She was a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; no longer a boy, but an "it." A Child Called “It” describes one of the worst documented cases of child abuse in California history. Dave lived I a world of starvation, cruelty, and torture from the age of four until he was rescued by school officials at the age of twelve. In the following scene, Dave’s mother is yelling at him and tried to force him to lie on flames so she could watch
She acted as if nothing had happened & the next day took David to the hospital, trying to convince the doctor he has fallen off the top bunk of the bed. David declared, “But my fear kept the accident our secret. I knew if I ever told anyone, the next “accident” would be worse.” Once, David was dropped off at his Aunt Josie’s house & tried to escape. Mother found out about this & she smacked, punched, & kicked him until he crumpled to the floor. She also crammed a bar of soap down his throat & to think David attempted to escape his aunt’s house, because he actually missed her.
Although Marie has a serious cold, she also uses her weak voice to protest being checked by Uncle Hayden alone. From these few words, readers can feel the intense fear and panic from Marie and know that Uncle Hayden is an indecent rapist. Besides, by the end of Chapter 1, I really confuse about the Mr. Hayden`s attitude. After David`s mother tells this father all the things, he waits for his father to explode, but, instead, his father said as quietly as before: “Why are you telling me this?” (36:4). Although I know that Dr. Hayden is David`s father`s brother, I consider that in front of justice and brother`s relationship, I will prefer to choose justice.
His mothers parental monitoring was too much, she never let Ed do anything and always kept him hidden. The influence of his brother putting down there mother, who Ed worshipped was another factor in his downfall. Skinner’s Theory of Behavior: Gein never received any positive reinforcement Antisocial personality disorder (APD): This is a disorder Ed had because he failed to conform to the norms of society. Holmes and De Burger (1998): Have a theory that serial killers fall into 4 groups; Eddie falls into the hedonistic type because he strived for pleasure in playing with the bodies of his victims. Coercion Developmental Theory: Gerald Patterson (1982, 1986) states that parenting monitoring can cause early onset delinquency.
All this because of one decision she made to berry her brother caused her life to fall apart and everyone she loved to disappear. This was in some ways similar to the consequences that Creon had to face with the decision. He was left alone with no one because he killed his family; he killed his own son because its what he thought was right for the town. He didn’t know that his decision was going to force him to live alone. All of this was because they were too stubborn and selfish to change their mind or listen to other peoples view.
My book was on “A Child Called “It”—One Child’s Courage to Survive”, and I did a power point, throughout the book, Dave Pelzer narrates what he went through as a child and what struggles he faced. His mom was a hardcore alcoholic and treated Dave as the scapegoat to everything. If his mom and his dad got into an argument, she would summon Dave and release all her anger onto him. His whole entire childhood was basically what we call child labor, and with the harsh conditions Dave worked in was extremely unethical. One time while Dave was simply correcting his mom by telling her that he was at home the whole time instead of outside playing with his brothers, she took his arm and raised it over a fire—she told him to never talk back to her again
Her parents never realized that after every meal Rachel would secretly go to the bathroom upstairs and throw up everything she had eaten. Her father would beat her up and treat her like trash and her mother would just stand there and not say a word because she was weak and always did as Rachel’s dad said. In her kindergarten class, Rachel treated all the other little girls with rudeness, anger, and jealousy towards anyone who was better than her. She often spent her days in the principal’s office because of her strong character and misbehaviors. Rachel grew up, went through her dating stage, and then finally met a wonderful man that she could not picture herself without; a caring, positive, supportive husband that goes by the name of Tim.
One of those situations being the betrayal of Finny to Gene when he causes him to flunk his first test. Another being how betrayed Gene felt when Leper accused him of deliberately hurting Finny and causing him to fall out of the tree, shattering his leg. The most influential betrayal of the whole novel was when Gene jounced the limb and broke Finny’s leg. Although finny forgave him, he still couldn’t help but feel a little bit betrayed by him. He had always thought they were best friends and that they were always there for each other, when Finny never realized Gene only saw the competition between them, and that really shows how completely different types of people they are.
“She is a part of a past that cannot be recovered or changed by anything I can do now. My father always told me that it was my birth that robbed her of her sanity. So as a child I had to carry the weight of my mother's madness as something that was my own doing.” (Davies 148) Paul had believed his whole life that Mary's insanity was caused by his birth, and once the truth came out, Paul was no longer guilty. The lift of guilt allowed him to feel again, something he was not able to do for a very long time. After the truth is learned about Mary
First, he felt abandoned by Alice, the girl at the orphanage. A couple years later, he felt threatened by the dietician. After the toothpaste incident, “It never occurred to her that he believed that he was the one who had been taken in sin and was being tortured with punishment deferred and that he was putting himself in her way in order to get it over with, get his whipping and strike the balance and write it off” (123). He had a hatred for Mrs. McEachern because she tried to help him and he did not want help from anyone. She fixed him supper one night and he completely refused it, “While she watched him he rose from the bed and took the tray and carried it to the corner and turned it upside down, dumping the dishes and food and all onto the floor” (154-155).