Childhood In Alden Nowlan's Lullabies For Little Criminals

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.
Heather O’Neill demonstrates how the main character, Baby, losing her innocence at such a young age, resulted from the choices she made, and the choices
Alden Nowlan uses the character of Teddy, to portray how a child’s innocence can be taken by one’s choice of words or actions. Teddy’s uncle is the one who takes away his innocence. When his uncle questions him about what he has been doing in the attic, Teddy replies saying he hadn’t been doing anything. Since Teddy’s uncle is in a position of authority, Teddy suddenly becomes nervous, and thinks he has done something wrong, based on the tone of his uncle’s voice. For example: “His aunt and uncle did not mean to be cruel. From time to time, by their acts and words, they showed they were fond of him…But…” The author uses this quote to demonstrate the fact that although his aunt and uncle showed fondness, it was still outweighed by the amount of times he felt alone in the world, similar to how Baby felt. Teddy doesn’t have anyone to teach him from right and wrong, and this is the beginning of Teddy losing his innocence. This affects Teddy, because he doesn’t have a very strong bond with his aunt and uncle. This means Teddy doesn’t take jokes very lightly either, and can be easily hurt by them, which will lead to his loss of innocence at a young age. In this short story, Teddy is influenced and affected by his uncle’s words and actions. For example: “…that great big lummox has been playing with paper dolls!” Once again, because of the authority Teddy’s uncle has over him, he becomes crushed, because his uncle made fun of his passion. The words Teddy’s uncle chooses to use, affects him. Teddy takes the time to contemplate about what his uncle said. Teddy is only eleven years old, and because his uncle is in a position of authority, he’ll always be influenced by him. He is inclined to believe that his imaginative world is ridiculous and absolute nonsense. This leads Teddy into shredding his palace into pieces, out of spite, because he takes his uncle’s