Preview

Dear Reader

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
521 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dear Reader
1055 Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90805
2-16-11

Armida Monarrez
Lakewood High School
4400 Briercrest Ave.
Lakewood, CA 90713

Dear Ms. Monarrez,

The title of the book I read is A Child Called It. This novel is an autobiography and was written by a man named Dave Pelzer. There are one hundred eighty-four pages in this novel. This book is about Dave’s life as a child. It took place in the year 1973 in the city of Daly City, California. Dave talks about his life from ages seven all the way up to twelve in this book. Everyday Dave’s mom makes him wear old clothes to school. His shirt has holes in it like Swiss cheese and so does his pants. He has to wear very old shoes that also have holes in them. He is able to wiggle his big toe out of one of the holes in his shoe. Dave really fears his mother because she does horrible things to him. His mother treats him very different from his brothers. She tells him he is a bad boy that’s why he gets hit. One day when Dave was home alone with his mother she made him take off his clothes and tried to make him lay on the hot stove. Dave refused so she grabbed him and forced his arm on to the hot fire and burned his arm. When Dave does not finish washing the dishes on time his mother smacks him around and he gets no food. One of his punishments is not getting any food. If he is lucky he will get to eat his brothers left overs from breakfast or dinner. Dave only feels a little safe when his father is home because his mother acts different when he is home. When his dad is home his mother always argues with him. Dave’s mind set is wrong and all messed up because of what his mother does to him. She makes him believe and think he is a bad boy and everything is his fault. Dave is not allowed to play with his brothers. He cannot watch television. After he finishes his choirs he has to go stand in a corner in the dark basement all alone. From time to time his dad would try to sneak him a piece of bread to eat. Dave

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    A Child Called It Summary

    • 2821 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The book, A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, is a true story of a man’s childhood from the ages of 4 to 12 and how things went from good to bad in a matter of a few years due to his mother’s abusive tendencies toward him. It is a moving story of how this child mustered up the strength to keep living, despite his harsh circumstances. This book, for the most part, is in chronological order and each chapter is a significant event that happened throughout the few years he was under his mother’s care, before he was taken away by Child Protective Services.…

    • 2821 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Her father was the nurturing parent. He played games with both children, spent time discussing books, nature, and helping with school projects. Annie’s mother was very conscious of social status and outward appearances presented in the community. Her mother was less than nurturing and insisted on perfection in the home’s appearance as well as both children’s academics, extracurricular activities, and behavior in general. When failure or shortcoming occurred, severe punishment was executed by Annie’s mother, in the form of corporal punishments and restrictions. Her mother was very authoritarian. Annie began searching for love by marrying quite young to escape her mother’s dominance. Her brother escaped through his music and even tried to run away several times.…

    • 849 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The father begins spending less and less time at home, resulting in Dave getting even more beatings from his mother because she is blaming him for the issues in her marriage. That summer the family goes on a vacation and it seems as if Dave and his mother are getting along better until one day he is playing with his brothers and she scolds him for being too loud and is not allowed to go with them to the slide. Dave's mother punishes him even further by taking a dirty diaper and smearing it in his face, trying to get him to eat it. When he refuses she hits him and then the abuse stops long enough for her to tend to the baby and then she rubs another dirty diaper into Dave's face and tells him again to eat it. Just in time, the family returns and the abuse stops with his mother throwing a washcloth at him to clean himself up and then forces him to sit in the corner for the remainder of the night. The next chapter has Dave's father coming home even less, but when he does he helps Dave to wash the dishes. When his mother scolds his father saying the boy should not be helped, Dave's father becomes rarely seen at…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As an infant his parents were unsure of how to care for him. As Dibs got older the relationship between him and his parents grew further apart. His parents expected so much form him at such a young age that he became emotionally turned off. He would not speak to anyone and would not make eye contact. Dibs would stay close enough to hear what others were saying and would learn that way. When Dibs did not respond to his parents they would get upset and call him stupid. They treated him like an adult and expected adult-like behavior and would lock him in his room if he had an accident, such as spilling tea. His parents were embarrassed of him and blamed him for all of their…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In California in 1973, Dave's life story was identified as one of the most gruesome and extreme cases of child abuse in then history. Dave had stated in his book, A Child Called "It" that "his mother would punish him, for "Mouthing Off" by making her special batch of ammonia and Clorox and locking him in the bathroom." ( Pelzer, 1995, p. 142). At the age of 12 he was finally rescued and in and out a series of foster homes. Then at the age of 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This novel by Susan Shillinglaw, explains the life of a neglected child who got abused, harassed and lied to by his own father. As the novel progresses, Charlie one day escapes the basement in which he has been kept only to be placed in a foster home. Instead of being relieved for being placed in a loving home, he continues to relive the moments of his torment. In order for Charlie to get a fresh start with this loving family, he must accept the challenge of coping with his past but also remember he can not be hurt anymore. The novel tells a depressing reality so individuals know to never let the past go, but instead embrace it since it shapes them today.…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Children are helpless and dependent on their caregivers from the moment they are born. Adolescence is a very confusing point in a young person’s life as they are caught between being a child and a yearning for adulthood. An adolescent may strive for independence, or be forced to mature quickly, but will remain dependent on both their family and society in some way. The effect of this dependency, however, may not always be positive. The main character from Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher John Francis Boone was born with higher functioning autism. This left him vulnerable to the world, in the sense that he would always need to be cared for by others. Astrid Magnussen, from Janet Fitch`s work White Oleander, is forced into foster care when her neglectful mother is taken to jail for murder. She bounces from one foster home to another, always needing but never finding. An adolescent may be aware of their dependency on others or not, however between Christopher’s disability and Astrid losing her only parental figure, that reliance is strengthened. The two grew up precociously though both react to it differently.…

    • 1985 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abuse is everywhere. Behind closed doors are some of the worse things known to mankind. David James Pelzer was just a normal child, who lived in a normal neighborhood, but not a so normal house. The author says “what you have just read is a story of an ordinary family that was devastated by their hidden secret.” In the story “A Child Called It”, by David Pelzer, the setting is in Daly City, California. David’s mother, Catherine Roerva Christen Pelzer, was the most known lady on the block. She was kind hearted, loving, and caring to everyone- except her son, David. The first years of David’s life were the best he had ever received, until he turned four years old.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dave Pelzer

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A motif that was present all through A Child Called It was David’s starvation and hunger. His constant battle against food was implemented by his mother refusing to feed him as one of her “games.” “I worked on my chores at a snail’s pace. I felt so numb. My thought responses became unclear. It seemed to take minutes to understand each sentence Mother yelled at me.” (Pelzer 105) This torturous strategy made sure David was always weak and preforming his chores slowly, which caused him to receive more physical punishments. All of his attempts of nourishing himself, like stealing and begging, end up thwarted by his mother and result in even more abuse. Being perpetually hungry is second nature to David as he rarely gets enough to eat. This lets us as readers sympathize for this small child as we’ve all felt hunger before, and the thought of him having to go through the horrors while being malnourished and tiny is unbearable. It also enforces the concept that even when his abuse isn’t completely horrifying, he’s still…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Child Called IT Essay

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Throughout the years I have read many pieces of literature. Some of the literature I have read has been forgettable, while others I will never forget. A Child Called It is the most memorable book I have ever read. David Pelzer wrote this book about his life, and the abuse he endured from his mother. There are many reasons why this book is the most memorable book I have read. The different emotions I felt while reading this book I will never forget.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Altar of the Family

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ‘“Damn grown boy playing with dolls.” And David could hear the reverberations of his father’s shock at night as his parent talked with raised voices.’…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    We Beat the Streets

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages

    - Rameck gets in trouble again in school with nun. He gets in trouble a lot and is playful but he is a very smart boy. People mistake Rameck playfulness with being slow which he is not. Rameck has problems controlling his anger when someone says something to him he just goes out on a rage. He has a close relationship with his grandmother. He discusses all his problems with her. His mother works a lot to keep up with the bills and Rameck’s tuition.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Close Reading

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages

    There are those things in life that hardly take any time to become an expert at. Close Reading is not one of those things. Close reading can most simply be defined as the technique of taking a piece of writing piece by piece and hyper-analyzing every little bit of it. The concept may not seem too difficult and complex, however, most of the thinking behind it is metacognition. Metacognition is the word for thinking about the way you think. Both of these concepts are incredibly important when analyzing a finalized work. Metacognition helps the author piece together why they did certain things and chose to make certain choices throughout. Close reading then analyzes the choices the author chose to make as well as how they made the paper more or less effective to the audience. Close reading was first introduced in Inquiry 1. However, it has taken most people until now to fully comprehend the concept in full gear. Throughout the first 3 inquiries, little by little, I have been able to utilize the art of close reading more and more as I’ve been able to understand the concept more fully. Although it may have started out a little shaky in Inquiry 1, by Inquiry 3, my grasp of the concept had become more developed.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Reader

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The novel “The Reader” is narrated in first person by one of the main characters, Michael Berg. It is told in the style of an autobiography therefore includes his memories of certain events intermingled with current events. Consequently, these events are told from only one point of view and are reliant on one person’s memory, but also provide insights into Michael’s character and personality. There will be a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of having this style of narration in this genre of book and how the author conveys theme through the use such memories and flashbacks.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Close Reading

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages

    people who ask about teaching creative writing: A workshop can be usefirl. A good teacher can show you how to edit your work. The right dass can encourage you and form the basis…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays