Analysis Of One Child's Courage To Survive By Dave Pelzer

The story of A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer is based on the real life of Dave Pelzer and perceptive on his childhood in which he was abused in multiple ways. With the help of the textbook Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect by Cynthia Crosson-Tower, it is possible to analyze the diverse types of abuse he endured and view some of the probable causes that could have influenced his own mother to mistreat him. Crosson-Tower (2014) says that “it is agreed, however, that physical abuse of children refers to the non-accidental injury inflicted by a caregiver.” (pg. 96) Dave’s mothers believed that punishing the “bad boy” consisted of punishments that brought literal pain unto her child. One of the punishments he had received was having his arm held on top of the …show more content…
Pelzer’s mother was extremely aggravated and drunk the night of “the accident”, as she made him believed, and knowingly stabbed Pelzer. Without any emotion or remorse, she cleaned him up with some cloths and put him back on his chores. The author explains how every move would cause great pain, until he managed to figure out some ways to minimize them while doing his mandatory chores. After being done, Pelzer’s mother again, sent him to isolation, checking on him once in a while, but never seeking real medical care. Medical neglect is defined as “the refusal to provide health care, or delay in getting health care” (Crosson-Tower, 2014, pg. 68). This mother denied her child the right to health care knowing that he was very ill, and worse, knowing that there was a possibility of death. Physically abusing a child is probably tough to deal with, now leaving them to deal with the pain, and not give proper care when needed, can be considered a form of medical neglect (Crosson-Tower,