Chapters 3 and 4 were really hard chapters to read. The abuse that Dave experiences is heartbreaking. Chapter 3 is titled Bad Boy. It picks off where it left off, Dave’s mom begins to punish him and her attitude and behavior towards Dave begins to change drastically. Her punishments towards Dave start to become more and more brutal. The abuse is both physically and mentally. This abuse is only inflicted on Dave, his brothers do not receive the save severe treatment. School is the only escape for Dave, but his mom held him back in the first grade because he was a “bad boy”. The abuse continually gets very severe to the point where Dave can’t watch T.V, he goes without dinner, his beatings become harsher, and he is forced to sleep in the
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The chapter ends with the mom torturing Dave by forcing him to put his hand over a flame, she continued to try to put his whole body over the flame but he resisted. In the end he won, this small victory gave Dave hope, he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction to see his tears. Chapter 4 is titled The Fight For Food. This chapter depicts Dave’s abusive struggle in finding food to keep him alive. His mom hardly feeds him, she doesn’t feed him dinner and in the mornings, if he’s lucky, he gets the leftovers from his brothers. Since he doesn’t get food from home, he resorts to having to steal his food. He first begins to steal from the other kids at school. This worked for a while and eventually they traced it back to him, which his mom heard about and because of it he received a beating for it. He then starts sneaking off to the grocery store to steal his food that way. He also tries to steal leftover food from the trash, his mom learns about this and begins to poison the food. The chapter also depicts how his father is well aware of the abuse and in many cases watches the abuse happen and does …show more content…
The abuse depicted in chapter 3 that really bothered me was when his mom burns him on the stove. The mother tells Dave “You’ve made my life a living hell, she sneered, Now it’s time I showed you what hell is like! Gripping my arm, Mother held it in the orange-blue flame.” (Pelzer, 1995, pg. 41). There were also signs of mental abuse. I saw many signs where the mother would play mental games with Dave to try to defeat his spirit. A specific example was when Dave resorts to stopping at other houses on his way home to ask for food, he asks a lady, that knows his mother, for food. That lady ended up calling his mom. He was so afraid of his beating that he anticipated would come, but instead his mother played mental games with him. Dave states “Then an idea flashed in my brain: I knew why mother had followed every step I took. She wanted to maintain a constant pressure on me, by leaving me unsure of when or where she would strike” (Pelzer, 1995, pg. 72). There was countless signs of abuse both physical and mental, but these are the two instances that really impacted
The chapter ends with the mom torturing Dave by forcing him to put his hand over a flame, she continued to try to put his whole body over the flame but he resisted. In the end he won, this small victory gave Dave hope, he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction to see his tears. Chapter 4 is titled The Fight For Food. This chapter depicts Dave’s abusive struggle in finding food to keep him alive. His mom hardly feeds him, she doesn’t feed him dinner and in the mornings, if he’s lucky, he gets the leftovers from his brothers. Since he doesn’t get food from home, he resorts to having to steal his food. He first begins to steal from the other kids at school. This worked for a while and eventually they traced it back to him, which his mom heard about and because of it he received a beating for it. He then starts sneaking off to the grocery store to steal his food that way. He also tries to steal leftover food from the trash, his mom learns about this and begins to poison the food. The chapter also depicts how his father is well aware of the abuse and in many cases watches the abuse happen and does …show more content…
The abuse depicted in chapter 3 that really bothered me was when his mom burns him on the stove. The mother tells Dave “You’ve made my life a living hell, she sneered, Now it’s time I showed you what hell is like! Gripping my arm, Mother held it in the orange-blue flame.” (Pelzer, 1995, pg. 41). There were also signs of mental abuse. I saw many signs where the mother would play mental games with Dave to try to defeat his spirit. A specific example was when Dave resorts to stopping at other houses on his way home to ask for food, he asks a lady, that knows his mother, for food. That lady ended up calling his mom. He was so afraid of his beating that he anticipated would come, but instead his mother played mental games with him. Dave states “Then an idea flashed in my brain: I knew why mother had followed every step I took. She wanted to maintain a constant pressure on me, by leaving me unsure of when or where she would strike” (Pelzer, 1995, pg. 72). There was countless signs of abuse both physical and mental, but these are the two instances that really impacted