In this book Dave’s mother uses food as a way to have power over him. She punishes him by not feeding him, there for food is a symbol of power in this book. In Chapter 4, “the Fight for Food” Dave tells us about how is plots and plans to make sure that he gets food, but most of the time his mom finds out, and punishes him by doing awful things to him such as making him drink ammonium, or bleach, or soap, or by just making him throw it up. Although most of the time Dave’s mother uses food to overpower Dave, he uses it overpower his mother as well.  “As I held a piece of frozen pumpkin pie crust or a bit of a taco shell, I was the king, and like a king on his throne, I gazed down on my food and smiled” (p. 79).  Again Dave shows how he can survive, and make himself smile, through all the storms that are happening around him.

            In the epilogue of the book Dave sees a piece of driftwood and he himself compares it to his own life. While at the beach Dave picks up a piece of wood that has been thrown up on the shore and then dragged back by the tide into the ocean. It has an “odd, twisted shape. The wood is pitted, yet smoothed and bleached from its time in the sun” (p. 156). Dave remarks that the wood reminds him of his life. He says his life was very “extremely turbulent”, but unlike the driftwood, he took full control and responsibility of his life. This again relates back to the theme. Everyone can relate to having hardship and trials, but everyone has power of their endpoint. 

Though many people may find this book fictional or made up. The theme relates to us all. Will power can help you survive, or do anything, just as long as you work at it. Dave’s will power made him strong, and even though he was affected by his mother’s neglection, and abuse, he still made the conscious decision of living, and strived every day, to do what he could to stay out of trouble. He wasn’t going to let his mom win, and he was going to do whatever it took to stay alive, even if it meant eating, what not even the dogs would eat, or stealing food. He made the conscious decision of surviving.

            In life every day, we make conscious decisions for ourselves. We decide what we will wear, how we will act, if we will do our work, or if we will just be lazy and stay home, and watch movies all day. These decisions are our own conscious decisions, and they all affect us in some way. If I tell myself that I will have a good grade in math by the end of the semester and work hard at it, I could possibly get a good grade. If I tell myself that there’s no possible way that I can pass math, and I just sit in class and do absolutely nothing, and never try, there’s no possible way that I can succeed in math. Even when times are tough, if we decide, and tell ourselves that in the end we will come out victorious, we will, and even if we don’t, we will still have the hope that one day it might actually happen.
     Life is only what you make it, even though Dave's childhood was horrible, he told himself that if he ever got out,he would make someone or something of himself. Dave is an inpiration to us all, and if we tap into our own "internal motivation" we too can do anything. 

            A Child Called It is a very inspirational, but sad true story of a boy who suffers severe abuse from his alcoholic mother. She plays dangerous, deadly, and cruel “games” with him, barely feeds him, makes him sleep on an old army cot in the basement, and puts him through so much more abuses than any child should ever suffer. During the book we are taken Into Dave Pelzer’s mind, and we see how it he made it possible to survive the horrible things that he had to go through.

            This book was a very touching book, and though some may find some of the events in the story to be unreal, or made up, I don’t think that anyone would make these stories up about their life. The most important thing throughout the novel was Dave’s will to survive. He was the only one that could make he survive. If he had given up, he would’ve died, but because of his will power, he not only survived, but used this horrifying experience to help educate others, and to become a better man himself. I was very inspired to keep pushing forward when I was done with the book. Now, hopefully in my life, I can use bad experiences as learning experiences that will make me a better person.