Blog Post #2: literary theory

After reading further into the novel “Lullabies for Little Criminals” by Heather O’Neil, I began to analyze it from the archetypal literary theory standpoint. The protagonist, Baby, has made a transformation from innocent yet knowledgeable to an unfortunate victim.  We see that Baby takes a turn for the worse. After her father, Jules gets out of rehab, and he changes completely. He begins to lash out on Baby for an unknown reason, blaming her for his problems and ultimately drives her away. Baby thought that Jules only loved her when he was on drugs. Before rehab, he was interested in her life, trying to help her as much as he could and keeping her from becoming the person he had become. Jules had not been the best father figure. As he tries to do the best he can for her, it leads to trouble putting Baby in dangerous situations and with her moving all the time. Jules is addicted to heroin thus at a very young age he exposes her to them as well. Jules makes the transformation from not being aware of his surroundings and the impact it had on his daughter, to regretting most of the decisions he has made in life.

Baby grew up surrounded by drug attacks and very little parental support. Thought out her whole life she has been exposed to so much bad, but she still remains good at heart. The influences in her life such as Jules and Alphonse has caused to her to make very poor decisions. Baby offers a lot of insight into the world though. As seen in the novel she has thoughts that most 12-13 years old would not usually have. “Suddenly I realized that I wanted everything to be as it was when I was younger. When you’re young enough, you don’t know that you live in a cheap lousy apartment. A cracked chair is nothing other than a chair. A dandelion growing out of crack in your side walk outside your front door is a garden. You could believe that a song your parents were singing in the evening was the most tragic opera in the world. It never occurs to you when you are very young to need something other than what your parents have to offer you”.

When Baby first meets Alphonse, she becomes intrigued by his motherly figure towards her. She had not grown up with a mother, except for Isabelle and Mary.  He was always trying to look out for her, looking out for her best interest. That changed when Alphonse became very selfish and took advantage of Baby for money. Even though Baby was very young, he forced her to become a prostitute so he could make a profit. After a while, Alphonse became obsessed with Baby and began to control who she sees and what she does. It concludes with a sudden conflict between Baby and Alphonse, where Alphonse steals the heroin he forced Baby to use and ends his own life by overdosing.  

This novel portrays many elements of the archetypal literary theory and many symbolisms of imagery can also be seen.