So I read this really awesome book that I have talked about in some of my other posts. If you haven’t read them, the book that I am referring to is Lullabies for little criminals by Heather O’Neill. This book is an awesome book that battles many different themes and perspectives. In case you were unaware, this book follows a 12 year old girl, Baby, and her father Jules. Jules is a heroin addict and Baby’s mother died when Baby was a year old. It follows the journey that Baby takes in order to find herself and she battles with some pretty strong subjects. I looked at many different perspectives while reading this novel, but one really stuck out to me. The perspective of Archetypal. This follows the archetypes that many characters follow throughout the novel. In this blog post, I will explore with you some of the archetypes that characters follow throughout the novel.

First, I want to discuss the archetypes that Baby follows throughout the novel. The main archetype that stuck out to me was the innocent youth. Baby is innocent throughout the entire novel. She is stuck in a world where she has to try to become an adult at a very young age. She tries so hard to live up to this standard and almost forgets that she is still a kid. She is still so innocent and naive and has no clue what being an adult really is. Her innocence becomes portrayed greatly when she meets a boy named Xavier. He is the same age as Baby unlike all the other guys she hangs around with. This opens up a whole new world for her and she is able to show her innocent side again. During the novel she says, “It was sweet because it meant that so much good stuff was going to be following. After we held hands, we were girlfriend and boyfriend” (O’Neill 242). Does anyone remember when you were in public school and you and boy thought you liked each other so then you called each other boyfriend and girlfriend? This is that exact scenario. Baby doesn’t have to act like she is more mature because Xavier is the same age as her. Her innocence is exposed through this. We were all innocent at this age thinking that we had a boyfriend. When all we really did was just hangout with them and hug. Baby is still innocent.

Baby is also able to take on the archetype of the Journey. The Journey is what helps a character physically or emotionally find their personality through an experience. Baby faces so many challenges and physical and emotional pain that effects her personality development throughout the book. We all go through times in our lives where we have a change in our personality. Baby develops a change in her personality when she decided to do heroin, “‘You’ve never done heroin, have you?’ Alphonse asked me. The minute Alphonse said those words, my guardian angel started humming and circling around me happily” (285).

Baby’s character is the definition of the innocent youth archetype. However, without reading into archetypes and viewing this novel from a archetypal perspective, I would have never known any of this. I would not have been able to draw this many conclusions about Baby. So to everyone out there who thinks that the book they are reading has different characters. That the characters don’t follow any other characters ideals and ways. Then you are dead wrong. All characters follow a specific path and all characters will follow an archetype. They all fall into a category that proves who they are as a person.