Michael Padilla
April 11,2012
George Boyd
A Child Called "It" Paper

In the first chapter of "A Child Called 'It'" the author Dave Pelzer illustrates a typical morning routine for himself. He wakes up, does his chores, gets beaten by his mother, Catherine Roerva, and tries to make it to school on time. He describes how his she is running around yelling at his brothers, stomping down the hallway towards the kitchen. As he is doing the dishes she catches him with his hand out of the scalding hot water for just a moment and she smacks him in the face, knocking him to the floor. She follows this up with more blows to the head and leaves seemingly satisfied with herself. What's surprising is that Pelzer says that he lets her feel like she won by having streams of tears and mock defeat on his face. Once he is done with his chores he eats his breakfast, leftovers from his brother's cereal. A few bites and a half of a bowl of milk. As his mother drives him to school in their old station wagon he arrives to school late. Just as he is leaving she gives him his lunch bag, two peanut butter sandwiches and a few carrot sticks, the same thing he has been getting for the past three years. As he walks away she reminds him to say that the marks on his face came from running into the door. Once he arrives inside the school he must report to the administration's office. The nurse takes him off to her office and goes through a regular routine. She checks his arms, face and body for bruises. Once the nurse asks about his marks, he uses the excuse his mother gave him. Once she reminds him that he's used that explanation before, he quickly changes his story and says that he was playing baseball and was hit by the bat. As she scolds him for lying, he breaks down and tells her the truth about what his mother does to him. She records all of the marks on a clipboard and gives him a hug. He describes her body as very warm and he says that he wants to stay in her arm forever. She leaves for a moment and returns with the principal Mr. Hansen. As the school nurse reports her findings Mr. Hansen says that he's had enough of it and that makes Dave very scared. He fears that he will call his mother and tell her what Dave has said about her. Dave then describes how he is very shaky like jello, he cries and begs Mr. Hansen not to call. After he assures Pelzer that he is not going to call, he sends him off to class. When he arrives to his homeroom class, all the of the students plug their noses because of his old, smelly, worn out clothing. Before he can take his seat in class, he is summoned back to the administration office. As he enters the teachers' lounge, sitting in front of him are a couple of his teachers, the school nurse, the principal and a police officer. The police officer asks that he be informed of how his mother treats him and at first Dave is reluctant but eventually he caves in and tells the officer what he needs to hear. The school nurse shows the officer a scar on Dave's chest where his mother accidentally stabbed him. Dave tells him that his mother punishes him because he is bad. He feels so guilty that he is saying these things about his mother and he feels like he should protect her. The officer then asks David for his address and phone number. This scares him but he subsides and gives the information. When the police officer contacts David's mother, he is very scared that his mother will beat him worse than she ever has. When she answers the phone the officer tells her that Davis will not be coming home and he is in the custody of the San Mateo Juvenile Department and if she has any questions, she can call them. The officer and David leave the school and the officer tells David that he is free. Free from his mother and the horrible abuse he has suffered through. The second chapter felt like it should have been the first. It recounts the story of how David's like was before his mother abused him. They were a very happy family. He describes them as "The Brady Bunch of the 60's". They would take vacations every summer, have dinner together every night and play with the other children in the neighborhood. Dave illustrates his mother as a very loving, warm woman and a great wife to her husband Stephen Joseph. As he describes his mother he says that her greatest asset was her determination. She always had ideas and she always took command of all family matters. Stephen supported his family by working as a firefighter in the heart of San Francisco. He stood about five feet, ten inches tall and weighed about 190 pounds. In chapter three he goes into detail about the start of his abuse. He states that his relationship with his mother changed incredibly from discipline to out of control punishment. Dave had the unfortunate luck of getting caught up in mischief, sometimes with his brothers. But his mother would punish him the worst. It started out as being put in the corner of his bedroom. This was so unusual to him that he became very afraid of his mother. He would not ask to be let out of the corner and would often rely on his brothers in inquire if he could go back out and play. As his father was away most of the week for work, his mother's behavior changed from being an active woman, to just lying around on the couch in a bathrobe all day, drinking. She would only get up to go to the bathroom or to refill her drinks. Her voice changed from being nurturing to the sound of a wicked witch. When the "corner treatment" was no longer effective, he graduated to the "mirror treatment." It involved having his face smashed up against the mirror and repeating, "I'm a bad boy, I'm a bad boy!" over and over again. Whenever his brothers saw him with his face against the mirror, they would shrug their shoulders and continue on playing like he wasn't there at all. At first his brother's were also punished along with Dave, although it wasn't as bad as his, eventually he was singled out and was tormented by his mother. As her drinking became out of control, so did her punishments. Dave recalls her burning his arm on the hot stove for playing in the grass at school, which was forbidden in her rules. She then ordered him to lie on it while it was still scorching hot. He did all he could to try and avoid lying on the stove by having his mother beat him until one of his brothers came home from a boy scouts meeting. She would not treat his as severely while they were in front of his brother or his father. In another memory of her viciousness, he writes about how they were on a family vacation and his mother tried to make him eat a diaper with his new baby brother's defecation in it. While his father and brothers were out fishing, she ordered him to eat the dirty diaper and when he refused, she began to beat him and eventually smashed the diaper in his face and smeared it all over. When she heard the sounds of the rest of the family returning, she gave his a wet rag to wipe off his face although he could still smell and taste the defecate. The fight for food was Dave's biggest struggle. That was his only way of surviving. Whilst slowly becoming the family slave, Catherine would often starve him for days at a time. When he was fed, she would only give him scraps of food that even the pets would not take. He had no other choice but to eat it because that was his only way of staying alive. The only other option he had was stealing the lunches of other kids at school only to get caught after a few successful attempts. As the years went on the punishments only seemed to get worse. She would give him a makeshift gas chamber in the bathroom while he was cleaning it. She would mix ammonia and Clorox on a bucket and seal the door shut to leave Dave suffocating and gasping for fresh air. When he was finally let out he would still have to continue his chores otherwise the consequences would be dire. As more time passed his mother and father were growing apart. Stephen would often visit the house for only a few hours and then eventually those hours only turned into minutes. He would make a quick stop at the house to pick up clothes and talk to Dave. His mother's alcoholism began to worsen and she controlled everything that went on in the house. His desire for survival was the only thing on his mind. Over time he became almost like a zombie. He had no interest in showing his emotions around his mother and began to resent his brothers. Eventually his mother and father became separated and he can remember her telling him that he was "all hers now" and that his father would not be there to protect him anymore. As the book ends, he recalls saying a prayer while his mother was nearing their house after dropping off his father's belongings to him, his prayer ended with, "and deliver us from evil."

Dave's struggle with survival was incredible to read about. It's almost life changing because when a parent reads this book, mo matter how good of a parent they are, it will make them want to be an even better one. This book relates to victimology in so many ways because for years this poor boy was tortured, beaten, and starved by his own mother. Throughout the book I kept thinking about the chapter in our text, "Child Mistreatment." It fits so perfectly in comparison because the he was being treated so badly by his mother. At the same time did nothing to try and contact any law officials because he felt guilty that he would be the reason his mother would get in trouble. He was so afraid of the consequences that he just put up with the abuse for years until his school administration finally did something to help him out. There was even some sexual harassment that happened to him. His mother ordered him to take off all of his clothes and lie on the stove which embarrassed him because he didn't want his mother to see him naked. Dave's story of survival will forever be remembered because in the end, he won. He became a father and a better man after going through his mistreatment.