Lost boy: Novel

The Lost Boy (1997) is the second installment of a trilogy of books which depict
the life of David Pelzer, who as a young boy was physically, emotionally, mentally,
and psychologically abused by his obsessive mother.
The book discusses Pelzer's struggling with his ability to fit in and adapt to the
new environment around him as he is put into foster care. It also talks about the
kindness of his foster parents and other people around him as well as his inability
to brush his mother aside.
The Lost Boy is included as the second book in Dave Pelzer's compilation My
Story.
Chapter 1: The Runaway
The Lost Boy begins in the winter of 1970, in Daly City, California. Dave Pelzer is
nine years old and suffering from his mothers abuse. He is hungry and cold as he
sits at the bottom of the stairs in the garage. He feels like he is a prisoner of his
mother, and the abuse has been going on for some time. He never gets enough
food to eat and has to steal food at school. When he returns home his mother
forces him to vomit in the toilet bowl to prove he did not steal any food. He is
routinely beaten. He always sleeps on a cot in the garage.
At weekends he gets no food at all. He is an outcast in his family, with his mother
targeting him for abuse but not his brothers. He feels he does not deserve any
long and thinks of himself as a child called It.
At four oclock in the afternoon, Dave listens to his drunken parents arguing
about him upstairs. His father thinks Daves mother is too harsh on him, that no

child deserves to be treated like that. He often tries to stand up to his wife but she
takes no notice of him. She will not allow anyone else to tell her what to do.
She tells Dave to come upstairs. She makes him stand in front of her and tells him
not to speak or move. He is familiar with this game. She grabs his ear, and then
slaps his face because he moved. With his father standing by but not interfering,
she asks Dave whether he agrees with his father that she treats Dave badly. He
does not know whether he is allowed to respond. His father says that is no way to
treat him, but his mother will not let go of his ear. She refers to Dave as It and
tells him to get out of the house. His parents start to argue, with his father trying
to defend him and tell his wife that she is wrong.
She opens the front door and tells Dave he can leave if he thinks she treats him
badly. He sees this as a chance to escape and he steps out of the door. His mother
sneers that he will be back.
He runs down halfway down the street, all the while thinking that his mother will
come after him in the station wagon. But she does not, and he feels happy and
free for the first time. He decides he wants to go to the Russian River in
Guernville, where the family would go for vacation before the abuse started. He
has happy memories of those times. He does not know exactly where Guernville
is and thinks it will take a few days for him to get there.
After a while he starts to feel cold and the thrill of his escape starts to wear off. He
stops and considers whether to turn back. He tells himself that maybe his mother
was right and that he does deserve punishment. He hears a car coming and is
convinced that Mother has come get him, but the car passes by. It is not her.
He decides he is never going back, and he again starts walking, heading for the
Golden Gate Bridge, which he knows is on the way to Guernville. He is
desperately hungry. It is Saturday night and he has not eaten since Friday

morning. After briefly going into a church he enters a pizza bar. He makes his
way to the pool table and steals a quarter that is lying on it.
The pizza cook sees what he does and forces him to give back the quarter. The
mans name is Mark, and he asks Dave why he stole the quarter and what he is
doing in the bar.
Dave begins to make excuses and then says he wanted to buy some pizza with it.
Mark gets him a Coke and asks if he is all right. Dave is unable to reply, and Mark
asks him more questions. When Dave remains silent, Mark senses something is
wrong and makes a phone call. When he returns he tries again to talk to Dave,
who tells him that his mother told him to leave. Mark says she will be worried
about him and offers to call her. He says he is making Dave a pizza for free.
A policeman enters, and he and Mark talk for a few moments. The police officer
approaches Dave and says he must go with him. He tells Dave he will be all right.
Mark give him a pizza in a box, and Dave goes with the officer and sits in his
patrol car. The officer finds out Daves name and age, and Dave feels that the man
likes him. He is taken to an empty room in the police station. He is about to start
to eat the pizza, but he does not want to respond to the officers question about
where he lives. But the officer reassures him that he is there to help, and Dave
supplies his address and telephone number.
His father arrives, and he and the policeman go into a separate office. After a few
minutes the two men emerge from the office, and the officer tells Dave that
everything is all right. It was just a misunderstanding. His father has explained
that Dave ran away when his mother told him he could not ride his bike. The
officer tells Dave sternly that he hopes the boy will never put his parents through
anything like that again. His mother is worried sick about him, the officer says.

Dave stands there is disbelief. He does not even own a bike. Dave goes home in
his fathers car, while his father reproaches him. He wants Dave to stay out of
trouble because his mother has been making life difficult for his father. He tells
Dave to just do whatever his mother tells him. Dave nods. He feels like a trapped
animal. They get home, but Dave believes that he has no home.
Analysis
This entire opening chapter of The Lost Boy, occupying about thirty pages, is
printed in italics. This serves to set if off from the main narrative, which begins in
the following chapter. This chapter is essentially a flashback to the time when
Dave was being abused by his mother and was driven to desperate measures just
to survive, including, as this account reveals, stealing food. This chapter provides
only a passing glimpse of the horror that Dave endured for many years at the
hands of his abusive, alcoholic mother. His father, as this chapter clearly shows,
was an unwilling accessory to Daves abuse. He knew that his wife was ill-treating
the boy and he disapproved of it, but dominated by his aggressive wife, he was
too weak to intervene firmly on Daves behalf. As this chapter also reveals, Daves
father also would blame Dave for his own abuse.
The full story of these years of torment for Dave, which lasted from when he was
four to when he was twelve, is contained in Pelzers earlier memoir, A Child
Called It: One Childs Courage to Survive, which should be read first by anyone
who wants a full understanding of The Lost Boy. Since this first chapter of The
Lost Boy takes place when Dave is nine, when he reluctantly returns home at the
end of the chapter he has another three years of this hellish life to endure before
the local authorities remove him from his family home and place him in foster
care. It is the story of his life in foster care that forms the substance of The Lost
Boy, and this is the narrative that begins in the next chapter.

Chapter 2: An Angel Named Ms. Gold

On March 5, 1973, Dave is finally rescued from his terrifying situation. Teachers and staff at his
school in Daly City notify the police of the abuse he is enduring. On that day, Dave says goodbye
to his teacher, Mr. Ziegler, who tells him to be a good boy. He leaves the school without having
made a single friend there.
At the police station, the police officer calls Daves mother and tells her that Dave will not be
returning home that afternoon. Is she had any questions she was to contact the county juvenile
authorities. The policeman assures him that his mother will never be able to hurt him again. Dave
is driven to the local hospital, where he is examined. The doctor is concerned about the bruises on
his arms and the condition of his hands. His fingers are raw and numb because of all the strong
cleaning chemicals he had been forced to use to complete household chores. The doctor seems
shocked by Daves condition and seeks assurances from the policeman that he will not be sent
back to his mother. Dave overhears this and finally feels safe.
The officer then drives Dave to his new but temporary foster home, which is run by an elderly
woman who introduces herself as Aunt Mary. After dinner, Dave is introduced to the seven other
foster children who live at the house. The other children ask him some questions and then quickly
accept him. Overjoyed, he runs wildly around the house, joking and laughing, jumping on
mattresses. He stops only when Aunt Mary restrains him after he has knocked a lamp over in the
living room.
That night Dave is afraid his mother will come and take him back, but Aunt Mary assures him this
will not happen. He has a nightmare in which his mother threatens him with a knife. When he
wakes up he thinks that he will soon be returned to her. On following nights he refuses to sleep
because he does not want to encounter his mother in dreams.
He meets Ms. Gold, a social worker with the countys Child Protection Services. The first day she
stays with him for five hours, and he has many subsequent long sessions with her. He soon begins
to trust her and considers her his best friend. She keeps assuring him that he did not deserve to be
treated the way his mother treated him. But Dave worries when Ms. Gold tells him that the county
was going to use information he had supplied about his mother against her. Dave worries she may
be thrown into jail, and then what would happen to his brothers?
One Sunday afternoon his mother comes to visit him, with her four other sons. Dave is terrified
that she has come to take him back, even though Aunt Mary assures him this is not so. His mother
does not talk to him directly but inquires of Aunt Mary how he is. She refers to him as the Boy.
She warns Aunt Mary that Dave does not get along well with others and can be violent. Aunt Mary

replies that he is doing fine. Her tone is sharp, and Dave is happy that finally someone is putting
his mother in her place. He starts to feel confident, but then Aunt Mary goes to the kitchen to
answer the phone, and Dave is left alone with his mother and brothers. She talks aggressively to
him, about the trouble he has caused her. She says she will get him back.
Aunt Mary returns. Dave looks at his brothers, knowing that they hate him for disclosing the
family secret. He hopes that they will not be abused in his place. After the family leaves Dave is
upset. He fears his mother is right, and that she will get him back.
The next day Ms. Gold tells Dave they will be going to court in two days. Frightened, Dave retracts
all his statements about the abuse. He was the cause of all the problems, he says. He beat and
starved himself. Frustrated, Ms. Gold tells him how important the case is, but he is too frightened
of his mothers anger to respond. She tells him he must make a major decision, but still he resists.
Ms. Gold leaves, angry and upset. Dave is confused. He has protected his mother by lying, but he
also knows he has put Ms. Gold in a difficult position.
Analysis
It is not surprising that when released from his prison, Dave becomes rambunctious at his new
home with Aunt Mary. He is able to let off steam for the first time and to fear no punishments.
For once, he does not have to retreat into his shell.
The main character in this chapter is the social worker Ms. Gold, one of the many adults who now
begin to help rather than abuse Dave. However, he is still haunted by the abuse he suffered, and if
he no longer has to deal with his tormentor in person, he dreams of her. Pelzer presents his
mother in this chapter as a monster. On the one occasion that she visits, her heavy, rasping
breathing (p. 52), makes him quiver. Her face is dark red and her eyes were on fire and her
teeth are dark yellow (p. 53). She is like a creature from hell.
It will be a long journey for Dave before he can become a normal boy, but he is making the first
steps. He has to deal with his feelings of unworthiness that have been instilled in him since he was
four years old, and in this chapter he alternates between periods of relative calm and confidence
and times when he accepts his mothers version of eventsthat what he suffered was all his own
fault. It takes him a while to learn to trust Ms. Gold, for example. At first he will not let her touch
him; he cannot believe that an adult is really showing him kindness and understanding. It is Ms.
Gold who begins his rehabilitation, but as the last pages of the chapter show (when he refuses her
help and recants all his statements about the abuse), she has embarked on a very difficult case.

Chapter 3: The Trial

Two weeks later, Ms. Gold drives Dave to the county courthouse for the trial that will determine
whether he will remain with foster parents or be returned to his mother. Ms. Gold says there is a
possibility that he will indeed be returned to his mother, a prospect that Dave dreads. Ms. Gold
says that he is the only one who can decide his fate because he must make a decision.
They arrive at the courthouse and wait. Mother and her other sons are already there. While he
waits Dave writes a note to his mother saying he was sorry for telling the secret and asking her to
forgive him. He gives the note to his mother. She does not acknowledge him but reads the note
and then tears it in half.
They go into the courtroom. Ms. Gold presents the case to the judge, saying that the county
recommends that Dave be made a permanent ward of the court. The judge asks Mrs. Pelzer if she
has anything to say, and she replies that she does not. The judge speaks, saying this is a very
disturbing case, and Dave daydreams. Then he is asked to stand, and the judge tells him that if the
court desires, and if he also believes that his home is not where he wants to live, he may be made a
permanent ward of the court. After some moments of confusion, Dave blurts out that he wants to
live with you! (p. 72), meaning the court system. The judge agrees, and rules that Dave will be a
ward of court until he is eighteen years old.
Ms. Gold hugs him and tells him she is proud of him. As they leave the courtroom, Dave sees that
his mother is crying. She hugs him, and Dave believes her feelings are sincere. To his
astonishment, she gives him some new clothes and toys. She says she will miss him, and he says
he will miss her, too. He says he is sorry for betraying the secret, and she says that it is all right.
She says she wants him to be a good boy. He says he will try.
As his mother and brothers drive away, he waves at them all, and his mother returns his wave.
Ms. Gold takes him to the cafeteria for an ice cream. He knows that his life is going to be quite
different now.
Analysis
This short chapter seems almost like an epic struggle between good and evil, as represented by the
two women, the good Ms. Gold with the pure eyesthe saviorand the evil mother. Ms. Gold
loves Dave and wants only the best for him. Although she is nervous about the court proceedings,

she gathers her courage and stands up in court before the judge to do battle on behalf of the
abused boy.
Daves feelings, however, are mixed. Severely abused he may have been, but the abusive woman is
still his mother, and she still has a hold on him in the sense that he feels bad he told the secret,
and he tries to make it right with her. This is the last the reader sees of Mrs. Pelzer, and she comes
across as an enigma. Just as in A Child Called It, the reason she turned so abusive on her son is
never fathomed. It is a mystery, although alcohol certainly played a role in it. In this chapter Mrs.
Pelzer seems like a Jekyll and Hyde character. Dave can feel her hatred for him as he first sees
her. His attempt to write her a conciliatory note is cruelly rejected. She reads it but says nothing
and then tears it up in front of him. But when the decision is made she seems to be genuinely sad
that he is leaving. She presents him with gifts of things he never had while he was living at home,
and there seems to be a spark of goodness in her feelings toward her son.

Chapter 4: New Beginnings

Dave begins to get used to his new life with Aunt Mary, and at his new school. He
is shy around his classmates and finds it hard to make friends. Another foster
child tells him not to mention that he is in a foster home because some people
are prejudiced against such children. Dave becomes apathetic, losing interest in
his classes.
At home, however, he is lively and popular with the other children. He is allowed
to go out with them in the afternoons and he follows their lead in stealing candy
bars from grocery stores. He feels accepted by the group. He steals at home, too,
items such as bread and cupcakes. Aunty Mary blames Teresa, one of the other
foster children, and Dave remains silent. Aunt Mary soon finds out who stole the
food, however, and after that she keeps a special eye on Dave.
Ms. Gold takes Dave to his first permanent foster home, with Rudy and Lilian
Catanze. Ms. Gold tells Lilian that Dave is to have no contact with his mother
unless she initiates it, but he may see his father at any time. Lilian explains the
house rules to Dave.

In the kitchen, Dave meets three other foster children: a tall blond teenager
named Larry Junior, a girl named Connie, and an older boy named Big Larry. Big
Larry offer to take Dave to the movies that night. Dave finds Big Larry childlike
and shy, and he likes him. They see the James Bond movie, Live and Let Die.
The next day Rudy and Lilian take their foster children for a July 4th picnic at
Junipero Serra Park. There are many people in their group, both adults and
children, and all of them either are or have been in the past, Rudy and Lilians
foster children. Dave meets one of them, a woman called Kathy, who is now
married and has just had a baby.
Dave takes a walk on his own, remembering how he had come to this park with
his family a long time ago, before the abuse started. He wishes he know why
things had gone so wrong.
The next morning Dave encounters Larry Jr. in the kitchen. Larry is hostile to
Dave and wants to know what it was like to be beaten by his mother. Dave does
not know how to deal with him and runs back to his room.
The next day Lilian takes him shopping for new clothes. He asks her if he is a
wimp for not fighting back against his mother, and she tries to reassure him that
he is not. He comes home with many new clothes, and he is thrilled to have new
clothes for the first time in his life.
Several days later, Daves mother comes to visit, accompanied by her other sons.
His brother Stan brings Daves bicycle that his grandmother had bought for him
the previous Christmas. Dave does not know why his mother has decided to let
him have it. His mother seems more relaxed but she does not speak to Dave.
After the brief visit ends, Dave complains to Lilian that he is tired of being treated
so badly by his mother. He recalls the time when his mother made him eat dog

poop, and when she stabbed him, although he insists the stabbing was an
accident.
Lilian is shocked, and she sobs at Daves tale of horrific abuse. She did not know
all those details before. She tries to comfort him.
Dave then sets about earning some money so he can buy the items that are
necessary to repair his damaged bike. Lilian pays him 30 cents to clean the
bathroom, and he manages to accumulate enough money to buy what he needs to
repair the tires on his bike. He rides down the street on his bike feeling exultant,
and he remembers the exact day: August 21, 1973. For the first time, he feels like
a normal boy, and he stays out until after dark, to Lilians annoyance.
Analysis
Things are looking up for Dave, and at the end of the chapter he is optimistic. It is
as if his long nightmare has come to an end. He has made great progress in only a
few months. At his first temporary foster home he had problems adjusting and
developed the habit of stealing. At the home of Rudy and Linda, however, he
seems to settle down more, although he still frequently thinks back to his awful
life with his mother and wonders why it happened the way it did. He manages to
make a friend for the first time in Big Larry, and he goes to a movie theater for
the first time, also. Repairing and then riding his bike gives him a sense of
empowerment. But there is still a long way to go. He cannot possibly be expected
to recover from eight years of horrific abuse in a few months, and difficult times
lie ahead, although Dave, feeing a newfound sense of freedom because of his bike,
does not know it.

