Lullabies for Little Criminals

Childhood is known as the state or period of being a child, but how, exactly, does one characterize their own childhood? Most say that this time is precious, valuable, and peaceful, however, in the novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, by Heather O'Neill, it is obvious that this typical view of childhood can be easily corrupted into something much more unpleasant. Baby is the child of a young father, named Jules, whose life is quickly spiralling downhill due to his addiction to heroin. As he is moved from rehabilitation centres to hospitals and shelters, Baby is left to fend for herself in what she only knows as the crude and repulsive city of Montreal. As she is forced to become an independent adult at the age of thirteen, what should be known to her as the most wonderful time of her life is taken away from her. Through the use of characterization, mood, and structure, O'Neill develops the idea that childhood can be a vulnerable and fragile time of one's life, yet it is not realized that it can also be the most precious until is has slipped away.

O'Neill's view on childhood is portrayed through the use of characterization of the main character, known as Baby. At the beginning of the novel, Baby is like any other typical twelve year old girl - she plays with dolls, has many friends, and receives good grades. Even though the reality and harshness of life is displayed all around her, such as drugs and prostitution, she is still completely oblivious to them, as any other child at that age would be. She is able to ignore the extremities of life and just aimlessly wonder about the world and how it works. For example, when Baby and her friend Felix are creating cartoon characters out of grocery store eggs, she wonders if the egg could hatch into a chick the next morning. Being a typical innocent, childish girl, she states "who knows what the physical laws and limitations of this universe are?" (O'Neill 62) This shows that Baby may be innocent, yet she is also vulnerable due to the fact that she is so oblivious to real life. As her exposure becomes greater, her character begins to slowly deteriorate. She begins to do drugs, disobey her father, and when she meets a local pimp named Alphonse she claims that she wants to be taken advantage of by him(180). Due to her lack of protection from her father, she completely loses her innocence and her childish ways. She begins to notice that the entire world is disgusted with her and who she has become (169), and she too becomes disgusted with herself. After getting into a fight with Jules, she attempts to kill herself and says "the edge wouldn't go through my skin... I felt so sorry for myself that I hugged myself like a baby." (157) It is after this horrendous act that Baby realizes just how fragile and insecure her own state of mind has become, and she realizes that how much she wishes she could go back to being her innocent, childish self. By O'Neill using the evolution of Baby's character from a carefree, innocent girl, to a fragile, vulnerable teenager, it is clear that her view on childhood is that one doesn't realize how precious this time can be until it has been taken away.

Throughout the novel, it is not only Baby who demonstrates how precious childhood can be - another character, known as Xavier, also helps to display O'Neill's idea of childhood. Even though the audience is introduced to Xavier towards the end of the novel, he plays a key role in Baby's realization of her forgotten childhood. When Baby is at the lowest point in her life, using heroin, prostituting herself, and forgetting everyone that she has ever known and loved, Xavier re-establishes the amusing, peaceful, carefree sense of childhood that is taken away from her. When Baby first meets Xavier, she states that despite whatever else has happened to her, that he is a brand-new and wonderful thing(242). However, after spending most days with him, playing with kittens and reading children's books, instead of spending her time at Alphonse's apartment, using drugs and having sex, she realizes that Xavier is not really a brand-new phenomenon in her life - just a forgotten one, a characteristic of life that she has been deprived of. As she begins to become more and more close to Xavier and his childish characteristics, she starts to act more and more like the child she used to be. After spending just a few days with Xavier, Baby states "I'd become less tough since I had started hanging out with Xavier. I started doing weirder things, that was for sure. I went outside my house building after supper to feed my leftovers to the pigeons. I could recognize some of the pigeons and I named them." (243) This shows that Xavier's childish characteristics have deeply influenced Baby and her new-found, mature ways. She begins to do the odd, childish things that she used to do, such as naming pigeons, and she soon becomes the carefree child that she used to be. It is clear that Xavier is Baby's source for