"IT" is Adversity

 

By: Genevie Santiago

 

Dave Pelzer is the author and main character of the autobiography “A child called it”. This book is the first book of four. When you read A Child Called It¸ you will know the severe abuse that Dave experienced during his childhood and how he kept fighting for his life and wasn’t going to stop fighting.

 

Dave’s mother started to hate and abuse him at the age of 4 and continued till the age of 12. She abused him emotionally and physically. She was an alcoholic. Dave’s father was always at work so she got fed up and started to drink. Dave got the result of her drinking. There were many abuses that Dave received when he was a child. Some examples include when his mother forced him to drink ammonia, starved him, forced him to consume his own vomit, burn his arm on gas stove and stabbed him in his stomach.

 

Dave was such a brave, smart, and determined boy, when his mother starved him he would try to find a way to get food like stealing food from the store or from other kid’s lunch boxes. When his mother would beat him he stayed strong and kept saying that he was going to live and she was never going to take his determination to live. Dave had 4 other brothers and she never abused them. When his brothers saw him getting beaten they wouldn’t do anything because they didn’t know if their mother would do the same to them and Dave understood.

 

At the end Dave was able to be free. Dave’s experience with all the hate and abuse didn’t make him weak. His experience made him stronger. After all of this Dave is still that smart, strong, brave, determined person and no one will ever take that away from him.