Losing your childhood innocence leads to a greater awareness of evil, pain or
suffering in the world around you. In Heather O’Neils Lullabies for Little Criminals,
the narrative of the main character’s actions and intersections represents the
concept and theme of losing your childhood innocence. The main character Baby
was living in a poor environment which led to losing her childhood innocence at a
really young age. Baby experienced many obstacles in her life at the age of thirteen
because she doesn’t have a father that loves her enough to guid her into the right
path. Baby lives in the slums with her Jules, a heroin addict who disappears every
week. Thus, leaving baby to tend for herself. Leaving the baby to fend for herself is
not a good idea. She navigates the city on her own as an adult would, yet she treats it
as if she were a child, falling into the city's traps as her innocence is stripped away
by the interactions she encounters.Heather O’Neils demonstrates babies loss of
innocence through the interactions of the characters and living in a harsh
environment.
Living in a terrible environment might cause a child's innocence to be lost at a very
young age. Baby's friend Zoe began smoking marijuana, which she got from her
older sister, and she persuaded Baby that every guy would go crazy for a lady who
smoked marijuana. “The first time Zoë handed me a joint, I remember thinking that
it led like a skunk, just like Pepé Le Pew. I took a toke from the joint held it in. My
throat started burning and I coughed and retched y hard. Zoë acted as if this were
perfectly natural. I stood looking and, disappointed but somehow relieved that
nothing at all was happening. Then I noticed that I was feeling numb, as if pain was
impossible. I wanted to go up to a dog and get him to bite down on my arm. I had
funny impulses, too, like taking off all my clothes.” Baby's friend Zoe persuaded her
that using marijuana makes you feel like a woman, and she is was all for it. When
Baby became thirteen, people began to treat her as if she were an older lady, and the
lowlifes said some really harsh things to her. “The younger bums would come over
to me with their cups full of change. First they would ask me if I had any change to
spare When I said no, they would start the dirty talk, They asked me loaded
questions. Do you want to come over to my apartment? I can teach you some sex
moves”. 214…..Therefore it did not take long for Baby to lose her innocence in a
society where many kids are exposed to drugs and very awful actions at a really
young age. (How did Zoe make her lose her innocence? How did the drugs consume
her?)
A child shouldn’t be forced to act because of bad relationships they had in a poor
environment growing up. Prostitution is something that a twelve year old shouldn’t
be doing. For example in one scene baby is forces to go into a car for prostitution
with another man by her lover Alphonse. She begins to panic and states that her
“whole body was resisting, even though I told it not to. It was
like once when we tried to put my friend Miro's dog in the water. All the other dogs
were in there having such a good time, but Miro's dog kept scrunching up and
twisting his body every time I lowered it near the water, I kind of felt like that dog. I
felt like crawling right back up Alphonse's arm and jumping out of the car window.”
Baby is no longer a typical twelve year old. Baby has lost her innocence because
she’s battling between childhood and the adult world. If being forced to prostitution
wasn’t enough baby’s pimp caused her to go to juvenile detention for a while
because he exposed her to drugs and alcohol. Baby missed the best stage of her life,
which is childhood and her innocence was stolen from her by the awful
relationships that made her feel committed.
In conclusion, it shows that although Baby is a child, she has the mindset of an adult.
Baby does not realize that once she loses her innocence, it’s not something that she
can’t get back. Baby grew up without a mother, and her father was a drug addict
who frequently abandoned her. Her pimp Alphonse took advantage of her and
pushed her to become a prostitute so that he could profit from her. The atmosphere
she grew up in was terrible, and all of those factors combined to rob her innocence
off of her. This story relates to the human experience because many people grew up
in a bad environment where they struggled with relationships with their parents,
and as a result, they have bad relationships in the outside world and experience new
things without anyone to guide them, which can lead to serious problems.