A Child Called It Soundtrack

I’ve read Dave Pelzer’s struggle with child abuse in his autobiography A Child Called It. I recently came across a song by Rise Against. The first time I heard it I became obsessed with it because of the beat and the subject it focuses on. I can see how this song could reflect the experience of a child being oppressed.

Rise Against is known for their advocacy of progressivism. They confront political and personal injustice and they are not really the ones to hold back. Prayer of the Refugee is a melodic hardcore song that talks about the injustice toward refugees. The song begins with a conversation between a refugee and his son where he remembers the good life they once had, but no longer do. In the chorus, the refugee is calling out saying not to help him, as carrying himself is really all he has left. He says that all those people who have tried to “help” them in the past always let him down time after time. The next verse is about how all the refugees are trying to change the world in subtle ways. In the final verse, he tells his son to go out and change the world for the better.

David Pelzer was a young boy who was starved, beaten, and tortured by his mother. He was not a refugee, but he was a boy that was trapped inside a house and had no power. He was a caring and loving boy that had to learn how to survive on his own. Dave always tried remembering his mother as the woman who “glowed with love for her children.” Dave was forced to sleep in the garage and is treated like a peasant. He wears the same clothes to school every day and starts stealing food to make up for the fact that his mother is starving him. One day, she “accidentally” stabs him and refuses to take him to a hospital. This boy already knew that his father and brothers could no longer help him, he learned to become helpless. Later on, Dave goes to the school nurse’s office where he is inspected and questioned. The police was notified and Dave was taken away from his mother and placed in an orphanage. Dave used his faith, positive attitude, and determination to create himself a better world.

I am convinced that Prayer of the Refugee is one of the best options for A Child Called It’s soundtrack. Dave, like the refugees, have been let down so many times. They have been ignored and abused. They were both “the hungry, and the cold” and “the ones who kept quiet and always did what we were told.” In the end, they both left their situation and made themselves a better world.