Lullabies for Little Criminals is a very interesting read. What jars me about the novel is that it is very candid, and makes no attempt to hide certain ideas or expose them slowly to the reader. The assumption behind this style of writing is that the author means to educate the reader and force a reaction regarding the ideas addressed in the story. As a teenage guy in high school, even this story is disturbing. Heather O’Neil has a very jaded view of the world, and especially of neglectful parents. From the way the author speaks through the protagonist, it is almost as if she is recollecting past memories and relaying them to the rest of the world. The story has no slow build-up, there is absolutely no suspense. From page one, a grim reality is painted. The story introduces Jules, a young and immature father (quite frankly, a terrible father). His twelve year old daughter, Baby, understands Jules like he could be an erratic roommate: “Jules had a little kid’s sense of time,” and “Jules didn’t have any problem solving skills and he panicked,” (O’Neil, 5). Immediately, I am given an impression of a very mature protagonist (Baby), and a comically incompetent father. I know Baby is mature because people my age are not usually capable of critiquing their parent’s behaviour and likening them to children, and I am sixteen. By observing his behaviour and making critical judgements of him, Baby is obviously aware of adulthood and how Jules lacks in behaving as a regular, adult parent should. His behaviour and Baby’s perception of him, is clear from the beginnings of the story: “If I’d had parents who were adults, I probably would never have been called Baby” (O’Neil, 7). In my opinion, Jules’ incompetence as a dad, especially in providing a safe environment for Baby, foreshadows future disasters. He uprooted Baby because he was nervous after having betrayed his friend: “Jules was nervous about a friend of his named Kent murdering him in his sleep” (O’Neil, 4). Not only does Jules fail in providing a stable environment for Baby, but he actively engages in illicit activity around her: “Jules and his friends had been calling heroin chocolate milk for years,” (O’Neil, 15). If this is the situation at the start of the novel, what will happen later? What if Jules suddenly does not have any drug money? What if the next time he pisses someone off they have no money to relocate? As a high school student, I know too well how other people suffer if one person makes a stupid mistake. Even just copying one another’s homework is enough to get at least two people in trouble because one person did not do the right thing. Jules is a disaster waiting to happen, and poor Baby will suffer all the repercussions of his actions. Baby is more than aware of her environment, and as a twelve year old with a neglectful father and access to anything that could potentially ruin her life, this does not bode well for her future. Baby is not even a teenager and she is already vividly aware of sex, and even admires sex workers. In observing prostitutes on the streets near her home, she remarks: “They made me feel bad when I was little because they always had beautiful high-heeled boots, while I had to wear ugly galoshes” (O’Neil, 9). As a reader, it breaks my heart to read this from a twelve-year-old’s perspective, especially because the world around her is so bleak. It is very difficult to understand that such a young girl could be exposed to these concepts at such a young age, and it is especially hard for me to wrap my head around because I have a brother the same age as her. His heroes are animated characters, not prostitutes. By introducing these concepts to us through the lens of a child, I think the author is trying to emphasize how damaging different issues are to our society. Baby’s perception of sex might be saying that oversexualization in the media is a poison. Exposing young children to sex at such a young age makes them more mature than they should be, and forces them to deal with things they do not have the capacity to deal with. Baby understands sex, but because she is so young, she is upset because her shoes are uglier than the prostitute’s. Her father is a child, and even she agrees: “I thought of him as my best friend, as if we were almost the same age” (O’Neil, 7). On his way to getting “chocolate milk” with his friend he leaves Baby alone, and kicks her off as if she were a pet and not his daughter: “‘Baby!’ Jules turned and yelled at me. ‘Quit following us. Go play with your doll! Get lost, okay?’” (O’Neil, 17). I can visualize the pain Baby feels in the way she expresses herself. Her word choice is elementary, but the feelings she describes should not be felt by a child: “I was still a little clingy like a little kid with Jules and I hated when he dumped me like that” (O’Neil, 17). Her father is not supposed to make her feel like she might be clingy simply because she wants to be around him. The author paints a grim picture of Baby’s home life. She has no real support system because outside of her father she has no other stability: “Having a young parent meant you had to pack up your stuff in an hour and run away from a twenty-year-old from Oshawa who was going to be mad at you for having sold his guitars” (O’Neil, 7).
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January 2018
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