Analysis Of A Child Called It By David Pelzer

Improved Essays
Often works of literature include characters that change as a result in a particular event. One such work is A Child Called “ It” by David Pelzer. This memoir takes place in Daly city, a small town in California, where David grew up in a happy, warm and safe environment. One unfortunate day changed that all. In A Child Called “It”, David Pelzer, an American was changed by a horrific event that left him scarred for life; Davids change is important to the work of literature.
When Dave was a young boy he described his family as the “ Brady Bunch”, full of family picnics, holiday specials, and his mother's wonderful cooking. In fact Catherine, David's mother, loved to cook exotic meals for her family and embellish their home with creative and

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    John Updike’s “A&P” and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” contain main characters who experience an unexpected change in the way they view the world from people that they’ve formed a stereotype of. In “A&P”, Sammy, the main character, is influenced by three young girls while in “Cathedral”, the husband, is influenced by Robert to bring out this change in them. In both texts, the objects for change are similar in that the narrators viewed them negatively, they unexpectedly came in to the narrator’s lives, and they represent a way of escape from the closed world the characters live in. In John Updike’s “A&P”, three teenage girls walk into a grocery store wearing only bathing suits.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Dave Pelzer Discipline

    • 2333 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The novel A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer is an inspiring heart wrenching story about a young boy, Dave, who is abused both physically and mentally by his mother. Dave endures and more importantly survives an ideal that no human being should ever have to live through. From the age of 4 to 10 Dave was continually abused and dehumanized, gradually getting worse over time. Everything was taken away from him, his mother made him feel like he was truly nothing.…

    • 2333 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dave Pelzer

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Imagine if you were scared to come home and feared to find out what your punishment was going to be that day. This autobiography, “A Child Called It”, was written by Dave Pelzer. Surprisingly, Dave Pelzer was the little boy that was abused in this book, and decided to share it with the world to make everyone aware what might happen behind closed doors. In this report I will include many parts of Dave’s life story including: plot, setting, characters, themes, and my response.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Child Called It Summary

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “A Child Called It” Book Review For my review, I am focusing on a book called A Child Called It by David Pelzer. I chose this book because while I was reading it, it spoke to me on many levels and made me feel more content with my childhood growing up. Pelzer is a strong person that writes about his horrific childhood living under his mother's roof and what he had to do to survive. Through this review, we will be looking at where it took place, writing style, characters, and the plot of the story.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Can you identify one incident that changed your entire view on everyone around you? That set your world upside down forever? Felix had several of those. ‘Once’ is a novel of historical fiction by Morris Gleitzman, set in the midst of World War 2. It tells the story of Felix Saint Stanistaus a young Jewish boy who was placed in an orphanage by his parents until they sorted out their “troubles” as Jewish booksellers.…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Child Called It Analysis

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “A Child Called ‘It’”, by Dave Pelzer, is a novel about the author’s fight through a disturbing and abused childhood. The novel starts with Dave telling us about the last day at his Mother’s house before he was rescued by law enforcement. At first, I could not understand why he started the novel with the end of his story, but after finishing the novel, it was clear to me that it was easier to read it knowing there actually was a light at the end of the tunnel. Pelzer’s story tells us what happened to him and that unbelievably he was able to survive and live to see the day he left his horrible home.…

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though a very eerie scene in the play, the scene was also very crucial for the introduction of a new topic: identity. because of this revelation, the author ‘frees’ herself from her struggles and…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When i was twelve years old, me and my friends went to knots for a field trip. When i got to knots i was so scared to get on rides that i walked around the park for about 2 hours looking for a ride that would not scare me, but instead of me finding a ride which was not scary i went on a ride my friends told me to go on. When i was in the line i got so scared that i ran out the line and i got a stomach ache and i called my brother to pick me up.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Branches of Perspective “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Author Harper Lee clearly demonstrates the importance of perspective in this quote. She reminds us throughout her best-selling novel that a changed perspective and a loss of innocence fly side by side. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores the idea of changing perspective through the staggering differences between the innocent views of a child, and the more cynical, realistic views of those close to adulthood. One way Lee explores the idea of changing and contrasting perspectives is through Jem’s loss of innocence.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Defective babies, feeble-mindedness, and criminals. According to Margaret Sanger all those things could be prevented. In 1916 she established the first birth control clinic and was arrested for the “distribution of information on contraception” ( “Margaret Sanger: Wikipedia”). Margaret Sanger created an establishment that is still used one hundred years later. Her beliefs were that although abortions could be justified that they could also be avoided by using birth control.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrator grows from a young teenager to adulthood through all of his experiences. His growth starts from the first mistake of dropping the keys in the grass to the girls in the parking lot looking for their friend. The boys see things throughout the story that 19 year old boys should not see. The boys learned valuable lessons from each experience they went through. They were not as tough as they thought when it came to fighting.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cory Mackenson Character Development Hardships are inevitable in life. One would be burdened with the weight of the past if they did not keep moving forward. Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon illustrates the journey of a young boy, Cory Mackenson, as he navigates life and what it means to grow up. Living in a sheltered town in Zephyr, Alabama where seemingly nothing bad ever happens, Cory is ignorant about loss and hardships.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Why do people fear growing up? The progression from a child to an adult is only natural. yet many absolutely dread the idea of transitioning into adulthood. Set in New England during World War II A Separate Peace tells the story of two friend, Gene and Phineas, and their short lived time of being children.…

    • 1484 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Doe Season Theme

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Andy’s loss of Innocence and Identity Change through a Traumatic Event Often times, the mental development, loss of innocence, and discovering of identity in children is a gradual process. Traumatic events in one’s life may cause early maturation of these processes in young children. In “Doe Season”, David Michael Kaplan uses third person limited point of view through Andy to manifest the idea that death is an impressionable tragedy on young innocent children still discovering their identity. Kaplan’s use of this point of view allows the reader to see not only the reactions stemming from death of the deer, but all of the emotions and thoughts through the innocent mind of the major character, Andy.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays