Abuse It.

Author's Note: In this piece, I wrote about a book A Child Called It, and how abuse is something that should not happen. I also related abuse to other things in life.

Little things in everyone’s childhood are brought up in their adult life, like the way their mother’s food used to take, the way their clothes were washed, or the way there clothes smelled. Adolescence is the most important part of anyone’s life as they age, it’s the time when kids know right from wrong and when they know what they want to me. Imagine being abused as a kid, having no childhood that is worth remembering or reminiscing about. In A Child Called It, the childhood of young David is taken away from him when his mom locks him in their basement, beats him, starves him, and deprives him of the basic necessities. There are obvious ways that abuse from his childhood to his adult life have shown through.

For starters, even when he is being abused, early signs of the abuse that he is being given is taking a toll on him when he stops believing in God, or that he would be able to get out of the living hell that he is in. (184) “Inside, my soul is so cold I hate everything. I even despise the sun, for I know I will never be able to play in its warm presence. My stomach coils whenever I smell food that is about to be served to somebody else, knowing it isn’t for me.” It is obvious that he doesn’t have any feelings towards anyone but hatred and remorse. In other ways than just feeling hatred for other people, he also lacks other emotions -- trust.

When Dave finally runs away from the nightmarish house that he lives in, and he finds himself in a nearby pizza shop. While there, it is clear that he doesn’t trust the owner of the shop to tell him anything about himself; he doesn’t want to give away too much about himself to make his mother look like the bad person in the situation. The ability to trust and to be able to tell somebody your secrets is key to being a healthy person -- you can’t live without someone to lean on. Clearly, Dave struggles with that. Throughout the second and the third book, his trust remains dangling by a thread, as he struggles to get along with his “brothers” at his foster home, and with his foster parents.

The story of Dave Pelzer’s life is heartbreaking enough, let alone the fact that it was a true story. This book can connect to the lives of kids that have been abused, and even kids that have not been abused. Although the books are extremely sad and gruesome to read, the lesson that can be told is that you will overcome the obstacles that you face. It may take time, but there is always a silver lining, and you will always get out of the abuse or neglect that you are in. It connects to people that haven’t been abused to tell them to be appreciative of what they have and let them be aware of things that they don’t always know what are going on.