A Child Called “It” Essay
The book A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer focuses on problems of raising up children and child abuse. To put it more precisely, the author pays a lot of attention to the detailed depiction of sufferings of the main character of the book, the boy, whose narration is horrifying the audience and reveals the terrible neglect in relation to the child from the part of his mother.
At the same time, the book conveys the story of the oppression and systematic abuse of the child by his mother that makes his life unbearable. In such a context, the main concept of the book is the child abuse and negative effects of the domestic violence on the development of children, their self-perception, self-esteem and cognitive development at large. The main character of the book is just terrorized by his mother.
The boy is morally destroyed by his mother, who treats him as mere commodity. Hence, the symbolic title implies that the child is just “it” that means that he is not worthy being treated as a human being. In such a way, the author of the book shows that the family should be under the public control because negligent parents may mistreat children and abuse them. In such a situation, the author leads to readers to the conclusion that the community should take responsibility for children and their education and development, if parents are unable to provide them with basic conditions of normal life.
At the same time, the book is full of difficult parts, which are difficult to read and sometimes difficult to understand. For instance, the code of “the family” is one of such parts. If we do not acknowledge a problem, it simply does not exist (Pelzer, 91). It is very difficult to me to read about Dave’s mother derived great pleasure in ritual abuses and tortures. In fact, the author shows that the community ignores the problem Dave has had and, therefore, the problem has never been taken seriously. In such a situation, Dave was one on one with his problems and his mother. Naturally, the small boy could not resist to his mother and all his life became a nightmare.
On the other hand, some parts of the book are hard to believe. For instance, I cannot believed Dave’s father never try to help him. It made me very sad the statement on page 97; “you cry, you die. Now, take care of the wound.” I realized that my injury probably wasn’t life-threatening. I brainwashed myself to block out the pain. In fact, this was the manifestation of the negligence from the part of Dave’s mother. However, I believe that the father of the boy could not be so indifferent to the fate of his son. In fact, I guess both parents should participate in raising up the child and the father would interfere, if he witnessed sufferings of his son on the regular basis.
Furthermore, I believe Dave must went through therapy to let it go of his anger towards his parents; with cognitive problems, behavioral problems, socio-emotional difficulties and psychiatric disorder to become a good person and good parent. Since, he didn’t have a secure care taker to use as a model e many other. Therefore, the boy should receive the professional assistance from the part of psychologists, health care professionals, and, probably, social workers.
In this regard, I agree the only cure for child abuse is its prevention. We should find ways to educate people and to advocate awareness of individual evil behavior of the perpetrators. We must protect the human rights of the innocent children. Children are unable to protect themselves without the assistance of the community because parents are the highest authority for them. In such a situation, they need the assistance of the community. I do believe on Dave’s words: “The good Lord always stay over our shoulders, giving us encouragement and strength when we need it the most” (Pelzer 157). Finally, Dave’s tears become expression of joy and freedom. In such a way, the author shows that Dave could have found salvation in religion and he still believed in a miracle, which could save him from all the horrors he has suffered from on the regular basis. However, it is obvious that the boy needed another solution to tackle his problems.
At this point, it is important to dwell upon possible solution of Dave’s problems. In this regard, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the main tool that could have prevented the child abuse was the involvement of the community in his education and personal development. A global community that openly acknowledges the reality of “SOME DO SOME DON’T” is part of the solution. A global community that acts to protect the child when there are warning indicators that suggests there are reasonable grounds to suspect a child/youth is or may be suffering, or may have suffered, or is at risk of being harmed is part of the solution. A global community that works to put into everyday adult-child/youth relationships practices of kindness, caring, respect, protection, promotion of and accountability for the human rights of children/youth, as defined in United Nations Declarations such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is considered one of the six fundamental UN human rights treaties, is another part of the solution. In such a way, the world community should establish rules, whereas local communities should control parents to prevent cases of the child abuse as was the case of Dave. And, by their very nature, human right principles represent a challenge to every socio-cultural system and every structure it contains, to every status quo practice, and to every relationship including parent-child/youth relationships. A simple “some do some don’t” framework fits equally for other adult perpetrators besides parents. Adults, who abuse their positions of power and trust within the adult-child/youth relationship to perpetrate violent crimes against children and youth, are: SOME PRIESTS, SOME HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, SOME TEACHERS, SOME LAWYERS, SOME POLICE, SOME WOMEN, SOME MEN, etc.
“SOME DO and SOME DON’T” is a simple guideline perspective to keep in mind when concerns about a child arise and when suspected something knowledge is in our awareness. Such responses ought to promote doing something. This means that the community should have started acting as soon as it became obvious that Dave has suffered from abuse from the part of his mother. Obviously, the boy could not afford living with his mother but he had no options to choose from. Therefore, the community should take responsibility and help Dave to exercise his rights and to live in normal conditions.
Works Cited:
Pelzer, D. A Child Called ?It??. New York: Random House, 2009.
Stewart, J. Child Abuse. New York: Routledge, 2008.
