child called it

In the memoir “A Child Called It”, the author Dave Pelzer’s use of imagery and diction are constantly seen in order to portray the books main ideas. Pelzer tells of his childhood and living with an alcoholic abusive mother. Pelzer enables the reader to create a vivid yet disturbing picture in your head when he tells of the ways his mother would torture him. In Chapter 4 Pelzer’s use of diction and imagery is shown when he writes “A warm sensation oozed from my nostrils. I tried to stop the blood from escaping by breathing in. I snorted bits of defecation back up my nose along with the blood” (pg. 57). Another literary element the author uses is repetition. “I had beaten her. I used my head to survive. I had won! I knew for the first time I had won. I wanted to live. I could never give in to her. I stood tall.”(pg.43) The author repeats the word I to show a turning point in the memoir. This is the first time in the book when Peltzer refers to himself as an actual person and not as an it, he had finally beaten his mother in her own game.

I just wanted to start off by saying that your story “A Child Called It” is truly remarkable and an inspiration to many. What you have been through at such a young age is nearly impossible for me to imagine; but yet in your story you provide such great detail that I feel like I’m living the beatings right with you. In one of the scenes when you’re mother forced you to eat the baby’s feces I nearly gagged, I could not believe that people in the world were actually that sick. And not only in this situation but in all the beatings your mother gave you, I would cringe in my seat and not be able to watch, almost as if I was watching a scary movie. Also how could you’re brothers and you’re father just sit there and act as if you’re mother beating you is completely normal? The only thing I didn’t love about this book was that you never explained what happened to your mother after you escaped. Did she go to jail? Or did what she do to