Abusive Mother example essay topic

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. At the beginning of the book, the story takes place in ' The House" around 1970's in Daly City; California. There is only place in the house for David, and that is the basement. In the basement, he would sleep eat and stay there until he is called for his chores. His survivor was school, where he knew he could be away from all the hard treatment and listening to his mothers.

He hated being at "The House". a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games - games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it". Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive - dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.

A Child Called 'It' is a first-person narrative of a severely abused child who has survived to tell his tale. Dave Pelzer tells his story to help others heal from the trauma of the past. You may remember that in training we emphasize how many abused and neglected children remain so attached to their families that they want to live with them at any cost. This was not Dave Pelzer's experience.

He grew to hate his mother for singling him out for systematic torture. His anger helped him survive: 'I wanted to show The Bitch that she could beat me only if I died, and I was determined not to give in, even to death. ' Perhaps the security of his early years helped Dave develop enough resilience to survive the abuse and grow up to be an emotionally healthy adult with a child of his own. As he writes: 'The challenges of my past have made me immensely strong inside... I have a vast appreciation for things that others may take for granted... My blessings also mean having the opportunity to meet so many people who had a positive impact on my life.

The endless sea of faces, prodding me, teaching me to make the right choices, and helping me in my quest for success. ' Dave's purpose of writing these books was to tell the world, how he was treated like many other kids are treated in the families. He was giving a message to other people, how child abuse had changed over many years. There are many kids in the world who are mistreated like David was.

Reading his book makes you realize and makes you see through a child perspective of getting abused by this own mother. Obviously, the stories of Dave's childhood are difficult to read. At times, I had to put the book down and walk away for a few days before I could continue. So why would anyone want to read this book, with its seemingly endless tales of torture and cruelty? More importantly, why should anyone read it?

There are two reasons, the first being that Pelzer's tale is a testament to how much the human spirit can endure and remain whole. Pelzer tells of his resolve to not be defeated. With each incident, Dave managed to find some way to placate his mother. While he couldn't make the abuse stop, he learned how to manipulate his mother's behavior enough to keep the immediate situation from getting even more ugly. Each time his mother walks away from him, you get the feeling that he would like to shout out after her, 'Ha! You didn't kill me this time, bitch, and you aren't going to kill me next time either!' It is an incredible tale of strength and courage in a person not even old enough to reach the bathroom sink.

The second thing that Pelzer accomplishes is that he puts a face on child abuse. Every day, we see kids getting slapped in Wal-Mart or the grocery store and parents threatening, 'Just wait till I get you home!' In recent months, we have heard tales of the mother who drowned her five children, and the mother who starved and imprisoned her daughter. Celebrities such as Anne Heche and Roseanne regularly appear on talk shows and in print discussing their dysfunctional families. Students are killing one another in our schools, and the media is quick to report on every detail of their home lives. After awhile, as we read these accounts, we become numb, write them off as yet another example of bad parenting, and think to ourselves, 'Gee, that's too bad.

I really feel sorry for the kid. ' Then we turn the page to find out what Marmaduke and Doonesbury are up to. Pelzer refuses to let us have that easy out. There are people involved in these stories, he reminds us: people suffering in ways that we can not possibly imagine, and to turn our backs on them makes us no better Stephen Pelzer, the man who knew better and did nothing.

I defy anyone to read this book and not admit that we must do something to stop the abuse of our most precious asset, our children. One could say that A Child Called 'It' is good literature if good literature is, in fact, supposed to illicit an emotional response from the reader. However, from a purely literary perspective, this book, the first of a trilogy about Pelzer's life, is not really 'good' literature. Pelzer's writing style is simple at best; there is no great effort to employ the literary tools we associate with the classics: foreshadowing, detailed metaphors, analysis of motivation, etc. Pelzer relies on 'language that was developed from a child's viewpoint' he tells us in the author's notes, resulting in a straightforward 'This happened, then this happened, and this is how I felt' approach. What makes the book so compelling is the tale itself, as Pelzer describes incident after incident of cruel torture at his mother's hands and the ineffective and lame efforts of his father to protect him.

Indeed, Dave Pelzer is an admirable man, not only for surviving a horrific childhood and growing up to be a man of many accomplishments, but also for taking us on a journey in A Child Called 'It' that forces us to reevaluate our own lives and the world around us. I have yet to read the other two books in Pelzer's trilogy, The Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave, but I am eager to follow the progression of this man's life. Now a doting father, Dave Pelzer provides affirmation that the cycle of abuse can be broken. It is a message that must never be forgotten in our legislatures, our schools, or our hearts.