A Child Called 'It'

Child abuse is a serious concern. If you check the latest survey of June 2020, you would realise, approximately 1 billion children aged 2-17 years have encountered child abuse all over the world.

A Child Called ‘It’ by Dave Pelzer is a story of a kid, the author himself, who is abused by his mother, but he overcomes this trauma later, in his growing years. Generally, Parents hurt their kid because they have a history of being abused, are addicted to drugs, or have been bullied before, but in this book, the author has not informed of such happenings with his mother yet she gives him a hard time.

The story begins with Dave being smacked by his mother for getting late for school. He wants to eat breakfast but stopped by his mother. He is summoned to the administrative office in school where his nurse acknowledges his recent bruise. She shows this to the principal who then informs the police, who takes him to a better home. They drive across the beautiful highway. Dave had been waiting for this for so long. Afterwards, the author tells us all about how this starts.
Dave has two brothers, Ron and Stan, close to his age. Their mother loves Dave, but suddenly she starts abusing him. It starts with small punishments. Whenever there is someone inside the house, Dave is allowed to play with other kids but as soon as the person leaves, the ill-treatment begins. With time, she controls her husband’s attitude towards Dave and has a keen influence over his brothers. He is not allowed food for days and when he rushes his brain trying to find ways to feed himself, he ends up with new punishment. She is so abusive that she experiments on him with new abusive methods. Dave’s mother is not good with people. Dave believes that it is all his fault for ‘he is a bad boy.’ He accepts those abuses and works as a slave. Sometimes, she added urea to his dinner, locked him in the bathroom with a bucket filled with ammonia gas. Once, his mother made him eat his baby brother’s faeces. The torture is horrifying. One day, he gets stabbed by his mother, but she doesn’t take him to the hospital rather bandages him, herself, and after he gains consciousness, she asks him to wash the dishes. He lives his life in a garage without the proper bedding. When he realizes that his mother is a bitch, he tries to revolt. He doesn’t want her to get satisfied with his pain. He tries to find ways to come out of any particular situation. He knows that he can survive and soon he will be liberated. He believes in his father who tries to help him out, only sometimes, but when he leaves the family, the young boy prays the almighty to deliver him from the evil. The story ends with his father parting from the family.

After a few years, Dave visits a home with his son, where his old family used to stay during the summer vacations. He revisits his old memories and realizes that he is free now.

The story is really dark. The story is set in the 1960s and discusses strong emotional and physical abuse. Dave narrates his depressing story. Though he goes through a hell lot, he wants to tell us that he wanted to live and be something his mother won’t let him be. He fights for his future and becomes successful. And like Mail On Sunday says, ‘such a story cannot fail to move.’

I think Dave should have told us more about what happens after his father leaves the family in this same book because his mother would have surely used this opportunity.  The story continues in the sequels: A Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave.