Blog #3: Theme: The Loss of Childhood Innocence
One consistent theme that can be found through out the novel is the loss of childhood innocence. The Walls children experience the loss of a real childhood when they are exposed to poverty, alcohol, and later sexual assaults at a very young age. As it is mention in the beginning of the novel, their parents believed that “…Suffering when you’re young is good for you…it immunized your body and soul and that’s why she [their mom] ignored us kids when we cried,”(16). This belief, as one can imagine, lead to an unusual childhood. The theme, loss of childhood innocence, is exposed early in the novel and builds to become a central theme of the novel.
The theme is established early in the novel, when the parents command the children to gather only their important items and gather in the car, only to drive away in the middle of the night. The Walls children have to literally and metaphorically leave behind childhood. As they drive, their lives take a downhill turn from there, as their mom commands them to stop crying and says, “’Don’t be so sentimental…’”(18) among other insensitive comments. The Walls children’s loss of innocence can also be seen in their early exposure it weaponry and alcohol. Jeannette Walls tells the reader “By the time I was four, I was pretty good with Dad’s pistol…I could hit five out of six beer bottles at thirty paces,”(21). The Walls children possess knowledge and skill about things that most four-year-olds do not know even exists. As time goes on, their parents grow more dependent on them, almost making them be the “parents” of the family. By the time the children are in mid-teen years they have to force or encourage their mom to get out bed to go to work every morning, regulate how much money their dad receives in attempt to limit his spending on alcohol and gambling. These are all tasks are things a child should not have to worry about. By sharing these anecdotes, the author, Jeannette Walls, is expressing the theme, loss of childhood innocence, as the Walls children have to grow-up at an early age and have to take care of themselves.
This theme is essential in providing in conveying the overall purpose of the novel. It helps expose the real childhood of Jeannette Walls and share with society just how lucky one can be to have two loving parents.
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The loss of innocence really stuck out to me while I was reading the novel, and even more specifically, the neglect of the children. The Wall's family models the tragic American family suffering from the evils of alcohol, gambling, and other modern day evils. Through Jeanette's anecdotes I began to see an unconditional love and understanding, because though Jeanette did not condone her parent's action's, she still loved them because they were her parents, and she felt they loved her too. Jeanette's purpose in exposing her childhood was not only to reveal her life, but also her parent's, so maybe some readers might see that at times they were trying their hardest.
ReplyDeleteCari, you bring this theme full circle-you begin with the early development of maturity among the Walls children and tie the theme back to how this loss of innocence affected their futures as well.
ReplyDeleteKayla also brings up a good point, too, that Walls uses this theme not only to show the childrens' premature loss of innocence, but also the lack of parental structure. Without directly stating the unbelievably lax parenting style of Rex and Rose Mary Walls, it can be assumed that the children were forced to mature because of this. As we have all mentioned, Walls' storytelling style is much more unbiased and terse, leaving the reader to insert personal emotion and reaction. This is definitely a significant example of her style-in that it is nearly the words that Walls never puts on paper that tell the story.
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