Preview

Lullabies For Little Criminals Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
437 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lullabies For Little Criminals Analysis
Childhood is a crucial stage in an individual’s development. It allows a kid to develop its own personality, to gain social experiences, and to determine the type of person that it will become. The innocence and purity of children is what keeps them from growing up too fast and from being pulled into the adult world too soon. In “Lullabies for Little Criminals”, Heather O’Neill explores the latter theme through the loss of innocence of Baby, the main character. Baby’s harsh social environment causes her to experience situations that deprive her from the beauty of childhood. Such experiences would include an early exposition to drugs, a stay in juvenile detention, and a life as a young prostitute.
Firstly, Baby sees her innocence being taken

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The term, “Coming of Age” has a variety of connotations ranging from a realization of one’s personal duty in life to a more harrowing observation about the harsh reality one has been hidden from while in the depths of his/her youth. While perhaps there are as many different conclusions reached about growing up as there are pieces of literature revolving around the subject, two works in particular offer transitional tales that depict vastly different narratives. Judith Ortiz Cofer in her poem, Quinceanera, presents a dark and literal use of language to portray a raw and reluctant journey to womanhood, while in “My Back Pages” Bob Dylan more frequently utilizes figurative language to relay a sense that the anger and resentment of his youth was…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The evidence of the key theme of loss of innocence can be clearly seen throughout Glen Harwoods poem “Barn Owl”. A key example of the loss of innocence in “Barn Owl” is where the child who is at first described as an “innocent child” then as the poem progresses and the child loses their innocence by killing the barn owl the child is then referred to as a “horny fiend” and lastly the child is mentioned as “afraid”.…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When one learns that innocence is just one part of life, their life just begins. In the short story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker one ten year old girl is met face to face with innocence’s biggest rival, evil. A summer is full with laughter and joy just like Myops until she encounters evil for the first time which ends her summer.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The last two paragraphs of “How We Avenged the Blumes” demonstrates the jewish boys who expressed empathy when they first witnessed the anti-semite get crushed. When the Anti-semite collapses below their feet, “confusion came over [them] all” and “none of [them] knew when to run.” Whenever the boys came across an anti semite, their first intentions would be to run. On the other hand, now that they encountered victory instead of defeat, they were confused and lost. As the narrator was watching Ace beat up the anti-semite, he “knew [he’d] always feel that to be broken was better than to break.” He understood watching the bully be mistreated was worse than to be the one getting bullied. Essentially, the boys felt unfortunate to the “crushed boy,”…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    You’ve probably seen the comparison, a woman in a bikini and sunglasses looking judgmentally at a woman in a burqa, who is looking back the same way. Both women are thinking, “What a cruel, male-dominated culture.”. The thoughts provoked by each site are the same, but for completely opposite reasons. The reasons are dictated by the perception the women’s cultures have given them. An individual’s culture has an immense influence on the way they see the world and people around them.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This amazing story of survival and dysfunction, of imagination and rationalization, and of shear ingenuity is a testimony to the flexibility and beauty of children. Jeannette Walls’ true story flashes back through a childhood with crazy addicted parents (the father to alcohol; the mother to art and idealism and the father) who raised three children in spite of recurrent poverty, nomadic tendencies, and a heritage of rebellion.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We are introduced to the world through the eyes of a traumatized child who cannot remember who she is or where she comes from. She is picked up on the side of the road be a man named Wright who brings him home with her. He remarks that “[she] can’t be any more than ten or eleven” (Fledgling 27). However, once they are back at his house this does not stop him from having sex with her. She tells him it’s ok…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill is narrated by Baby -- the 12 year old protagonist and daughter of a single father and heroin addict, Jules. Baby never knew her mother and is unaware that she has any other family. They live in various dilapidated hotels in Montreal’s red light district.…

    • 1503 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abuse is everywhere. Behind closed doors are some of the worse things known to mankind. David James Pelzer was just a normal child, who lived in a normal neighborhood, but not a so normal house. The author says “what you have just read is a story of an ordinary family that was devastated by their hidden secret.” In the story “A Child Called It”, by David Pelzer, the setting is in Daly City, California. David’s mother, Catherine Roerva Christen Pelzer, was the most known lady on the block. She was kind hearted, loving, and caring to everyone- except her son, David. The first years of David’s life were the best he had ever received, until he turned four years old.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Childhood is a crucial time in everyone’s life, as it affects the decisions they make later on. In fact in some cases, our childhood determines who we are, or whom we’ll become in the future. A child’s childhood must be kept innocent and pure for the well being of the their future. The recurring theme in Heather O’Neill’s Lullabies for Little Criminals, is the loss of innocence at a young age, led by the choices and decisions of the characters, and this theme can be connected back to the novel itself, Alden Nowlan’s short story, The Fall of a City, and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.…

    • 1775 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In today’s society, one takes their childhood journey towards where they stand today. Amazing Grace demonstrates this to examine a child’s perspective living in the neighborhoods of New York City by the world that exists around them. Although, these families try to support their child, some families are in distress, since they have a low income status. However, they still can attain the important life skills, which will enhance and benefit them as they later develop. As a result, these apparent life skills may seek them in the right direction, but realize how these circumstances truly affects them, thus creates the overall image of children to be perceived as innocent. Amazing Grace incorporates how the innocence of children who live in a…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    By critical analysis it can become a very complicating task to define a child’s book. There are many fundamental definitive factors that can be found in books that have been written for Children. For instance, if we take the example of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S Lewis 1950 . Universally it is recognised as a book for children. It contains the inherent facets of a children’s book. Often a typical children’s book will have a child protagonist. In the classic novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S Lewis. C.S Lewis has not just one child protagonist but four. Very commonly we find the child protagonist in the story is an orphan. Again we can see C.S Lewis has shown four children that are away from their parents and the typical family nucleus. Moreover, examples of orphanage can be seen in the classic novel of The Jungle book by Rudyard Kipling 1894. In The Jungle book the child protagonist is an orphan found in the jungle floating in a basket by a panther.…

    • 2018 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nine Stories

    • 2217 Words
    • 9 Pages

    All of these short stories are about the loss of innocence and the attempt to gain it back. The characters are stuck between innocence and adulthood. And, interestingly, nearly all of the stories feature an interaction between a child and an adult, the child generally being an ideal or a tool for the adult to regain innocence - but not always. In some, even the child is struggling with the loss of ideals.…

    • 2217 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Orphan Stories

    • 4791 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Throughout our lives we move from one story to the next. Whether we are listeners, readers or writers "we live our lives immersed in stories.' From the many stories we encounter, both fiction and non-fiction, the orphan figure stands out as one of the most prominent figures in literature. Orphan figures have prevailed in the literary arena for centuries, from ancient poetry, folktales, and myths to modern day novels. This constant recurrence…

    • 4791 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The short stories, “Her First Ball” by Katherine Mansfield and “The Infant Prodigy” by Thomas Mann, share different scenarios in which children have similar experiences. “Her First Ball” describes the unique experience of a young girl going to her first ball. “The Infant Prodigy” depicts a young boy whose amazing piano talents are exploited by his mother and the impresario. Each story explores the coming of age of children before they are necessarily ready. While both “The Infant Prodigy” and “Her First Ball” share the common theme of loss of childhood innocence, “The Infant Prodigy” explores its theme through many points of views and character description while “Her First Ball” makes use of one point of view and vast imagery of the setting to advance the theme.…

    • 1628 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays