A sad story about a young boy getting brutally abused by his mother.
A Child Called "It" is a very sad story about David Pelzer, who is now a man that has to forever live with the memory of the horrifying childhood that he had to go through. David grew up with four brothers, an unstable alcoholic mother, and an incompetent father. The story of David's childhood is very sad, he was brutally beaten and starved by his mother. She played "games" with David, these games were sick and twisted. Although David had to learn how to cope and "play" these games in order to survive. David was forced to sleep in the basement on an old army cot. His mother made him wear the same clothes to bed, and back to school the next day, as an effort to embarrass him. The kids at school made fun of him and called him names like "Pelzer-Smellzer" and "David The Food Thief", because David would be so hungry that he would steal things from the other kid's lunches in order to get something to eat, because his mother would not feed him. If David got the luxury to eat he would only be allowed scraps of food, like his brother's left over cereal, or things "even the dog refused to eat." David's story is a truly touching story that I know I will never forget.
While David was young, he loved his mother very much, as well as his father. He admired both of them greatly. He described his mother as "...a woman who glowed with love for her children." He described his father as his "hero." When David was in his toddler years he was very loved by all of his family. Growing up in Daly City, California seemed to be going perfectly well for David.
Then David's mother started to "punish" David instead of discipline. As David said in the book, "My relationship with Mom drastically changed from discipline to punishment that grew out of control. It became so bad at times, I had no strength to crawl away--even if it meant saving my life." David's mother would tell him that he was a "bad boy" and that he couldn't play with his brothers and his punishment would be to sit in a corner of his room for hours. And this was only the beginning. David's mother's behavior began to worsen. David's father started to work 24-hour shifts. When David's mother decided that the "corner treatment" was no longer working, she began to give him the "mirror treatment" David described this as "mother would simply grab me and smash my face into the mirror, smearing my tear-streaked face on the slick reflective glass. The she would order me to say over and over again, 'I'm a bad boy! I'm a bad boy! I'm a bad boy!' and then I was forced to stand staring into the mirror." David's mother began to make up "games" for David and his brothers to play. She would make them look around the house for things that she was "missing." When David forgot what he was looking for, he would ask and she would tell him that he knows and to stop lying and to look until he finds it. David would just keep on pretending to look until his mother drank too much that she would either pass out or forget about them.
"As mother grabbed my arm, she lost her balance and staggered back a step. As she jerked violently to regain her stability, I heard something pop, and felt an intense pain in my shoulder and arm. The startled look on Mother's face told me that she had heard the sound, too, but she released her grip on my arm, and turned and walked away as if nothing had happened." This part of the book shows that David's mother had no compassion for David or his pain. David could not move his arm. He wanted his father to come home from work so that he would take him to get his arm fixed, but he knew that he couldn't tell on his mother because it would only be worse next time. When it was time for dinner, David couldn't eat because he could not move his arm, so his mother sent him to bed early, ordering him to sleep on the top bunk tonight. "I hadn't slept long when Mother awakened me, explaining that I had rolled out of the top bunk during the night. She seemed to be deeply concerned about my condition, as she drove me to the hospital. When she told the doctor about my fall from the top bunk bed, I could tell by the look he gave me that he knew my injury was no accident. Again, I was too afraid to speak up. At home, Mother made up an even more dramatic story for Father. In the new version, Mother included her efforts to catch me before I hit the floor. As I sat in mothers lap, listening to her lie to Father, I knew my mom was sick. But my fear kept the accident our secret. I knew if I ever told anyone, the next "accident" would be worse." David went through so much living with his mother. This was only just the beginning. David's mother made him stand in the garage all day, until he was "summand" to either do chores or go to bed. He was no longer allowed to eat or play with his brothers. One summer while David and his family went on vacation to a campsite, David was dropped of at his aunt's house. He was not allowed to go on the trip with them. David wanted to be with his family on vacation so he tried to run away and find them. David's aunt told his mother about this and the next time his father wend way, David paid for it. "Mother smacked, punched and kicked me until I crumpled to the floor. I tried to tell Mother that I had run away because I wanted to be with her and the family. I tried to tell her that I have missed her, but Mother refused to let me speak. I tried to tell her once more and Mother dashed to the bathroom, snatched a bar of soap and crammed it down my throat. After that, I was no longer allowed to speak unless I was instructed to do so."
David's mother forced David to repeat the first grade, even though he had the most "happy face" papers out of the whole class, just so she could have a reason to punish him, because she was running out of reasons. When David returned to the first grade, it made him feel good about himself. He was the smartest kid in the class and knew all the answers. And what David found to be even better was that his brother, Stan, was also in the first grade. At recess David would go over to Stan's first grade class and play with him. At school they were the best of friends, but David knew that once they got home, all that would have to change.
That summer, David and his family went on a trip to where they used to go when the whole family got along, The Russian River, they did all of the things that David used to do with his family. They went to the beach, the park, and everything, but when it came to the part of the trip where they went to the amusement park that used to be David's favorite part, David's mother made him stay back in the cabin with her and his new baby brother, Russell. As a new tortuous method of punishment, David's mother shoved Russell's dirty diaper in David's face. "I knew mother had something hideous on her mind. As soon as they left, she brought out one of Russell's soiled diapers. She smeared the diaper on my face. I tried to sit perfectly still. I knew if I moved it would only be worse. I didn't look up. I couldn't see Mother standing over me, but I could hear her heavy breathing. After what seemed like an hour, Mother knelt down beside me and in a soft voice said, 'eat it.'" I think that this quote in the book is incredibly vile. What David's mother did to him is so disgusting, that at this point in the book I had to put it down and stop reading for a little while, although when I started reading again, I realized that compared to other things that David's mother did to him, the diaper incident was like nothing.
"Mother got up and strolled over to the kitchen sink cabinet and removed a bottle od ammonia. I didn't understand. She got a tablespoon and poured some ammonia into it. My brain was too rattled to think. As much as I wanted to, I could not get my numb brain into gear." "...Without hesitation I opened my mouth, and Mother rammed the cold spoon deep into my throat. Again I told myself this was all too easy, but a moment later I couldn't breathe. My throat seized. I stood wobbling in front of Mother, feeling as if my eyes were going to pop out of my skull. I fell on the floor, on my hands and knees. "Bubble!" My brain screamed. I pounded the kitchen floor with all my strength, trying to swallow, and trying to concentrate on the bubble of air stuck in my esophagus. Instantly I became terrified. Tears of panic streamed down my cheeks. After a dew seconds, I could feel the force of my pounding fists weaken. My fingernails scraped the floor. The colors seemed to run together. I began to feel myself drift away. I knew I was going to die." Obviously David didn't die, but the new 'game' with ammonia happened three times in a row. David's throat and tongue were raw and red and blotchy.
The next summer David's mother set time limits for David. If he didn't finish his chores on time, he would get no food. "If you don't finish on time, I'm going to kill you!" His mother would say. Then one day she had given David dinner and said that he had 20 minutes to eat it, and if he went a second over, then he wouldn't eat for days. His mother stood there, over his shoulder while he shoved his food in his face. She was so drunk that she was rocking back and forth. "Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blurred object fly from her hand. A sharp pain erupted from just above my stomach. I tried to remain standing, but my legs gave out and my world turned black." David's mother had stabbed him. I found this so horrifying that tears came to my eyes. This is by far the saddest book that I have ever read. His mother cleaned up his wound but showed no compassion at all. He tried to tell his father what his mother had done. "I stood before Father waiting for him to turn his page and see me. When he did, I stuttered, 'Father . . . Mo . . . Mo . . . Mother stabbed me.' He didn't even raise an eyebrow. 'Why"' he asked. ...Time stood still. From behind the paper I could hear Father's labored breathing. He cleared his throat before saying, 'Well... you ah...you better go back in there and do the dishes.' My head leaned forward as if to catch his words. I couldn't believe what I had just heard." So not only did David have to go through the pain that his mother stabbed him, he also had to go through the pain that his father didn't seem to care much.
After being stabbed, David's mother went back to her usual ways. She began to think up even more creative "games" for David to play. Like when David would clean the bathroom she would do very cruel things. "She sent me to clean the bathroom with her usual time limits. But this time, she put a bucket filled with ammonia and Clorox, in the room with me and closed the door. The first time she did this, Mother informed me she had read about it in a newspaper and wanted to try it. Even though I acted as if I was frightened, I really wasn't. I was ignorant about what was going to happen. Only when Mother closed the door and ordered me not to open it, did I begin to worry. With the room sealed, the air began to quickly change. In the corner of the bathroom I dropped to my hands and knees and stared at the bucket. A fine gray mist swirled towards the ceiling. As I breathed in the fumes, I collapsed and began spitting up. My throat felt like it was on fire. Within minutes it was raw. The gas from the reaction of the ammonia and Clorox mixture made my eyes water. I was frantic about not being able to meet Mother's time limits for cleaning the bathroom." I think that this is so horrible, because David couldn't breathe, his throat felt as if it was on fire and all he was worried about was if he could get the bathroom done on time. I know that he just didn't want to make his mother more mad, but it still seems crazy to me. Then that same summer, David's mother sent him outside to mow lawns and return the money to her. She set a quota for David to meet and of course it was impossible. "...so, in desperation, I once stole nine dollars from the piggy bank on a small girl who lived in our neighborhood. Within hours, the girl's father was knocking on the front door. Of course, Mother returned the money and blamed me. After the man left, she beat me until I was black and blue. I only stole the money to try to meet her quota."
"About a month before I entered the fifth grade, I came to believe that for me, there was no God." I think that this statement by David is very sad, because it just shows that he thinks there is no longer any hope of him getting away from his mother and surviving, he believed, at this point, that nothing was there for him anymore, nothing could help him. "No just God would leave me like this. I believed that I was alone in my struggle and that my battle was one of survival." David said that by this point he felt nothing but anger, anger towards everyone because no one seemed to want to help him at all.
One day when David was in fifth grade, his teacher, Mr. Ziegler, said that the fifth grade was having a contest to name the school newspaper. David entered and ended up winning, so Mr. Ziegler sent home a letter to David's mother saying what a good student David was. "I ran to Mother's house faster than ever before. As I should have expected, my happiness was short lived. Mother tore the letter open, red it quickly and scoffed, 'Well, Mr. Ziegler says I should be so proud of you for naming the school newspaper. He also claims that you are one of the top pupils in his class. Well, aren't you special"' Suddenly her voice turned ice cold and she jabbed her finger at my face and hissed, 'Get one thing straight! There is nothing you can do to impress me! Do you understand me? You are a nobody! An It! You are nonexistent! You are a bastard child! I hate you and I wish you were dead! Dead! Do you hear me? Dead!'" This is the first time in the book that David's mother tells him she hates him, and she told him that she wanted him dead. I found this to be the saddest part of the book. And after this David describes his feelings toward what his mother had said. "My heart sank lower than ever before. Mother's words were no longer coming from the booze; they were coming from her heart. I would have been relieved if she had returned with a knife and ended it all."
David described that he wished that his mother would kill him. He began to purposely irritate his mother in hopes that she would at some point be driven enough to kill him, so it would all be over for David and he will no longer have to worry about what sick 'game' his mother would think up next. David was in the grocery store with his brothers and his mother. When his mother would make orders he would disobey her and then his brothers would make comments and David would snap back. So when they all got back to the car, David was ordered to lay on the floor of the back seat so his brothers could take turns stomping on his back for "mouthing off" to them. And when David and his family got home, David's mother made up the mixture of Clorox and ammonia again. This ime she threw the rag in the bucket so David couldn't use it to cover his face, and she didn't turn the vents on either, so he couldn't breathe, and then she left him in there for hours.
David had learned at the end of that year, that his father and mother were getting separated. David was scared for his life, he knew that now that his father was leaving, there is no possible way for him surviving. David was very scared, and the book ends with his saying "...deliver me from evil" "Amen."
I thought that this book was really sad, and it showed so much emotion and drama, it makes you appreciate everything that you have. It shows you that even though sometimes you make think that you have it bad, you could just be over exaggerating, because other people could have it worse.
This is the complete article, containing 3,019 words
(approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page).
