The book "A Child Called It" is a biography about Dave Pelzer's brutal abuse story. The main characters are Dave and "mother", Catherine Roerva, as what Pelzer always referred to her as. Dave Pelzer is a young boy who get's abused and is starved nearly to death by his mom who is emotionally unstable. In the book, you can see how strong Dave is, after being tortured for years by his mother he still finds a will to survive. "Mother" is very heartless towards Dave and she uses the only weapon that she has against him, food, to get the boy to be her slave instead of her son. In the book it says, "I stood against the wall and began to whimper until I realized that I had beaten. I had bought a few precious minutes. I had used my head to survive. For the first time, I had won!" In this part of the story mother was going to burn Dave alive but he used his head and beat mother at her own game, he had outsmarted her and that gave him even more strength and hope to survive. This shows us just how cruel the things mother would do to Dave and how much determination Pelzer had to survive. Both characters are dynamic because mother used to be very different, she used to be a women who was full of love for Dave and his brothers. Dave changed by becoming stronger as his mom would become more and more abusive, he learned how to act scared of her even when he wasn't afraid at all.
The main conflict in the book is that Dave is getting abused by his mother and no one can help him. The problem all started when his mother began to drink and when she started becoming more and more emotionally unstable. This is a conflict rather than an important event because this problem only seems to get worse overtime. It changes completely how Dave is as a person and as a child because he no longer knows what happiness is, he doesn't feel that love and protection that he felt before, he is left almost dead a majority of the time by the horrific things his mother does to him and even after all of this Dave still finds will to survive. As the problem worsens, Dave becomes more aware of the ways that he could beat mother at her own game. When mother begins to not feed Dave he does many things for food, he steals, he picks from trashcans and he's eaten food that not even a dog would touch. This is a situational conflict because Dave Pelzer is in very bad circumstances with his family and that leads to all of the beatings and abuse. In the book it says "I was not allowed to eat meals with the family, play with my brothers, or watch television. I was grounded from the house. I was not allowed to look at or speak to anybody....I had become Mother's slave." This shows how Dave had no control whatsoever on what he would go through, he was no longer treated as a human but as an animal. In the book it also says "Mother was as solid as a rock. If anything, her drunkness made it worse. Mother had become more like a monster." Dave was being affected greatly by the actions of his mom. This never stopped Dave from dreaming with the idea that he could be loved by another family and that one day they would refer to him as there son rather than an "it."
Reading Log #3 - Topic Choice 3 - Plot
Towards the end of the book, Charlie’s parents separate. Charlie’s dad moves out of the house leaving Charlie to believe that he is totally hopeless and alone now knowing that his dad is out of the house. “When he finished packing, Father knelt down and mumbled something to me...My mind was numb with questions. Where’s my Hero? What happened to him?” (149). Charlie saw his father as being his only hope from getting away from the horrific things that Mother would do to him, his Father had promised him that his pain and suffering would come to an end and the two of them would run away together. This scene is important because it destroys Charlie’s hope of survival causing him to become reckless and careless about anything and everything that he does resulting in the conflict becoming worse. “While Mother and the boys went into Father’s motel room, I sat in the car, cursing his name over and over. I hated him so much for running out on his family” (151).
Reading Log #5 - Topic Choice 1 - Characters
In the book Fearless by Tim Lott it shows the bravery and will of a young girl who is fighting for freedom and wants only one thing, a family. The main characters in the book Fearless are girls who are in a school however these girls were taken away from their families and along with that they lost their identities. They were to be identified by a letter and a number. The main character is Little Fearless who was taken away from her mom at a young age and brought to the school of Faith. She is very brave and fills the other girls in the school with hope that one day they will be reunited with their families. In the book it says, "Little Fearless, the bravestest of all the girls in the Community School of Faith, was the story teller..." Another important character in the book is the Controller. The Controller is the man in charge in the school. He is very cruel to the girls but especially picks on Little Fearless. In the book it says, "The Controller kicked back his chair and loosened his tie, "Do you know why you're here?" he said.." This part of the book was when Fearless was getting introuble once again.
The main conflict in the book Fearless is that the girls in the institute want to be free and they want to see their families again. The reason that they all are there is because of many different things, some girls parents sent them their to learn a lesson while other girls were simply taken away from their parents due to the fact that they died or they are in jail. This is a conflict rather than an important event because this is the main reason for all of the other tiny problems that happen throughout the book. This affects all of the girls in the institute because they have no freedoms and they are imprisoned. The girls there were working a majority of the time. In the book it says, "It was hard to tell the girls' ages, but none of them were women yet, and all were old enough to walk and talk and, most importantly, work like the rest of the thousand girls in the Institute." All of the girls were busy working and being treated poorly by other girls who had power beacause of the Controller. The conflict changes how Little Fearless is throughout the book because she becomes braver by standing up to the Controller and by taking risks in order to set the other girls in the institute free. In the book it says, "When the Controller had asked at the end of the gathering if there were any questions, Little Fearless had had the nerve to ask one - two in fact, she had asked the Controller why they had to work so hard when they were only children, and why they were locked up when most of them had done nothing wrong." A Gathering is when all of the girls in the school meet with the Controller and have a talk. During this time, Little Fearless was curious so she spoke up and asked what no other girl at the institute had ever dared to ask before. The girls are put to work a majority of the time and are seperated by the letter in their "name." It was considered shocking if anyone ever questioned the Controller but that didn't matter to Fearless. In the end of the book this conflict was solved because Fearless died and with her death the people around her stood up against the Controller and put an end to the school.
One gate icon that is demonstrated in the book is unanswered questions. Since a variety of the characters are identified by nicknames and a number, it is very hard to know why the girls are in the Institution and who their families are. In the book the author writes, "The girl heard the door catch being released and, then her mother began to shout. She heard a man's voice, stern and official sounding." (128) This part of the book is told from God's point of view, or in other words, the story is being told from no one's point of view. There are many questions that go unanswered here. Who is this girl? Who is the man? Why is her mother shouting? Other unanswered questions can be found where in the book it says, "If the people in the city knew the real truth about this place, you know they would tear down the walls. That will happen sooner or later." (203) This was said by the main character Little Fearless while confronting the Controller. How is it that the people in the city don't know the truth about the girls' institute?