer first attempts to kill David and then kidnaps him. Uncle Ebenezer was cruel to David and treated him very harshly, David’s uncle strongly disliked David for coming into his life and interrupting him. Ebenezer is a very selfish uncle and envies David for being young and everything he does. In Kidnapped David for the first is exploring the world. Balfour is inexperienced and is frightened about never going out to the “real world.” David’s goal is running away from the torture of his uncle and not having experience of going out to the real world. David is blamed for a murder he did not commit, and his attempt is to escape from all his enemies, since he has become a victim of Captain of Hoseason and his Uncle Ebenezer. As David escapes he meets the other main character Alan Breck Stewart. They both come to meet each…

    • 1380 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Child Called It Summary

    • 2821 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The book, A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, is a true story of a man’s childhood from the ages of 4 to 12 and how things went from good to bad in a matter of a few years due to his mother’s abusive tendencies toward him. It is a moving story of how this child mustered up the strength to keep living, despite his harsh circumstances. This book, for the most part, is in chronological order and each chapter is a significant event that happened throughout the few years he was under his mother’s care, before he was taken away by Child Protective Services.…

    • 2821 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kari Tahe Analysis

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    David’s parents and siblings play a very small part in the story by just having Kari and David be the responsible ones to get them to safety. David’s father plays a little bit more than the rest of the kids or David’s mother by showing is paranoid of following orders from a high schooler that is really just a stranger to them. Sarah is a student in Kari’s class that doesn’t get along with Kari at all and is someone that Kari just uses to hack into her accounts to send information to David and to find information on what is going on in the world. She is the bully in the story who makes fun of the both of them for their…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem “David”, written by Earle Birney is a very emotional and allure piece. The major theme that pursues throughout the whole poem is maturity. Which includes the beginning of such, and all the obstacles that must be overcome. The tone is a very cynical one, especially when David asks Bob to push him off the cliff. Birney also uses figurative language and poetic devices to create an element of tension, complexity and emotion.…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Montana 1948 Oral Choices

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    David is close to being an adult because he realizes how he must act and the dangers of the situation in which he and his family are involved. By now, David has issued forth a sense of development and maturity. He is far from the child who once looked forward to visits from his uncle and visits to his grandfather's ranch.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why The Chrysalids Deviant

    • 4964 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Both she and her family are forced to flee. They are captured and banished to the Fringes. David finds it difficult to reconcile the laws of his society with his own conscience. This problem is intensified when he sees his aunt driven to suicide because she has given birth to a deviant baby.…

    • 4964 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dave Pelzer

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Child Called It is a true story written by Dave Pelzer. It’s about the horrifying abuse he went through as a child, written in his child perspective. This novel expressed the desperation Dave felt in his adolescent, and the violence that was inflicted upon him. This is along with his constant battle with hunger and starvation caused by his mother. Pelzer made this book powerful by his use of tone, imagery and motifs in which he exhibited throughout the novel. This allowed the readers to really empathise and create an understanding with the character.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The setting of this story was when David was 15 years old and it was took place at David's house.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abuse is everywhere. Behind closed doors are some of the worse things known to mankind. David James Pelzer was just a normal child, who lived in a normal neighborhood, but not a so normal house. The author says “what you have just read is a story of an ordinary family that was devastated by their hidden secret.” In the story “A Child Called It”, by David Pelzer, the setting is in Daly City, California. David’s mother, Catherine Roerva Christen Pelzer, was the most known lady on the block. She was kind hearted, loving, and caring to everyone- except her son, David. The first years of David’s life were the best he had ever received, until he turned four years old.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel, David experiences many cherished moments of his past for his loved ones. As David explores the new world, the only way to keep in touch with other humans is through his memories. Through these memories, David is depressed. Saddened by the number of loved ones he lost to death. The loss of both Anita and his parents has a substantial affect on David throughout his life. The following quotation illustrates this rightly.…

    • 1413 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Child Called It

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Child Called "It" is an autobiography written by Dave Pelzer, it is about his extreme mental and physical abuse as a kid. His abuse begun around the age of 4, but he didn't get out of his torture until the age of twelve. In the book he tells us multiple, terrifying stories from his childhood. He tells about how his mom changed from a caring, warm mother into an abusive, cold-hearted alcoholic. You get to witness these horrific tales, however you are also able to so see how much courage this little kid had to have to keep fighting and to win his torturous battle with his mother.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    the chrysalids

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. In this chapter, David's character is described more completely. He is now at the crucial stage of boy-man, having characteristics of both stages. Give some examples of David's behaviour that show each stage.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Altar of the Family

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ‘“Damn grown boy playing with dolls.” And David could hear the reverberations of his father’s shock at night as his parent talked with raised voices.’…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages

    End of life decisions can cause people to make choices they would not normally choose. People begin to reflect on their lives, remembering the good and the bad. I believe one wish when facing death that most people have is they do not want to suffer. They also do not want their family to watch them suffer. I think that physician assisted suicide may be a consideration in some extreme cases where pain cannot be controlled with medications or when the patient is comatose and will never regain consciousness. Many people believe that physician assisted suicide is unethical because it is viewed as murder. Those who view physician assisted suicide as unethical also feel that no one, even a physician has the right to assist anyone with suicide.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays