S2 Honors Novel Blog #1: A Child Called It

In A Child Called It, the theme of abuse is an obvious and important theme, but a social issue in our society as well. No child wants to be abused, neither verbally, mentally, or physically. However, sometimes in order for someone to feel a sense of power and defeat for themselves, they harshly bring down one(s) that they once use to genuinely love and care for.

Child abuse was the theme of Dave Pelzer's life between the ages of four and twelve, the time period over which this book covers. There are many types of abuse that can damage a child's delicate psyche and most of them are covered in this book. The first is verbal abuse. Many people do not realize how deeply words can wound and hurt a child. And not only does it have to be the words that wound the child but the actions, tone, and meanings behind the words as well. A child's feelings are a lot more delicate than those of the adults, and they tend to be affected for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, in our society, abuse tends to be overlooked and overpowered by things that are "more important." But think about, what could be more important than the physical and mental well being of the children? or better yet, our future?

Language can be as damaging to a child as a fist. The very title of this book, A Child Called It, is a perfect example of verbal abuse. Dave's mother reduced her child, a son she gave birth to, down to nothing. Dave's mother refused to acknowledge Dave as a member of the family for many years, slowly but surely beating him down literally, to be worth, to her, even his dad and brothers, no more than the dirt on the ground.

Daves childhood was filled with cruel events perpetrated on Dave by his mother in a fog of alcoholism and mental instability. Dave's perspective, the child who actually went through the events portrayed in this autobiography, clearly demonstrated and represented an inhumane lifestyle, that is being experienced by children all over the world. These events include horrible beatings, starvation, and forced feedings of chemicals, such as ammonia. Dave was only four or five when these episodes of abuse began with time standing in a corner and escalating to time forced to stare at himself in a mirror. Is this a way to discipline anyone?

In my opinion, this did not help Dave, but hurt him. Forcing a child so young to do such a thing,does not help them to realize their wrong, but veer them more towards decreasing the value of themselves. Doing that has the potential to lead to built up frustration and possibly really bad behavior. Not only should the mom have came up with a better way of dealing with his mischief, but society should currently be in the process of coming up with a better more effective way to deal with child abuse as a whole. It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes the world to better the abused lives of young children. Love and care should take the place of beatings and intentional starvation.

Pelzer’s book has been criticized for its poor writing and self-complaints. Also, some believe that the circumstances are so unbelievable that they are hard to believe. What father would leave his helpless son and allow such terrible abuse in his home? What mother could possibly behave this way? I believe that there are no actual people in the novel, only demons. However, I did notice Dave's strong ability to handle difficult subject matters and explore and expand the perspective of a boy suffering at the hands of his own mother.

By structuring his writing in this way, it helped me to get a better visual and understanding of abused souls and minds as a whole. What Dave went through, should be a learning experience and wake up call to everyone around the world. Society is constantly changing, and morphing everyday. And if child abuse is going to be reduced, it will be up to the people within the society to bring awareness to people they know, so that everyone can try and work together to help make a difference in the lives of abused children. A child that is hopeless, and on the verge of completely giving up, is waiting for caring people like us to be their savior and the one that helps them to realize that they can be loved, and their horrific past, could be turned into a bright future.