Chapter 5: Adrift

One day Dave returns from one of his daily bike rides. Lilian is not at home, but
Larry Jr. is, and he acts aggressively toward Dave. Then Chris, another foster
child who has cerebral palsy, tells Larry to let go. Larry insults him, calling him
retard. As Larry continues to be unpleasant, Dave gets angry and decides that
this time he will fight back. He challenges Larry to fight. Larry elbows him and
Dave hits his head on the kitchen countertop, but then Larry rushes out of the
kitchen, threatening both Chris and Dave as he does so.
Chris rushes off to his bedroom and Dave follows him. Chris is in tears but he
soon recovers and puts some music on his stereo. He tells Dave that he was
abandoned by his parents as a small child and has lived in over a dozen foster
homes. Now he is seventeen, he has only a year to go before he must move out
and find a way of supporting himself.
After this, Dave tries to avoid Larry, but they have some tussles together
whenever they do encounter each other. On one occasion Lilian returns and
wants to know what is going on. Dave blames Larry.
A few days later Rudy and Lilian take Dave to see a special doctor, a
psychiatrist. Dave feels uncomfortable, and the session does not go well. Dave
gets the idea that the psychiatrist thinks he is crazy, and the psychiatrist gets
Daves name wrong, calling him Daniel. Dave does not understand the point of
the psychiatrists many questions. He leaves the psychiatrists office feeling
confused.
His next session with the psychiatrist goes no better. The psychiatrist still calls
him Daniel. He tries to get Dave to talk about the incident in which Daves
mother deliberately burned his arm on the stove. As he recalls the incident Dave
finds himself crying and shaking.
After this session Dave tells Lilian he thinks the psychiatrist is the one who is sick
because of all the weird questions he asks.

A few days later Dave and Big Larry go out on their bikes. They pass Daves old
school and then go to the grocery store that Dave once used to steal from. Dave is
nervous that he may be recognized, but nothing happens. Then they go to the
bowling alley. On the way they ride down the street where Dave used to live, and
two of Daves brothers see him from a bedroom window. Dave pedals off madly,
fearing his mother will come and chase him.
When they return home, Lilian is angry with them. Daves mother has called and
told her that the boys passed by her house, which Dave is not supposed to do.,
making a nuisance of himself. His mother is threatening to take Dave from
Lilians custody. Dave protests that all he did was ride down the street, but Lilian
tells him he is grounded. She adds that he has to be very careful as a foster child,
because if he gets into trouble, they could lose him. He could be sent to a place
called juvenile hall.
Dave wants to call his mother, and Connie dials the number for him, but the
number is no longer listed. The following morning, Dave is expecting his father to
visit, but he does not come. Dave had known all along he would not, since he
never did. Dave gets frustrated and angry and accidentally strikes Rudy in the
arm. Rudy and Lilian know that Dave is becoming a problem for them.
Analysis
Daves volatile and unstable emotional condition becomes obvious in this
chapter. He is still dealing with the effects of the past abuse. Quarreling with
Larry Jr. does not help him (although it is good that Dave does learn to stand up
for himself), and it is unfortunate that the psychiatrist seems, at least in Daves
eyes, to lack all ability to relate to the boy in a way that would inspire his
confidence. It seems that what Dave needs is not psychiatry but some years of
stability and love.

This chapter does give valuable insight into the world of the foster family. All the
children Dave lives with at Lilian and Rudys homethe two Larrys, Connie, and
Chrisare badly damaged in some way or another, and must also carry the
stigma of being foster children. As Lilian tells Dave, Youre a foster child. . . .
And because of that, youve got two strikes against you (p.142). In his essay
Perspectives on Foster Care printed as an appendix to The Lost Boy, Pelzer
writes a passionate defense of the foster parent system and of foster parents
themselves. He points out that some people refer to foster parents as F-parents,
as if the words foster parents belonged to a deadly epidemic (p. 308). Pelzer
points out that cases of child abuse by foster parents are rare and the press makes
too much of them, with the result that the general public has no idea of how
much good work foster parents do, and that many children thrive in such homes.
The stigma Lilian mentions to Dave is wholly undeservedbut in the early 1970s,
when this part of the story is taking place, Dave must learn to live with it.

Chapter 6: The Defiant One

Dave decides that in order to survive, he must make himself hard and not care
about anything. He starts stealing candy bars from the local grocery store, and
then toy models. Other kids get to hear of his exploits and come and watch him
steal. They dare him to steal things for them. Dave enjoys the attention and feels
accepted by the other kids.
He steals a Flying Fortress model airplane for a boy named Johnny Jones. But
Johnny has played a trick on him. His father is the store manager, and Dave is
caught. When Dave returns home, his foster parents have been informed of his
stealing, and they are furious with him. Rudy threatens to send him to The Hill,
although he does not explain what that is. Rudy says he will not tolerate thieving
and lying, and he grounds Dave and sends him to his room.

A few days later, on a Saturday, Dave decides he is going to run away. He rides
his bike into town and watches a James Bond movie three times in a row. He
spends the night underneath an air-conditioning unit near the movie theater. The
next day he spends at the movie theater again, and then hangs around Dennys
restaurant. The manager talks to him and calls his foster parents. Rudy comes to
pick him up.
The next day Ms. Gold comes to see him and discusses with him the serious
situation. She has been informed that he has been having a hard time adjusting to
living with Lilian and Dave. She tells him that his behavior must improve. Dave
indicates that one of the reasons he is upset is because he has not heard from his
father. He writes letters to his dad but hears nothing back. He does not have his
fathers telephone number. Ms. Gold tells him his father has moved to a another
apartment and been transferred to a different fire station. Ms. Gold promises to
try to get in touch with him, and Dave eventually promises not to run away
again.
Dave starts to feel better, but when he starts sixth grade he is teased and picked
on by other boys, who notice his clothes are not as nice or as new as theirs. But
then he meets a boy called John, who wears worn-out clothes but no one picks on
him.
The next day John is upset because a teacher has scolded him in front of the
class. He says he has a plan to get even with the teacher. That afternoon after
school John, who is with two other boys, tells Dave he is to be admitted to his
gang, but he has to prove himself by flattening the tires of the teachers car. The
teachers name is Mr. Smith. Dave does not want to do it because he knows it is
wrong. He finally agrees to do it and lets the air out of one tire but then refuses to
continue. The next day he is taunted by the other kids because he is considered to
have betrayed John and his gang.

After a few weeks, Dave apologizes to John and gives him a carton of cigarettes he
stole. John accepts him into the gang but he must still prove himself. John says
he wants to burn down Mr. Smiths classroom and he wants Dave to act as look
out. Dave agrees, thinking Dave is not serious. Weeks go by and nothing happens
but Dave starts boasting about the plan he and John have developed. After a
while he starts saying that it is his plan and he will do it.
More weeks go by, but then John summons him after school. Dave finds John in
the classroom, and black smoke is pouring out of an air vent that has been kicked
in. John says he needs help in putting out the fire, but then he gets scared and
runs away. Dave tries to put the fire out but it gets worse. He asks a little girl to
pull the fire alarm, and eventually he puts the fire out by throwing gravel on it. A
fire truck arrives.
The next day Mr. Smith takes Dave to the principals office. The principal tells
him he has already been identified as the one who started the fire. He sends Dave
to wait in another room while he calls the police and Daves foster parents.
Dave runs off and finds John. He tells John that he must tell the authorities the
truth about the fire. John reluctantly agrees to admit that he was the one who
started it. Dave does not go home that night. The next day when he sees John,
John tells him he told the principal that Dave started the fire, and it was Daves
idea.
Confused and not knowing what to do, Dave returns home. Rudy yells at him and
does not believe his protestations of innocence. He has lost patience with Dave,
and although Lillian tries to defend him, Rudy says he can no longer allow Dave
to live with them because he is always getting into serious trouble.
Analysis

Twelve-year-old Dave is close to being out of control for most of this chapter. One
of the themes of the book is his quest to belong, to be a part of a loving family. He
seems at this point, though, unable to adapt to living with Lilian and Rudy.
Desperate to be accepted by his peers, he allows himself to be tricked into doing
wrong things, such as stealing from grocery stores. There is no doubt that he is
nave, easily manipulated by more ruthless boys who only feign friendship. His
desire to be part of a gang, though, is entirely understandable. He has never had a
real friend, so it is not surprising that he falls for the plot laid by the malicious
John, who is the real troublemaker. But somehow Dave is landed with the blame.
This episode repeats something of the pattern that Daves earlier home life
showed. The person he thought he could trust betrays him.
As the chapter closes, it is yet another crisis for Dave. Now that the police and
school authorities are involved, he is in danger of being labeled uncontrollable
with violent and criminal tendencies. Even Rudy has lost patience with him.
Lilian, however, as the next chapter will show, remains loyal to him, giving him a
thread of continuity in his deeply disturbed and unhappy life.
Chapter 7: Mothers Love
Rudy drives Dave to Hillcrest, San Mateo County Juvenile Hall, where Dave is to
stay temporarily. He occupies a cell by himself and tries to stay out of trouble. In
his first week there, six fights break out between the teenagers who live there.
Dave is then transferred to another wing where discipline is less strict.
He is visited by his father, whom he has not seen for about a year. His father yells
at him and berates him for stealing and getting into all kinds of trouble. He also
says that his wife has been badgering him to sign some papers regarding Dave,
but he does not explain what they are. He tells Dave he is to be charged with
arson. This especially upsets Daves father because he is a firefighter. He tells
Dave that he can forgive him many things but not this.

That evening Dave is distressed. He thinks that he is the cause of the familys
unhappiness. After dinner he receives a visit from Lilian. She tells him that his
mother is trying to get him confined to a mental institution permanently. That
explains the papers his father was talking about. Lilian suspects that Daves
mother has been inventing stories about him to justify having him put away. His
mother knows everything that has happened involving Dave since he was taken
away from her. She apparently knows that the psychiatrist wrote a report saying
that Dave had violent behavior tendencies and that Dave, according to the
psychiatrist, had nearly attacked him. Dave denies it. Lilian further explains to
Dave that he will be placed in a mental institution if his mother can convince the
county authorities that what she says about him is true. Lilian says that she and
Rudy, who are still his official foster parents, will do everything they can to
prevent this from happening. She tells Dave he must be on his best behavior, as
the counselors write behavior reports that are given to his new probation officer,
Gordon Hutchenson.
She produces a box in which she has placed Daves pet redear turtle and tells him
she has been looking after it carefully.
That night Dave resolves that he is going to prove to everyone that he is a good
kid. His behavior improves and by the end of the week he has earned a gold
rating: the highest that the institution awards. His probation officer is pleased
with him.
In a few days the court case comes up. Daves mother is there. The prosecutor
says Dave committed arson and has a long history of rebellious behavior and has
also displayed aggressive behavior toward others.
Daves lawyer attempts to refute the allegations, saying that in fact, Dave tried to
put out the fire that had been started by someone else. His behavior while in
detention has been exceptional, and Lilian and Rudy want him back.

After another speech from the opposing lawyer, who asks that Dave be placed
under psychiatric evaluation, Gordon the probation officer is called upon. He
recommends that Dave be returned to his foster parents.
The judge sentences Dave to 100 days of juvenile detention, honoring time
already served. He says he has no actual proof that Dave committed arson
although he thinks Dave may have done it. Dave protests to Gordon that he is
innocent, but Gordon tells him he will be out in about thirty days and that he has
got off lightly. Daves mother intervenes, telling Gordon that he is wrong, and
that Dave is evil.
Thirty-four days later, Dave goes home. He feels almost sorry to leave, since he
had got to feeling safe at the detention center.
Analysis
This chapter describes a close call for young Dave, but he is given another chance.
It is apparent from this chapter that Dave can succeed when he is given an
incentive to do so. He knows how to behave well when it is impressed upon him
how much depends on it.
This chapter also records a complete breakdown in Daves relationship with his
father. The father has played little role in the book so far, other than to fail to
show up when Dave is expecting him to visit. His fathers role in Daves life is
chronicled in more detail in the first book in the series, A Child Called It, which
shows that his father is too weak to stand up to his wife, even though he knows
that the abuse of Dave is wrong. But even after Dave is taken away from the
family home, as The Lost Boy shows, his father does little or nothing to support
his son. Dave frantically tries to get in touch with him, writing him letters but
never receiving replies. When his father finally does visit him, all he can do is
complain that Dave has brought disgrace on the family by being an arsonist. He
does not think to give Dave the benefit of the doubt. It is clear that Dave does not

have a father in any meaningful sense of the word. The steady decline of his
father, ravaged by alcoholism, will be taken up again in a later chapter.
Immediately after his father leaves, Lilian returns. She is his ray of hope. If his
mother is plotting against him for some strange reasons of her own, Lilian is a
mother substitute who is worthy of the name. It is she who gives Dave the
mothers love that is the title of the chapter. It is as if there are two mothers in
the story, the bad mother and the good mother. To Daves credit, he
recognizes this, and at the end of the chapter he calls Lilian mom.

Chapter 8: Estranged
Dave feels uncomfortable back with Linda and Rudy because the other kids there
are suspicious of him. After some days, Gordon tells him he must move out. He
has done nothing wrong, but another child has been assigned to live there. Dave
is upset at having to leave, as is Linda. He has been there for a year, and Gordon
tells him that is much longer than usual to stay in one foster home.
Gordon has to find another family to take Dave in, and this proves no easy task.
He takes him to foster parents Harold and Alice Turnbough, who at first say they
have no room for him, but they agree to take him for a few days. Dave spends
four nights sleeping on the living-room couch.
Next Gordon takes him to Joanne Nulls, an enthusiastic, doting kind of woman
who takes him into her custody. Dave is thirteen now and does not like the way
Joanne treats him like a child. Dave does not feel at home there and he overhears
an argument between Joanne and her husband Michael. Michael does not really
want Dave there but he agreed because his wife was lonely and was unable to
have a child of her own.

At school Dave is beaten up by a boy for insulting the boys sister. Dave had been
tricked by another boy into calling a girl a whore, although he thought he was
saying horror and had no idea he was insulting her. He had been told that that
was the thing to say to a girl he liked.
Dave only stays a few weeks at the home of the Nulls. Joanne and Michael are
getting a divorce, and Dave must move out. Next Dave is placed in the home of an
African American family, headed by Vera and Jody Jones. The home is within a
mile of Daves mothers house. He shares a bedroom with the Joness son, while
seven foster children sleep in a makeshift room in the garage. Gordon tells him he
must stay well away from his mother.
At school Dave makes friends with a shy Hispanic boy named Carlos. One day he
and Carlos bump into Daves youngest brother, Russell, at the new building of the
Thomas Edison Elementary school that Dave used to attend. Both boys are
surprised to see each other, and Dave does not know what to expect. Dave notices
that his brother has bruises on his arms and realizes that he is now the one in the
Pelzer home who is being abused. He feels sorry for Russell, who tells him that
their mothers behavior has become even worse. They part on friendly terms.
That night Dave has a nightmare about being attacked by his mother, and the
next day he is determined to see Russell again. He and Carlos go to the school,
and Dave spots Russell, but then Carlos tells him to run because his mother is
approaching with Russell. When his mother gets close, Dave flees as fast as he
can. He runs into the path of a moving car and ends up on the hood but escapes
apparently uninjured. He can no longer see Mother but Carlos shows him that
she is approaching in her station wagon. Dave and Carlos run to Carloss home.
They peek out of the window and watch as Mothers car slowly passes. Mother
looks into all the windows, trying to spot Dave.
When Dave returns home he finds Vera and Jody arguing. He thinks the
argument must be about him but this turns out not to be the case. It transpires

that Jody has been accused of statutory rape (sex with a minor) of a girl they had
taken in as a foster child. Dave and all the other foster children must leave
immediately. Dave finds himself back with Alice and Harold Turnbough.
Analysis
This is another restless period in Daves life and shows the reality of being a
foster child, being moved from home to home quite frequently when what he
most needs is stability and continuity. A recurring theme is Daves naivety and
the way other boys pick on him, posing as friends but harboring malicious intent.
This is shown in this chapter in the incident where he is tricked into insulting the
girl at school. It is a relief to find that he finally finds a real friend, the Hispanic
boy Carlos.
His mothers reappearance in this chapter is almost like that of a cartoon villain,
brought back into the picture just as a reminder of what Dave is fleeing from. The
terms in which his mother is described present her as more monster than human,
a creature of nightmare. When he sees her approaching she has ice-cold, evil
eyes (p. 245) and kids scatter in her wake. When she gets even closer he catches
a whiff of her putrid body odor.
There is also a glimpse of a second tragedy in this story, not one that affects Dave
but which involves his younger brother Russell. Russell has taken Daves place as
the butt of his mothers anger, something Dave had feared would happen. Russell
in the story is actually Richard B. Pelzer, who like Dave went on to write his own
memoir about the abuse he suffered after Dave left the family home. Titled, A
Brothers Journey, it was published in 2004 and reached the New York Times
best-seller list.
Chapter 9: Coming Around

Dave has no idea how long he will be staying at the Turnbough home, and he feels
unsettled. But then Alice tells him that she and Harold want him to stay. Dave is
particularly pleased that Harold, who does not say much to him, wants him
there.
Alice tells him he will be going to see a psychiatrist. Dave is not pleased, but he
finds that he gets along with the new doctor, Dr. Robinson, much better than he
did with the first psychiatrist he saw. He is able to talk about his past, and he also
discovers an intellectual curiosity. The doctor recommends some books for him
to read, some of them about self-esteem. Dave follows up and reads a number of
them.
Dave also gets along with Alice. Every week they go to the mall and watch a
movie, and they talk about all kinds of things. She buys him gifts, and he learns
how to accept presents, which he has never had before.
Dave is now fifteen years old but he gets nervous whenever he contemplates the
future. He does not know what he wants to do with his life. He decides to earn
some money so he gets a job shining shoes and then another job at a watch repair
shop.
He also has a sudden desire to learn how to cook, and Alice teaches him how to
make pancakes. He starts to see life as an adventure.
But things change in July 1976. Two older boys move in as foster children, and he
does not get along with them. He resents the fact that he goes off to work but they
just hang out at the mall. When he finds that some of his things are missing,
including money, he tells Alice that either those boys go or he does. She does not
give in to his pressure, so Dave is on the move once again.

He is placed with John and Linda Walsh, a couple in their twenties who have
three children. Dave likes them both and they allow him to do pretty much what
he wants. Dave acquires a minibike and a BB gun.
When Dave has just started his freshman year in high school, the Walshes move,
taking him with them, to a more expensive neighborhood, where the houses are
big and all the cars in the driveways look they have just been waxed.
Dave quickly makes friends with two neighborhood boys, Paul Brazell and Dave
Howard. They were soon staging drag races in the middle of the street. They even
try their hand at making a movie.
Paul encourages Dave to meet a pretty girl in the neighborhood. Dave does not
know any girls, so he is excited and nervous when he knocks on her door.
However, just after the girl comes to the door and they begin to talk, her mother
appears in the doorway. She is hostile to him, calling him an F-child (meaning
foster child), and saying she does not want his sort in the neighborhood. She tells
him never to approach her daughter again. She slams the door in his face.
The next day he meets one of his adult neighbors who is kinder to him. This is
Michael Marsh, an eccentric character who befriends Dave, inviting him into his
house. Marsh is married with two children, and Dave spends many hours at their
house, much of the time reading books about airplanes. He also gets to know Dan
Brazell, Pauls father.
This is an enjoyable time in Daves life but his home life is not so good. John and
Linda Walsh have constant arguments, and eventually Dave asks his probation
officer (no longer Gordon but a woman named Mrs. ORyan) to move him.
Eventually he is returned to the Turnboughs, and he is happy to return to a place
he calls home.

Analysis
This and the next chapter read like a coming-of-age story. At nearly sixteen, Dave
may not know what he wants to do in life but he is energetic and industrious. The
fact that he his able to hold down a job shows that he can apply himself when
necessary. He may not be interested in his schoolwork, but his new psychiatrist
manages to arouse his intellectual curiosity, and he reads many books, including
some that discuss theories of psychology.
During this period his contacts widen. He is beginning to interact more with the
adult world, and in men such as Michael Marsh and Dan Brazell he finds people
who are willing to befriend him and teach him in ways that he can relate to. He
also, finally, finds two friends of his own age with whom he can have some of the
usual harmless teenage escapades. He also encounters prejudice very directly,
when one of the women in the neighborhood dismisses him rudely simply
because he is a foster child. This incident dramatizes one recurring theme of the
book: the misunderstandings that people have about foster childrenthey tend to
think it is the childs faultand the fact that they do not want to examine the
existence of child abuse in society.
All in all, although Daves life still involved moving from home to home, he is
acquiring the social skills and the experience that will stand him in good stead as
he approaches adulthood.
Chapter 10: Break Away
During his sophomore year in high school, Dave is bored and does not apply
himself to his schoolwork. He doesnt think that anything he learns in high school
will be of any use to him in the real world. He is seventeen now, and prefers to
spend his time working at his various jobs at a fast-food restaurant and a plastics
factory.

One weekend he decides to see if he can find his father, who he has not seen for
years. A comment by a firefighter he calls makes him think his father might be in
difficulties. Dave rides his motorcycle to San Francisco and goes to the fire
station that his father has always been assigned to. He meets an old friend of his
dads whom he calls Uncle Lee, who tells him his dad no longer works there. He
was asked to retire early. He has not worked in a year and just moves around
from place to place. His problem is that he drinks too much.
Two weekends later, Dave takes a Greyhound bus to the Mission area in San
Francisco and finds his father in a rundown bar. He looks terrible. They go
outside for a walk. His father is a broken man, destroyed by his failed marriage
and alcohol. Dave worries about him. His father shows him his firefighters
badge, which he is proud of. It is all he has left in life and the only thing he didnt
make a mess of, he tells Dave. He puts Dave on the bus home and tells him not to
end up the way he has done. On the bus home Dave cries because he thinks his
father is dying and he may never see him again.
In the summer of 1978, Dave gets a job selling cars. He visits his old friends Paul
Brazell and Dave Howard, as well as the Marshes. Pauls father tries to talk him
out of his desire to become a Hollywood stuntman, while Michael Marsh thinks
he should join the armed services.
When he is almost eighteen he decides to drop out of high school, to Alices
consternation. He is doing well as a salesman, but that ends when there is an
economic recession.
One Sunday he drives out to the Russian River, where he used to spend happy
times with his family before the abuse began. His goal is to live in that area.
A few months later, having obtained his high school G.E.D., he joins the U.S. Air
Force. His mother finds out and calls him. They talk for almost an hour, and she
says she always wanted the best for him. When he says goodbye to Alice and

Harold, he realizes that they are his real mother and father and that he finally got
to belong to a loving family.
Analysis
Daves search for his father reveals that the boy is not the only casualty in the
Pelzer family. His father simply could not cope with the situation he found
himself in and was unable to rise above his difficultiesunlike his son, who
shows every sign of recovering from his abuse and taking his place as a
responsible adult in society.
In Pelzers first book, A Child Called It, the Russian River serves as a kind of
symbol of the good, happy life, a serene existence to which Dave aspires, and it
serves the same function here. Dave is drawn there by instincthe does not know
exactly how to get therethat goes back to his childhood when being at the
Russian River was a happy time for all the family.
Epilogue
In December 1993 Dave sits alone on the beach in Sonoma County, California.
He is no longer afraid of being alone. As he looks back at his years in foster care,
he realizes that the key to his survival was the knowledge that he had to find his
own path in life. He achieved great satisfaction as a result of joining the U.S. Air
Force, which allowed him to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying.
He drives back to what he calls his second homethe Rio Villa in Monte Rio. Ric
and Don, the owners, have always made him and his seven-year-old son Stephen
feel like they are part of the family. After playing some games with Stephen, he
and his son go down to the deck by the Russian River. He is happy because he has
a good life and the love of his son.
Analysis

Appropriately enough, the story ends at the Russian River, symbol of happiness.
It appears that Dave has overcome more obstacles in his early years than many
people face in a lifetime, and he has come through it all with his humanity and his
ability to love and to be loved intact.

Lost

boy

Character

Profiles
Dan Brazell
Dan Brazell is the father of Daves friend Paul. He is known as the Mr.
Goodwrench of the neighborhood, always working on some mechanical project
in his garage. He is wary of Dave at first but eventually warms up to him.
Paul Brazell and Dave Howard
Paul Brazell and Dave Howard are the two boys who become friends with Dave
when he moves with the Walshes to a more affluent neighborhood. The three of
them go through a few adventures together, including bike races in the street.
Carlos
Carlos is a shy Hispanic boy who does not speak much English. Dave meets him
while he is living with Jody and Vera Jones and attending Fernando Riviera
Junior High. Carlos and Dave have much in common and they become friends.
Dave says that Carlos didnt have a mean bone in his body (p. 239).

Lilian and Rudy Catanze

Lilian and Rudy Catanze are the foster parents who take Dave in after he leaves
Aunt Mary. They have been foster parents to many children over a period of
many years. Dave gets fond of Lilian, who tries her best to give Dave a good
home. Eventually, however, the rambunctious Dave proves too much for them to
handle, and he is sent to juvenile hall. Lilian stays loyal to him, however, and
Dave is eventually released and sent back to the Catanzes. But he soon has to
move on as two other children are assigned to the Catanzes. He has stayed with
them for about a year in all.
Chris
Chris is a foster child who lives with the Catanzes while Dave is there. He is
seventeen years old and has cerebral palsy. He was abandoned as a child and has
lived in a dozen foster homes. He is worried about how he will take care of
himself when he turns eighteen, as then he will have to leave foster care. Larry Jr.
enjoys hurting his feelings.
Ms. Gold
Ms. Gold is a social worker with the county Child Protective Services who is
assigned to Daves case when he is first removed from his family home. She has
long blond hair and Dave thinks of her as an angel. He trusts her and thinks of
her as his best friend, and she always does her best for him. She accompanies
him to the court hearing that will decide whether he is to become a ward of the
court or be returned to his mother. She coaches him on what to say.
Gordon Hutchenson

Gordon Hutchenson is Daves probation officer. He is assigned to Dave when

Dave is living in the detention center and has been accused of arson. Gordon is an
experienced probation officer who does a good job for Dave. In court he opposes
the prosecutions argument that Dave should be sent to an institution, arguing
instead that he should be returned to his foster parents. After Dave leaves the
Catanzes, Gordon works extremely hard to find him another foster home.
John
John is a boy Dave meets at school. Like Dave, he wears worn-out clothes but
Dave notices that no one picks on him. Dave finds out that John leads a gang, and
John wants him to join it. John hatches a plot to get even with his teacher who
scolded him in front of the class. The plot is to burn the teachers classroom
down. John goes ahead with his plan, but Dave, who at first agreed to help, gets
blamed for it, even though he tried to put out the fire.
Johnny Jones
Johnny Jones is a boy at school who tricks Dave into stealing a model airplane for
him from a store. After Dave is caught, it transpires that the store manager is
Johnny Joness father, and Johnny told him what Dave was going to do.
Vera and Jody Jones
Vera and Jody Jones are an African-American couple who become Daves foster
parents for a short after he leaves the Nullses. Dave is one of eight foster children
who live there. Dave has to leave after Jody is accused of statutory rape of a girl
who had been living there. One of the foster children tells Dave that he does not
believe the accusation is true.
Big Larry

Big Larry is a foster child who lives with the Catanzes while Dave is there. He is
older than Dave, and Dave likes him, finding him childlike and shy. They go to
the movies together and both get in trouble with their foster parents when one
day they ride down the street where Daves mother lives.
Larry Jr.
Larry Jr. is a foster child who lives with the Catanzes while Dave is there. He
takes a dislike to Dave and torments him, calling him Mommas little boy (p.
113) and becoming physically aggressive with him. Eventually Dave fights back.
Mark
Mark is a cook in a pizza house. Before Dave is taken from his family home, he
turns up hungry in the pizza house. Mark is kind to him and gives him a Coke and
a pizza.
Aunt Mary
Aunt Mary is an elderly woman who runs a temporary foster home where Dave is
first placed after being removed from his family home. She is strict but kind.
Michael Marsh
Michael Marsh and his wife and two small children are neighbors of Dave when
he lives with the Walshes. Michael befriends Dave, and Dave spends many hours
at his house reading books about aircraft. Michael later advises him to join the
armed services.
Joanne and Michael Nulls

Joanne and Michael Nulls are Daves foster parents for a short period. Joanne
fusses over him too much and treats him like a child. Michael only agreed to take
him in because Joanne cannot have children of her own and she is lonely. When
their marriage breaks down and they announce they are divorcing, Dave is moved
to another home. Joanne tells him that Michael was having an affair with another
woman, but Dave still thinks he has had something to do with their break up.
Dave Pelzer
Dave Pelzer is the author and subject of the memoir. He has been severely abused
by his mother for about eight years, beginning when he was four. He is finally
taken away from his home by the local authorities, who place him in foster care.
This begins a long learning process for the boy as he adjusts to his new
environment. He lives in six foster homes in all, covering a period of six year until
he is eighteen. As a child who has never known love and acceptance in his family
(except as a very small boy) Dave has a difficult time learning how to behave in a
way that is acceptable to his new family and to society. Wanting to fit in with
other boys, he falls into bad habits such as stealing from stores, and he also for a
while gets involved with the wrong crowd at school. When he is blamed for
starting a fire at the school he is taken out of foster care and placed in juvenile
detention. Fortunately for him, he has a number of people, including his foster
parent Lilian and probation officer Gordon, who support him, and he is fairly
soon returned to foster care. Eventually, as an intelligent and inquisitive boy,
Dave gets his life sorted out, and when he is eighteen and leaving foster care, he
joins the U.S. Air Force. He knows he has the ability to create a decent life for
himself, and he is grateful to his various foster parents for making it possible.
Mr. Pelzer
Mr. Pelzer is Daves father. He is a firefighter. He played no part in Daves abuse
but was too weak to stop it happening. Unlike Daves mother, his father is
allowed to contact him and visit him at any time, but he rarely does so, to Daves

great disappointment. When he finally does visit his son in juvenile detention, he
says he cannot forgive him for starting a fire. Later, he is forced to retire from his
job, and he has little left to live for. His alcoholism has ruined his life. Dave goes
to visit him in San Francisco and is shocked by his decline.
Mrs. Pelzer
Mrs. Pelzer is the villain of the story. She abused her son Dave for many years
before he was removed from her custody. After that she makes several attempts
to get him back. Dave fears she will come for him and has nightmares about her.
Dave sees her several timesat Aunt Marys where she visits him and is
unpleasant, and then again in the courthouse for the hearing that will determine
whether he is returned to her. He writes her a note asking her to forgive him but
she tears it up. She does seem to have some spark of goodness left in her, though,
since after the court has ruled against her she gives Dave presents and seems
genuinely sad about what has happened. Later, however, she plays the villain
again when she tries to have him committed to a mental institution, claiming that
he was out of control and violent when he lived at her house. The relationship
between Dave and his mother does not break down irrevocably, however. Some
years later, when Dave is about to join the U.S. Air Force, she calls him and they
talk for over an hour. She claims that she always wanted the best for him. But
Dave concludes that she is toying with his emotion and does not really love him.
Russell Pelzer
Russell Pelzer is Daves younger brother. Dave meets him by chance one day at
the school Dave used to attend. At this time Dave is living with Vera and Jody
Jones, less than a mile from his mothers house. He thinks Russell looks
withdrawn, and he notices bruises on his arms which indicate possible abuse by
his mother. Russell says that since Dave left, their mothers behavior has become
even worse.

Dr. Donald Robertson

Dr. Donald Robertson is the second psychiatrist Dave is sent to. Dave likes him
much better than the first one, and finds he can talk to him about his past life. Dr.
Robertsons manner is more informal and he tells Dave to call him by his first
name. Dave always peppers him with questions, and Dr. Robertson recommends
some books for him to read.
Mrs. ORyan
Mrs. ORyan is Daves second probation officer, who is responsible for moving
him away from the Walshes and back to the Turnboughs.
Harold and Alice Turnbough
Harold and Alice Turnbough are foster parents to Dave. First they take him in for
only a few days because they have little room. But later, after leaving the Joneses,
Dave is returned there. Again, it is considered a very temporary arrangement but
Dave stays there longer than planned. He gets along well with Alice and Harold.
Harold is a carpenter and doesnt talk much but Dave respects him. He fantasizes
about one day working on a project with him. He also talks at length with Alice
about his future. After moving out and living with the Walshes, Dave returns for
his third spell in the Turnbough home, which is where he lives out the rest of his
time in foster care. He thinks of Alice and Harold as his mom and dad.
John and Linda Walsh
John and Linda Walsh are a young couple in their twenties with children of their
own who become Daves foster parents for a while. Dave likes them because they
are easy going and allow him to do pretty much what he wants to do. But they
also have regular fierce quarrels and this proves too much for Dave, so he asks to
be moved to another home.

Lost

boy

Metaphor

Analysis
The Seagull
In the epilogue, Pelzer creates an explicit metaphor out of a flock of seagulls that
he observes at the beach in Sonoma County, California. One seagull cannot keep
up with the rest of the flock and falls to the sand. It hobbles around and finds
some food, but then the rest of the flock descends and tries to grab it. But the
seagull stands its ground and fights back. After a few moments the flock flies off,
in search of an easier victim (p. 300). Dave interprets this as a metaphor for his
own struggles in foster care. He has had to assert himself, but he has been
successful.
The Russian River
The Russian River in Guerneville symbolizes happiness for Dave. His family used
to vacation there before the abuse began and he has fond memories of it. When
he tries to run away from home in chapter 1, his aim is to reach the Russian
River. When he lives with Alice and Harold Turnbough, he does not forget the
river, remembering that when he was younger he fantasized about building a log
cabin there. In the Epilogue, Dave and his young son are at the Russian River,
which is presented as an idyllic place: The shallow green river becomes
transparent, with only a soft trickling sound that makes the water real. As the sun

disappears behind a hill, the reflection of a Christmas tree shimmers from across
the river (p. 303).
Superman and James Bond
When Dave and Larry go to the movies they see a James Bond film. The figure of
James Bond, the secret agent who can do almost anything, escape any situation
and save the world, gets imprinted firmly in young Daves mind. The fictional
movie hero symbolizes for him the ability to be in control of life rather than at its
mercy. Dave also comments on how earlier in his life he used to fantasize that he
was Superman, the comic book and movie hero. This also supplied him with an
image of power and freedom. In his essay, Perspectives on Foster Care that
appears at the end of the book, Pelzer explains how he used to escape my pain by
dreaming of a hero. On the outside my hero did not fit into mainstream society,
yet on the inside my hero knew who he was and wanted to do good for others in
need (pp. 315-16).

