A Child Called ‘It’

A Child Called It, is a distressing autobiographical account of severe childhood abuse and persecution at the hands of an alcoholic and unstable mother. This book portrays the sense of persecution David, the young boy called “it”, endured throughout his childhood for no proper reason. The author has conveyed the harmful impact that persecution can have on a young boy in his novel. Throughout the book there are various writing techniques and reader involvement that gives the reader a sense and idea of the suffering that persecution can cause.

Throughout the novel the writer has explored the different effects of persecution and what impact it can have on a young child. This reflects on acts of persecution that have happened in the past, present and could happen in the future. For example, the Holocaust (1930-40) during WWII, migrants fleeing to Australia, and KONY 2012. Whilst she was abusing David both physically and verbally as well as emotionally, she was not mistreating David’s other siblings leaving him to feel singled out. Therefore being isolated is a major factor causing people to feel persecuted and highly affect their emotional wellbeing.

The reality of being singled out began for David when he was in school and his mother would bring his brothers with food and leaving David without. Due to severe hunger, David had begun to steal food from other children’s’ lunchboxes. David was eventually caught and his teacher had called his mother in to discuss his behaviour without knowing the severe effect this could cause. After his mother had spoken to his teacher, she began to punish him more severely, making him do extra chores and banning him from family activities. The author, David, conveyed how being abused while his brothers remained oblivious and unharmed increased his feelings of persecution further. This is a common factor for people who are persecuted. The shear lack of concern and help from David’s father potentially meant that he had to suffer progressively harsher unnecessary punishments and abuse when he could have been saved from the beginning. Similarly, during WWII, no one wanted to help the Jews for a long period of time so it was too hard and too dangerous to get involved, but as a consequence, the persecution of Jews was prolonged.

As David got older, his abuse became harsher and more intense. He was no longer allowed to eat his meals with the rest of his family and he had to do all of the chores whilst his siblings had few responsibilities. At Christmas, David’s mother had cruelly written a letter from the “North Pole” addressed to him saying that he was a ‘bad boy’ and stating the he would not receive any presents for Christmas. Later in the novel, David describes how his mother had become further unstable and attempted to burn him on their kitchen stove. His situation had begun to spiral completely out of control after this, leaving him severely cut-off and detached from everyone. He states in the book that at the time, ‘it was important for people to know I’m not a bad boy. I wanted so much to be liked and loved’. Therefore, being persecuted can eventually make the victims start to believe that they actually deserve the mistreatment that is driven towards them.

At ten years of age, his mother became out of control and had stabbed him in the stomach and although she did not take him to the hospital, she looked after and cared for him. At this point, David was truly happy to have his mother showing her compassionate, loving and somewhat “motherly” side. Unfortunately, her caring didn’t last long and she had told David that she no longer considered him as a part of “her family” and that he had to live in their basement with little food, no play and no contact. This shows how normal people who persecute others can begin to treat those whom they persecute as less than human. This is similar to how the Nazis, who would have shown love towards their families, could be so