Dave's Abuse

In the book A Child Called “it”, by Dave Pelzer, the person I like least in this book, other than the abusive Catherine is Dave's dad, Stephen. From the beginning it was very clear that Dave's rolemodel was his father, Stephen. Stephen was a hardworking fireman, who loved his family. In the beginning of Dave's abuse story, Catherine would not abuse him in front of his father, so the times that Stephen was home Dave would follow him around as protection. “ Whenever he went to the garage to work on a project, I followed him. If he sat in his favorite chair to read the newspaper, I parked myself at his feet” (pg.23). But as the book and Dave's abuse continues and worsens, Stephen doesn't do anything and leaves Catherine to abuse Dave even more.
Stephen is the person I dislike the least in this book because he left Dave in the time that Dave needed him the most. Dave’s hero and role model was always Stephen in the book. In the beginning, Stephen urged Catherine to treat Dave better Father was my only hope, and he did all he could to sneak me scraps of food” (p.32), but atomic fights between Catherine and Stephen weakened his power to help Dave. “The longer Father argued his case, the angrier she became. I could tell he had lost, and that I was becoming more and more isolated.” (p.27). Stephen had lost his fight with Catherine, but that wasn’t clear to Dave until the day Catherine forced him to throw up hot dogs. Dave had eaten hot dogs early that day in school, when he got back home Catherine made him disgorge the hot dogs. Catherine was so angry she forced Dave to eat …show more content…
If only Stephen would have put aside his fear for Catherine and told the police or the school, Dave wouldn’t have been beaten and tortured the way he