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A Child Called "It"

Author	David Pelzer
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Memoir
Publisher	Health Communications, Inc.
Publication date	September 1, 1995
Media type	Print (hard cover & paper back)
Pages	208
ISBN	9781558743663
Followed by	The Lost Boy (Memoir) 1997

A Child Called "It"

The Novel

Dave Pelzer's first novel, A Child Called "It" was released in 1995. It is a nonfiction book about his mother's abuse of him when he was a child, from the ages of four to twelve. It chronicles his early years until a school teacher finally calls the cops, and he is placed in a foster home.

The book hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list after selling more than 1.6 million copies in five years. Pelzer has been interviewed on many television shows about the book and his experiences, and he continues to give talks around the world.

However, since its release, A Child Called "It" has sparked a firestorm of controversy, owing to conflicting reports of Dave's childhood from other family members. His maternal grandmother and brother have also denied his allegations, saying that either no abuse occurred or that he was abused, but not to the extent that the book suggests. Pelzer's statements have been publicly criticized in The New York Times. However, in his book, A Brother's Journey, one of his brothers, Richard, has backed up his accusations of violence.

Plot Summary

The memoir begins in 1973, with Dave Pelzer, a fifth-grade student living in Daly City, California, doing his morning chores for his Mother, Catherine Roerve Pelzer. Mother hits Dave, and Dave thinks about all the abuse he's experienced at her hands. At school, Dave is sent to the nurse's office. The nurse notices the many bruises and scratches on his body and alerts the principal, who calls the police. A police officer takes Dave away, and Dave initially thinks he is being arrested. However, the officer informs Dave that he is finally "free" from his Mother—he will never have to see her again.

Dave flashes back to the late 1960s when he is a young child growing up in California with his two brothers, Ronald Pelzer and Stan Pelzer. Dave loves his Mother and Father, who works long hours as a firefighter. Mother is a kind, loving woman and treats him with great warmth. Mother took the boys on day trips around the city, always teaching them whatever lessons she could. They would go on family vacations to the Russian River, a place that made Dave happier than anything else. As time goes on, however, Mother begins drinking more. She also becomes more and more overtly abusive to Dave. One night, while Father is out of the house, Mother hits Dave, seriously hurting his arm. Mother takes Dave to the hospital, falsely claiming that Dave fell out of bed. She later makes Dave say, "I am a bad boy," again and again, and forces Dave to repeat the first grade, even though Dave is a bright student.

Dave notices that Mother does not treat him as severely when Father or his siblings are present. However, Father does not actively protect Dave from Mother's abuse. When Mother tells Dave that he will not be receiving Christmas presents, Father gets Dave a few gifts. However, Mother becomes so furious with Father for contradicting her authority that, Dave senses, Father will not defend him again. Dave gradually learns that the only way to survive Mother's abuse is to delay hoping that Father, Stan, or Ron will come home.

School was a haven for Dave since it was the only place he could get away from his Mother. Nevertheless, things at home get worse, as she forced a bar of soap down Dave's throat, left him home during a family vacation, and even made him hold his arms over a burning stove. Soon, she began to starve him, and he spent all his time trying to figure out ways to get food. He stole it from kids at school, from the grocery store, and the frozen lunch trucks, but his Mother started making him vomit after coming home from school to make sure he had not eaten anything.

Mother's abuse becomes even harsher. While she takes good care of Ron and Stan (and gives birth to another child, Russell), she denies Dave food and regularly hits him. She also stops using Dave's name. At school, the principal calls Mother in for a visit to discuss why Dave always has bruises on his body. Mother carries Russell to school, building sympathy for herself, and tells the principal that Dave has an active imagination and hits himself to attract attention. Shortly afterward, Mother forces Dave to eat the feces in Russell's diapers. Dave refuses, but Mother smears feces all over his face, stopping only when Father, Ron, and Stan come home.

Mother continues denying Dave regular meals and forces him to wear the same clothes to school every day, to the point where Dave begins to smell horrible and decides that he needs to steal food to survive. He steals food from his peers and later from a nearby grocery store. He also steals frozen lunches from the cafeteria and fishes scraps of food from the trash can at home. However, Mother deliberately puts spoiled food in the trashcan and later sprinkles ammonia to prevent Dave from eating any scraps. One day, after eating stolen frozen lunches, Dave comes home, and Mother forces Dave to vomit up his meal. She later shows the vomit to Father, who watches dispassionately as Mother forces Dave to eat his vomit. Afterward, Mother forces Dave to sleep under a table and later in a garage. She also forces Dave to swallow ammonia, burning his tongue and causing him a night of intense pain.

One evening, Mother drinks heavily and brandishes a knife at Dave. Out of the corner of his eye, Dave sees Mother stumble toward him and then feels intense pain in his chest. He realizes that Mother has stabbed him. Mother treats the wound with gauze and then orders Dave to resume doing the dishes. In the following days, Dave refuses to beg Mother for mercy. He treats his wound and feels a deep sense of satisfaction for remaining independent. Mother later starves Dave for ten days straight and forces him to clean an unventilated bathroom with ammonia and Clorox, almost suffocating him. She also forces him to lie in cold water for hours. During these ordeals, Dave's brothers and Father do nothing to intervene. Dave no longer feels like a part of the family.

Dave enters the fourth grade, and Mother's abuse continues, harsher than ever. She beats him with chains, hits him, and forces him to vomit and inhale ammonia. When teachers ask Dave about his appearance and bruises, Dave repeats what Mother has instructed him to say—he had an "accident." He comes to despise his brothers, whom Mother continues to treat lovingly. Mother gives birth to another child, Kevin, whom Dave immediately loves.

One day, Mother abruptly tells Dave that she is sorry for hurting him. She begins treating Dave kindly and feeding him well. A few weeks later, an officer from social services shows up at the house and asks Dave if his Mother ever hits him. Dave realizes that Mother has been treating him well to avoid him telling the truth to the officer. Dave lies to the officer, fearing that Mother will hurt him.

By the time Dave enters the fifth grade, he is almost given up on life altogether. His classmates tease him and tell him to kill himself, and he has come to doubt that there is a God—surely, no God would allow him to suffer so greatly. His brothers seem to think of him as the "family slave" and take turns hitting him. However, Dave's teacher, Mr. Ziegler, treats him with kindness and respect. Dave continues to love Kevin, although he fears that one day Kevin will grow up to hate him, just like his other brothers do.

As Christmas approaches, Father and Mother begin to argue more and more often. Shortly after the holiday, Father packs his bags and leaves forever. He apologizes to Dave for not doing more to protect him but tells him, "I cannot take it anymore." After Father leaves, Mother sneers, "You are all mine now. Too bad your father is not here to protect you."

In the Epilogue, Dave, now an adult, drives along the beach and thinks about how lucky he has been. Since being separated from Mother, he has gotten an education, served in the military, and done a lot of excellent work raising awareness of child abuse. He is most proud of having a child of his own, Stephen, whom he treats with nothing but love, thereby breaking the vicious cycle of cruelty to children, of which he was a part.

In the final chapter, "Perspectives on Child Abuse," several people from Dave's life, including Mr. Ziegler and workers from Child Protective Services, comment on the prevalence of child abuse in American society. People need to be vigilant and lookout for signs of abuse in children—otherwise, the horrific cycle of abuse will continue, year after year.

Main Characters

• Dave: The protagonist and narrator of A Child Called “It” is a survivor of child abuse. For years as a child, his Mother beats him, burns him, and subjects him to dozens of other cruelties. During his years in Mother’s house, Pelzer goes through psychological trauma in addition to his physical abuse. He begins to hate himself, resent his brothers for avoiding any abuse, and question whether his life is worth living. However, Dave escapes Mother in 1973 when his school nurse and a handful of teachers decide to alert the police to Dave’s condition. The police, recognizing that Dave’s parents must be abusing him regularly, take Dave away from his home for good. Throughout his time living with Mother, and for the rest of his life, Dave preserves his courage and dignity, promising himself that he will never give Mother the satisfaction of begging for mercy. Dave’s life’s story, while harrowing and frequently horrific, is ultimately optimistic. As an adult, he has a child of his own, whom he claims to treat with nothing but love and compassion. In this way, he breaks free from the vicious cycle of child abuse and finds ways of coping with his trauma without denying or ignoring his past.
• Catherine Roerva Pelzer: The antagonist of A Child Called “It.” For years, she abuses her son, Dave Pelzer, for reasons that are never made clear: she hits him, burns his arm, forces him to eat feces and vomit, and starves him for days at a time. While Dave suggests that Mother is a heavy drinker and may suffer from depression, he does not offer any theories about why she singles him out for abuse or what motivates her to continue abusing him year after year. Sometimes, her cruel behavior seems sloppy and half-accidental—for example, when she drunkenly stabs Dave. However, on other occasions, the memoir shows that Mother’s cruelty is premeditated and cunningly designed to make Dave suffer as intensely as possible. Even more bafflingly, Mother sometimes treats Dave with love and tenderness and then returns to abusing him—again, readers never understand why. By the end of the memoir, Mother embodies evil, which can be neither explained nor understood. She is a force of pure malevolence, which Dave must escape at all costs.
• Stephen Joseph Pelzer: Dave Pelzer’s father, Stephen Joseph Pelzer, is a weak, frequently drunk father, who rarely stands up to Catherine Roerva Pelzer, his wife. Over the course of the book, Father represents a beacon of hope for the young, terrified Dave—he thinks of Father as his protector, even after it becomes increasingly clear that Father is turning a blind eye to his child’s suffering. As he grows older, Dave comes to hate Father for allowing Mother to hurt him. In the end, Father becomes so fed-up with Mother’s anger that he packs his bags and leaves the family for good. He’s a weak, selfish man who only cares about his own happiness, not the happiness and safety of his children. However, it’s worth noting that Dave names his beloved son after his father (at least in the memoir—Pelzer has said that he changed some of the characters’ names to protect them from the public). This might suggest that Pelzer still feels some love and respect for Father, since Father was the only person in the family who showed any consistent love for him. (It could also suggest that Dave wants to remind himself how not to raise his child.)
• The Nurse: The nurse is one of the few kind adults in Dave Pelzer’s life. She treats him with warmth and compassion, even after other people at Dave’s school shun him and make fun of him. She’s also one of the first people in the book to recognize that someone is hitting Dave. In 1973, she’s instrumental in bringing the police’s attention to Dave’s condition and ultimately freeing him from Mother.

Minor Characters

Close Relatives

• Kevin Pelzer: Dave's youngest brother, whom Dave loves, even though he is not allowed anywhere near him.
• Ronald Pelzer: Dave's older brother, whom their mother does not abuse. Later in their childhood, he often hits Dave.
• Stan Pelzer: The third child in the Pelzer family, who also learns to despise Dave and who hits him along with Ron.
• Russell Pelzer: The fourth child in the family, who learns to despise Dave through watching his mother abuse him. He becomes their mother's "Little Nazi," watching Dave's every move for her.
• Aunt Josie: Dave Pelzer’s aunt, with whom he sometimes stays.
• Uncle Dan: A character, only mentioned once, who seems to be Catherine Roerva Pelzer’s brother.
• Stephen: Dave Pelzer’s beloved son.

School Staff

• Mr. Hansen: The principal of Dave's school. Dave spends a lot of time in his office, and Mr. Hansen knows that Dave is a problem student who steals food. He knows that Dave suffers abuse at the hands of his mother, but he does not intervene for a long time, until he calls the police officer to take Dave away when he is twelve years old.
• Miss Moss: Dave Pelzer’s second-grade teacher, who treats him kindly and later helps him escape from Mother.
• Miss Woods: Another of Dave's teachers. She attends the meeting where Dave is told he is being taken away from his mother.
• Steven E. Ziegler / Mr. Ziegler: One of Dave Pelzer’s teachers, who treats him kindly, respects him as a person, and later contributes a few thoughts on teacher negligence to the final chapter of A Child Called “It”.

Classmates

• Aggie: A girl at school who torments Dave, insisting that he should kill himself.
• John: A mean classmate of Dave Pelzer.

Social Workers

• Valerie Bivens: A social worked for Child Protective Services, who offers her perspective on child abuse in the book’s final chapter.
• Glenn A. Goldberg: Former executive director of the California Consortium for the Prevention of Child Abuse, who offers his perspective on child abuse in the book’s final chapter.

Others

• Shirley: One of the Pelzers’ neighbors, with whom Mother is close friends for a brief time.
• Cindy M. Adams: A woman who pens a poem about child abuse in the final chapter of A Child Called “It”.

Setting

• Russian River: The Russian River is a symbol of Dave's childhood innocence and happiness. It was a place where he truly enjoyed himself, where he made happy memories during what he calls the "good times." Even though his mother corrupts this place for him when they return to it, the site never loses its meaning for him during his abuse, which is confirmed when he tells his son that it still is his favorite place in the world.
• San Francisco: San Francisco is where Stephen Joseph Pelzer, Dave's father worked. When he decides to move out of the house during the separation, this is where he moves.
• Daly City: Daly City is a populous city in the state of California, where Dave and his family reside.
• Golden Gate Park: Golden Gate Park is an urban place where Dave's mother would take him and his brothers before becoming mentally ill.
• Kitchen: The kitchen is where most of the worst moments of Dave's early life and abuse took place. Mother forced him to sleep under the breakfast table and where he got severely stabbed.
• Bathroom: Mother would force Dave to lay in cold, freezing baths for long periods. She would also lock Dave inside the bathroom and forced him to clean it with Ammonia and Clorox to suffocate him.
• Basement: The basement, which is located under the house, is another scenario where Dave would spend most of his time. Mother would force Dave to sleep in the basement and made him wait until she was to come up with chores to assign him.
• School: The school was the only place where Dave was free from his mother and managed to obtain food since his mother denied him aliments. Dave would steal frozen food trays from the school cafeteria or other children's lunch bags.
• Grocery Store: The local grocery store was another place where Dave would go after school to steal food.

Themes

Verbal Abuse: The theme of abuse is probably the most evident and essential theme found in this autobiography. Many forms of abuse were the theme of Dave Pelzer's life between the ages of four and twelve, the time over which Dave's abused verbally, physically, and psychologically until his teacher intervened with the police's help. Many forms of abuse can damage a child's delicate mind, but child abuse is by far the most central theme in the memoir. Words can harm how a child's mind develops, and they have a negative impact. Out of all the physical actions that the mother perpetuated on Dave are mild compared to the psychological and verbal abuse she subjects Dave.

Dehumanization: Mother reduced Dave to nothing and refused to acknowledge him as a family member for many years by calling him "The Boy." Mother made it obvious to dave that he was not worthy of even being called a boy, that he was nothing but an "it." As the abuse escalated, Dave's mother reduced him to be more dependent on her and limiting the possibility of people around him noticing he was being abused. Mother took away Dave's humanity with many other forms of constant verbal abuse; she would tell him that he was a bad boy, that he never did anything right, and made it its job to destroy his self-esteem and ability to care for himself.

Psychological abuse: Psychological abuse is not the only form of abuse being portrayed in the book; physical abuse is also a significant part. Mother spent a lot of time thinking about ways to beat and torture Dave to maximize his suffering. Mother beats Dave with her fists, slams his face against tile counters, forces his arms into a burning stove top, and forces him to stay in a clean bathroom, would lock him inside so that he would suffocate with the toxic chemicals. The mother would also tease him with food by not letting him eat or offering him food and then taking it away. Another method mother had to make him anxious was to prolong her abuse. If he were to do something wrong, she would act as if nothing happened, she would wait, and he would become stressed by thinking about how that mother could hurt him.

Abandonment: Dave constantly thinks back to what it was like to have a real family, and in his darkest times, he misses the love that he felt when he was younger. Having the support of a family is an essential part of childhood. Dave lacked support until he reached adulthood and started his own family, determined to show his son all the familial love on which he missed out. Dave was abandoned first by his mother, a good person who allowed him to be a part of the family until her mental health deteriorated due to alcoholism. Dave became the target of this woman, singled out to be the only one out of all his brothers she would dehumanize. Father also abandoned Dave; he knew about the abuse but did not intervene. Father was present when mother made Dave sleep in the basement when he was forced to regurgitate food. Father was also present when he would be excluded from Christmas celebrations and got stabbed by his mother and did nothing. Father ends up abandoning the family and leaves Dave with his evil mother. Daves's brother also abandoned Dave to stay out of his mother's abuses; they became part of the abuse by beating him, kicking him, and demoralizing him. Dave ends up abandoning himself; he loses hope and denies God's existence. Dave's last hope of protection, who was his father, was gone, he tries to make his mother mad in purpose so that she would finally end his suffering, but at his lowest, he finds hope and strength in God before the police finally rescued him.

Blame: Throughout his abuse, Dave constantly searches for an explanation for why his mother treats him the way she does. He begins to blame himself, first for the way he may have acted as a child to provoke it and next because he has done nothing to make it stop. When something terrible like this happens, it is natural to search for somewhere to place the blame—however, it is a sign of how much his mother has tormented him that Dave starts to blame himself for something he has no control over.

Courage and Survival: The theme of survival is revealed early and is a central focus throughout the book: "Mother can beat me all she wants, but I haven't let her take away my will to survive somehow" (p. 4). Throughout the narrative, Dave focuses on surviving, despite knowing what it is to be desperate and hopeless. He even learns to treat his wounds after being stabbed; his will to live is apparent throughout the whole story. At the beginning of the book, Dave goes back in time to his rescue. The book ends with Dave as an adult and a child of his own. Throughout the book, there are never words of strength; within all the book chapters, the reader learns about the abuse he suffered from his mother. Dave took care of his wound when his mother wounded him severely and referred to her as "The Bitch" to whom he promised himself, would never ask for help. Dave also goes through a severe depression. He encourages himself not to give up in the face of his mother's abuse, not allowing her to affect him emotionally; she would only be able to harm him physically.

Even at his lowest, Dave's still a kid. He has a creative imagination. Dave imagines himself as a superhero. He dreams of food and thinks of spending time with his dad. There is a reason why Dave dreams and fantasizes about these things; these are things that Dave is emotionally craving and wishes to obtain. Despite never giving up and always having a positive attitude when facing all the adversities, Dave got to a shallow point in which he thought of himself not surviving. Dave started to deny God's existence but continued to pray. When he reaches its lowest point, he finds strength again, and his prayers pull him out of the dark.

David Pelzer
Pelzer speaking to Airmen while visiting troops in Southwest Asia.
Born	(1960-12-29) December 29, 1960 Daly City, California
Occupation	Autobiographer, motivational speaker
Nationality	American
Notable works	A Child Called "It", Help Yourself
Website
www.davepelzer.com

The Author

Dave Pelzer was born and raised in Daly City, California. Stephen, a firefighter, and Catherine, both alcoholics, were his parents. Pelzer writes in his books about being horribly abused by his mother until he was twelve years old, when his teachers intervened and arranged for him to be put in foster care. Pelzer went on to serve in the military after that.

A Child Called "It" (1997), a memoir of his neglect, was published in 1995 and soon became a bestseller. Pelzer went on to write two more memoirs, The Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave, which he wrote later (2000). Pelzer is also in demand as a motivational speaker and lecturer.In 1979, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and fought in the Gulf War. He married twice, the first time to Patsy (a pseudonym, not her real name), with whom he had a son, and the second time to Marsha, his publisher.

In 1995, he released his first novel, A Child Called "It." His second novel, The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family, was published in 1997, describing his life as a teen in foster care, and was followed by A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness, which concluded the autobiographical series. In 1996, he bore a torch for the Sumer Olympics to honor his military service and his efforts to raise child violence awareness.

Work

• A Child Called It (1995)

• The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family (1997)
• A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness (2000)
• Help Yourself (2000)
• The Privilege of Youth (2004)
• Help Yourself for Teens (2005)
• Moving Forward (2009)

See also

• Richard B. Pelzer

Controversy

In a 2002 The New York Times article by Pat Jordan the author questioned the reliability of Pelzer's recollections. He said that "Pelzer has an exquisite recall of his abuse, but almost no recall of anything that would authenticate that abuse", such as any details about his mother. Two members of his family, his maternal grandmother and brother, have disputed his book. One of his younger brothers, Stephen, denies that any abuse took place, and says that he thinks David was placed in foster care because "he started a fire and was caught shoplifting". However, his other brother Richard Pelzer is author of the book A Brother's Journey, which affirms much of what David has said and describes his own abuse when David was finally removed from the home. In regard to this, Dave has said that Stephen had affection towards his mother and that "he misses her terribly because she protected him". Due to the criticism from The New York Times article Dave does not give interviews often.

In an article in The Boston Globe Pelzer's grandmother said she believed Dave had been abused but not as severely as he described. She also said she didn't believe his brother Richard was abused. It was revealed, however, that Pelzer's grandmother did not live in the same state as his brothers and family and was not in contact with them when the abuse happened.

An article in The Guardian notes that gaps in the background narrative "makes the foreground harder to trust". The author writes, "My own hunch is that, substantially, he's telling the truth ... But there is a definite feeling of exaggeration in the later two books..." The author then states the same feeling Plotz also covered in his article, that she feels Pelzer is profiting from his abuse and minimizing the seriousness of the crime by making the writing "entertaining".

External Links

• Dave Pelzer's official website.
• An interview with Dave Pelzer.
• Forgiving the Unforgivable- Dave Pelzer's Story.