Lost

boy

Theme

Analysis
Prejudice Against Foster Children
Pelzer several times refers to this theme. Pelzers life story is itself an example of
the difficult life led by foster children, and his touching portrait of Chris, the
seventeen-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who has lived in more than a dozen
foster homes, is another example of the challenges faced by such children. Dave
faces real prejudice when he moves with the Marshes to a more affluent area.

When he tries to befriend a local girl, her mother stops him, calling him that
little F-child (p. 271) and a filthy little hooligan. Like others, she seems to
blame the boy himself for his status: I dont know what you children do to
become . . . fostered children. Some people in the neighborhood fear that the
presence of a family with foster children will lower the price of houses there.
It is clear that placing a foster child is not easy. Gordon Hutchenson, Daves
probation officer, exclaims in frustration when he is trying to place Dave, There
are never enough homes! (p. 223). Some of the kids end up in juvenile hall
simply because there are no homes to place them in.
Lilian Catanze tells Dave about the prejudice people have against foster children.
She tells him that as a foster child, he has to be very careful because he already
has two strikes against him. Later, when Dave is in juvenile detention, she
explains that people have a difficult time acknowledging the need for foster
homes because if they did so they would also have to acknowledge the presence of
child abuse in society, which some people are unwilling to do. It means admitting
to problems such as alcoholism, child abuse, children who run away or get into
drugs. Some people prefer to keep such things to themselves, just as Dave was
told to preserve the family secret of his abuse.
Coming-of-Age
The memoir is really a coming-of-age narrative, following the life of an adolescent
from the age of twelve to the age of eighteen. This is the period when people
develop from children into adults, discover who they are, and form their own
values. At the beginning of the narrative, Dave is a confused, frightened twelveyear-old who has just been taken from his mothers home to prevent further
abuse. He has to learn how to fit in with societys rules and expectations and how
to live as part of a normal family unit. Never having had proper guidance in his
early years, it is not surprising that Dave makes some serious missteps; he steals
from grocery stores and keeps the wrong company at school. But he is redeemed

by his intelligence and persistence. He starts to read serious books, shows that he
can hold down a job and show a good work ethic, and finally, with the advice of
adults he trusts, he makes a good career choice by joining the U.S. Air Force. In
six eventful years, full of change and disruption but also growth and learning,
Dave has developed from a badly damaged child into a young man who is ready
to take his place as a productive member of the adult world.
Finding Love and Acceptance
Dave has spent his childhood having to deal with complete rejection by his
mother and isolation in his family, not to mention the physical abuse he has
suffered. He therefore views the world as a hostile and frightening place. This can
be seen in his manner when he stays with Aunt Mary, his first foster parent. He is
frightened, fearing punishment for any misdeed, and scared that he will be
returned to his mother. At nights, instead of sleeping, he sits up holding his
knees, rocking back and forth and humming to himselfclearly the actions of a
boy who is dealing with severe recent trauma. It is hard for Dave to realize that
others may mean him well, and it will be a long journey before he can learn to
trust. But he eventually does so because quite a number of adults go out of their
way to help him. He develops affection for Ms. Gold, the social worker, and for
Lilian Catanze, the woman with whom he spends the longest time as a foster
child. These and others show Dave what it is like to be loved and accepted rather
than despised and rejected. Ultimately, it is when he is with his final foster
parents, Harold and Alice Turnbough, that he learns to love and accept love
unconditionally as part of a loving family. By the end of the book he can call Alice
mother and Harold father without feeling awkward about it. His emotional
journey has found its fulfillment; he has traveled from a dysfunctional family in
which he was seriously abused to one in which he feels valued and cherished, and
he is able to return those positive feelings.

Lost

boy

Top

Ten

Quotes
1.

I have no friends, no place to hide, nothing to turn to. p. 13

Dave describes an incident that took place during the years in which he was abused.
He has temporarily escaped from his abusive mother and is walking the streets,
intending to get to the Russian River, which he remembers from when he was much
younger. He is determined never to go back. He is nine years old at this point.

2.

I was uncontrollable. I ran from room to room, jumping on

every mattress in the home. I bounced so high my head banged
again and again against the ceiling. I didnt stop until I saw stars. I
didnt care. The other children clapped their hands, egging me
on.
p. 43 Dave has just arrived at his very first foster home, at Aunt Marys, and he is
expressing his relief and joy at his new freedom.

3.

Im so sorry. I didnt mean for it to come to this. I didnt mean

to tell the secret. I didnt mean to hurt the family. Can you ever
forgive me?
p. 66.This is the note Dave writes to his mother when he is in the courthouse for the
first time. His mother is also there. He gives the note to his mother. She reads it and
tears it in half without a word.

4.

I . . . I remember one Saturday afternoon . . . she had me pick

up some dog poop . . . all I had to do was throw the poop in the
garbage disposal, and shed never know. I knew if she found out,
itd be too late. I mean, by the time she heard me turn on the
disposal, it would be too late . . . but I ate it because she told me
to.
pp. 101-02.Dave describes to Lilian Catanze one of the more disgusting episodes in
the history of his abuse by his mother.

5.

David, you have to understand something. Youre a foster

child. . . . And because of that, youve got two strikes against you.
You have to be careful of everything you say and everything you
do. If you get into trouble, we . . . could lose you.
p. 142. After Dave has broken the rules and cycled down his mothers street, Lilian
impresses upon him the seriousness of his situation and hints at the prejudice many
people have against foster children.

6.

If theres one thing I will not tolerate, its a liar and a thief!
p. 158 Rudy is losing his patience with Dave, who keeps getting into trouble. Dave
has been caught stealing a model airplane from a store and denying that he stole
Rudys cigarettes. Rudy says that unless he changes he will end up at a juvenile
detention center.

7.

Youve overcome more in 12 years than most folks will ever

accomplish in a lifetime.
p. 206 Lilian speaks to Dave during his stay in the detention center, encouraging him
to maintain good behavior.

8.

Russell's head dipped to his worn-out sneakers. I realized how

withdrawn he looked. His shirt was paper-thin and his arms were
spotted with small, dark purple marks. My head snapped up to his
face. I knew. I shook my head, not knowing what to say. I felt so
sorry for him. For years I had been the sole target of Mothers
rage. Now in front of me stood my replacement.
p. 241 Dave meets his younger brother by chance when he lives within a mile of his
former home. He realizes that his mother is now abusing Russell.

9.

After kissing Alice, my mother, and shaking Harolds, my

fathers, hand, I opened my mouth to say something appropriate.
But this moment in time needed no words, for we knew what we all
feltthe love of a family.
p. 297 Dave is about to go off to join the Air Force, and this is his goodbye to his
foster parents. He has finally found the love and acceptance he was searching for
within a family.

10.

Years ago, I truly doubted whether Id make it out alive. In my

former life I had very little. Today, as I stand in my utopia, I have

what any person could wish fora life and the love of my son.
Stephen and I are a family.
p. 303 These are the closing words of the memoir. Dave has survived and flourished,
against all the odds.

Lost boy : Biography

Dave Pelzer was born on December 29, 1960, in Daly City, California. He is the
son of Stephen Joseph Pelzer, who was of Austrian and Irish descent, and
Catherine Roerva Pelzer. Dave Pelzer was the second of five boys in the family.
From the age of about four to twelve, Pelzer was subject to extreme abuse by his
mother, including beatings, starvation and torture. His father did nothing to
prevent the abuse and the parents eventually separated.
The school authorities finally stepped in, and Pelzer was removed from the family
home in March 1973 and placed in foster care. In 1979, he joined the U.S. Air
Force and served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, being responsible for mid-air
refueling of the SR-71 Blackbird and F-117 Stealth Fighter.
Overcoming the legacy of his abuse as a child, he became an advocate for youth at
risk. In 1990, he was awarded the J. C. Penney Golden Rule Award, which made
him California Volunteer of the Year, the first of many awards. In 1993, he was
named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans (TOYA), and the following
year was selected as one of the Outstanding Young Persons of the world (TOYP)
for his work in promoting awareness and prevention of child abuse.
In 1995, Pelzer published his memoir, A Child Called It: One Childs Courage to
Survive, about the abuse he suffered as a child. The book became an international
best-seller. He followed this with two sequels: The Lost Boy: A Foster Childs
Search for the Love of a Family (1997), about his life from the age of twelve to
eighteen, and A Man Called Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness (2000). A
fourth memoir followed in 2004: The Privilege of Youth: A Teenagers Story of
Longing for Acceptance and Friendship, in which he returned to the story of his
life in foster care. Pelzer has also written a number of self-help books: Help

Yourself: Finding Hope, Courage, and Happiness (2000), Help Yourself for
Teens: Real-Life Advice for Real-Life Challenges (2005), and
Moving Forward: Taking the Lead in Your Life (2008). He travels frequently
throughout the United States speaking to groups of all kinds about resilience and
overcoming obstacles. He has a reputation as an inspiring speaker.
Pelzer is married, and he and his wife Marsha have a son, Stephen. They live in
California.

Lost boy : Essay Q&A

1. To what literary genre does The Lost Boy belong?
The Lost Boy is a memoir, which is like an autobiography but does not attempt to cover the entire
life of the author. In this case it covers the life of a boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen.
The book might even be thought of as a kind of nonfiction bildungsroman. This is a German word
that means literally formation novel. A bildungsroman traces the process of intellectual and
emotional growth toward self-awareness in a young person as he or she moves from childhood to
adulthood. Examples of bildungsroman include classics such as J. D. Salingers Catcher in the Rye
(1951) to more recent books such as The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003). A coming-of-age
novel may cover similar themes as a bildungsroman, so The Lost Boy can also be thought of a
nonfiction coming-of-age story.
Journalists have also recently popularized a new name for memoirs such as The Lost Boy, as well
as Pelzers previous book, A Child Called It (1995). They refer to works such as these as misery
lit or misery memoir. Pelzers A Child Called It is considered the first in this popularly named
genre, setting the pattern for many other stories of horrific childhood endured. Book publishers
have discovered that there is a huge market for autobiographical stories such as these, although
they prefer to describe them as inspirational memoirs rather than misery lit.
These books follow a familiar pattern. The abuse is described in detail, but the overall theme is
triumph over adversity, the triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds,

as Pelzer puts it. The books are therefore meant to be inspirational, to encourage others to rise
above their own misfortunes. However, it seems that many people read them for their shock
value, fascinated by the horror of it all. These books are often written in very simple language (like
Pelzers books) and are read, according to the conventional wisdom goes, by people who do not
normally read or buy books.
A recent example of misery lit is the best-selling Breaking Night: The Astonishing True Story of
Courage, Survival and Overcoming All the Odds (2010) by Liz Murray, a neglected daughter of
drug addicts who ended up winning a scholarship to Harvard.
2. What are the facts about foster care in the United States?
About the time The Lost Boy was published in 1997, there were over half a million children in
foster care in the United States. As of 2000, the official figure was 547,415. Most (60%) were
placed in foster care because of neglect or abuse by parents or guardians. Others enter foster care
because of delinquent behavior or running away from home or playing truant from school.
According to statistics derived from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, the average
time in foster care in 2001 was 33 months, but more than 17 percent of foster children had been in
foster care for more than five years. (Dave Pelzer was in foster care for six years.) One foster child
in five will move at least three times during his or her stay in foster careDave Pelzer had a total
of six different foster homes.
In his book, Pelzer lavishes praise on the foster care system. He states that had he not been
removed from his home, he thinks he would have died. In his essay Perspectives on Foster Care
he argues against what he sees as a negative view of the system held by many, who believe that
social workers remove children from their parents with no good reason.
No one would argue with Pelzers comments as applied to himself, but statistics show that in
adapting to foster care and emerging as a successful adult, Pelzer was the exception rather than
the rule. Nearly half of all foster children in the United States become homeless when they reach
eighteen and are no longer eligible for foster care. Children in foster care are more likely than
others to drop out of high school (as Pelzer did, although he did get his GED not long after) and
later have higher rates of depression and other negative mental conditions, ands higher
incidences of living below the poverty line.
3. What part does alcoholism play in The Lost Boy?

The reasons why Daves mother abused him are not known. Pelzer never really explains why, and
perhaps he does not know. Certainly Dave in the story does not know, but one factor was certainly
alcoholism. Both of his parents are alcoholics. This is clear from what Dave says in chapter 1,
when he is looking back at a particular moment in the long years of abuse. He hears his parents
beginning to argue and comments, since its after four in the afternoon, I know both of my
parents are drunk (p. 5). When Dave, now in foster care, encounters his younger brother Russell,
Russell informs him that at home, Things are bad. . . . All she does is rant and rave. She drinks
more than ever (p. 241).
The link between alcoholism on the part of parents and the physical abuse of a child has been well
established by scientific studies. In a 1991 study, Parental Substance Abuse and the Nature of
Child Maltreatment, published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect by Richard Famularo,
Robert Kinscherff, and Terence Fenton, the researchers found that in 190 randomly selected cases
in which the state took custody of children because of child maltreatment, 67 percent of these
cases involved parents who were substance abusers, including alcohol.
The consequences of his fathers alcoholism are readily apparent. He loses his job and ends up in
a hopelessly sad position with nothing to live for or care about. Dave, Uncle Lee, his fathers
friend tells him, its the booze. Its killing him (p. 287). When Dave seeks out his father in San
Francisco, he finds him slumped over a table in a bar. Although Pelzer makes no preachy remarks
to his reader about the dangers of alcohol, he does not need tothe results of such an addiction
are there for all to see.
4. What are the literary merits of The Lost Boy and other books by Pelzer?
The Lost Boy, like A Child Called It, spent many weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, but
this alone is not a mark of literary quality. Pelzer claims on his Web site (davepelzer.com) that at
least one of his books have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, which is one of the most
prestigious literary prizes in the United States. However, as Pat Jordan noted in Dysfunction for
Dollars, her article on Pelzer in the New York Times Magazine on July 28, 2002, none of Pelzers
books have been so nominated: It is true that Dutton submitted two of Pelzer's books to the
Pulitzer committee, though that doesn't qualify it as a Pulitzer nominee.' The committee receives
800 unsolicited books a year and accepts them all without critical comment. Theoretically, the
committee would accept Pelzer's grocery list as long as he filled out the proper forms and paid a
$50 fee. These books are called entries or submissions. Only the final three, short-listed books
can truly be called Pulitzer Prize nominees, and Pelzer's books have never made that list. The
point is worth making because Pelzers books, including The Lost Boy, do not meet the standards
of literary excellence. The correct analog is not to the excellence associated with the Pulitzer Prize

but more to the popular inspirational and self-help series, Chicken Soup for the Soul. The Lost
Boy is really an extended Chicken Soup story, full of dramatic moments of realization,
unconvincing dialogue that purports to be the actual words spoken in conversations occurring
twenty years previously, sentimentality, simple language, and shallow characterization. In The
Lost Boy, characters are painted in black and white. They are either saintly, like Ms. Gold or Lilian
Catanze, or villainous, like Daves mother. There are few in-betweens. All in all, The Lost Boy may
be for some an entertaining read but should not be thought of as a work of high literary quality.
5. How have policies regarding child abuse and foster care changed from the 1970s?

In The Lost Boy, Dave briefly mentions his English teacher in high school, Mr. Tapley, whom he
used to visit after class and ask lots of questions about his future. That teacher, Dennis Tapley,
contributed an essay published in the Perspectives on Foster Care section of The Lost Boy. He
confirms Pelzers statements about the low esteem in which the foster care system was held in the
1970s: Individuals involved in foster careboth parents and childrenboth parents and children
were seen as second class (p. 320). Since that time, Tapley notes, there has been a growth of
awareness of the kinds of problems that children whose parents neglect them are likely to have,
and teachers have been trained to evaluate and intervene more effectively. Had a more
sophisticated system been in place in the 1970s, the abuse of Dave Pelzer might have been caught
sooner and he would have been removed from his home more quickly. During the 1970s there was
a rapid increase in the number of children placed in foster care, but the system was widely
criticized for keeping children in foster care for too long and moving them too frequently. Federal
reimbursement policies at the time also made it advantageous for state agencies to put children in
foster care rather than working with the existing family. The Adoption Assistance and Child
Welfare Act of 1980 worked to address these problems and prevent the unnecessary removal of
kids from their homes. Since then the trend has been for children whose parents are unable to
care for them effectively to be placed in kinship foster care, which means they live with other
relatives, so the family connection is preserved. This trend has been due to a recognition of the
benefits of family care and a shortage of foster homes. Efforts are then focused on helping the
family to reunite.