Loss of Innocence

Life is made up of expectations.  Whether they're others' expectations of you, or your expectations of yourself, they have the ability to mold you into who you are- even if it's someone you don't like.  

Let's talk about society for a second.  Society is a major league player whenit comes to what's considered acceptable and what isn't.  Fortunately, the society we currently live in is significantly more improved than say, 40 years ago where the lives of women were much more regulated by "manners" and men for that matter.  Women have had to endure a harsh struggle in terms or trying to achieve the same social status of men, and have been constantly battered by the expectation to be the ideal woman.  

In the short story "Girl", by Jamaica Kincaid, this pressure on women to be perfect is accurately portrayed through a conversation between a mother and her daughter.  I have to say, when I first read this story, I was completely interested by its simplicity.  How could one conversation, or more like a set of rules, convey such a powerful message?  Even more surprising to me was that this set of rules on how to become the ideal woman was passed from mother to daughter.  It adds a sense of acceptance of the limited lives women were forced to endure during this time, and rather than telling her daughter to live her life as the woman she wants to be, the mother succumbs to the immense amount of social pressure and instead instructs her daughter to follow society's expectations.  

"...on Sundays try to walk like the lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming."  

At several points in the story like the one shown above, the mother even goes as far as to calling her daughter a slut.  Now think about this:  What kind of effect do you think these words could have on a young girl?  The girl in this, who is most likely quite young hence the title of the story being "Girl" rather than "Woman", is not only having any dreams of her future crushed, but is expected to become a slut by society and her own mother.  In their eyes, the only way to contradict this is to follow a strict set of rules.  Only one outcome is possible from this, and that is her loss of innocence.  It's a very innocent and child-like idea to belive that you're capable of becoming anything that you want to be, and that your future is in your hands - not the hands of others.  However, like with the girl in this story, that innocence is instatly stripped away by society's expectations and in this case, the "traditional" role of the perfect woman.  She is now being treated like a woman rather than the girl she really is.  

It's difficult to go against what others expect of you, but here's the secret: nobody's perfect.  No matter what you do, you will never be able to live up to the "perfect woman" or "the perfect man" or the "perfect anything" in the eyes of society, so why not do whatever you want?  Screw society.

-Number Six 

"Ah, young love!"

Isn't that what they all say?  Just the words "young love" create an immediate response of swooning and nostalgia.  Maybe you yourself experienced something categorized under young love, or perhaps you've come to be fond of it as it is frequently romanticized and idolized in the media.  Unfortunately, this blog post won't follow that aura of young love that you're used to. Don't get me wrong, it can be beautiful, but with the story Araby by James Joyce, this is simply not the case.

There's a reason why you can really only experience young love once, and it's because it will ruin you.  That sounds a bit pessimistic of me, but if you think about it, it's quite true.  Falling in love for the first time takes you by surprise.  Like with the young boy in Araby, it will fiercely engulf you while simultaneously fascinating you with its novelty.  This love may or may not work out, but when it ends, the world comes crashing down and is accompanied by your innocence.  Didn't see that one coming did you?  What kind of blog post would this be without my signature take on loss of innocence?  Anyway, the fact that young love happens in your youth makes a loss of innocence that much harder to bear.  

In "Araby", the young boy allows his love for a girl to grow until it begins to control all his desires and actions.  This is evident with his unwavering quest to go to the bazaar to buy the girl a gift, most likely with the hope that it will win her love.  This is all very romantic ( and "awww so cute"), but it is also very shallow.  Think about it.  A boy has dedicated all of his time just to try and win the affection of a girl who doesn't even bat an eye at him.  Young love?  More like young stupidity. (Ouch sorry to those of you hardcore believers in young love.)  The boy comes to realize this with the help of the shopkeeper at the bazaar.  Her cold demeanor towards him combined with her complete uninterest triggers a connection that he makes between her and the girl he has fallen in love with.  His loss of innocence stems from this connection, and he accepts the idea that no matter what he does, the girl he loves may turn out to be like the shopkeeper and never care about him.

"Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger."  

At this point, the boy's innocence has disappeared, and the darkness described serves as  a symbol of this loss of innocence.  The once beautiful and light bazaar which he had fantasized about this whole time has now turned dark and all of its light has been extinguished.  The bazaar never lived up to his expectations, forcing him to realize that his love for the girl and what he hopes they will become will never live up to his expectations either.  The boy's once innocent take on the world that was filled with light and only seeing the bright side of things has now turned dark and empty, much like the bazaar.  Even though his short-lived romance provided joy for a time, it still led to pain and the disintegration of his innocence.  Ah, yes, young love!

-Number Six

Hey! Number Six here with a new blog and a new take on loss of innocence with “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This short story is not only an interesting read, but it’s a riveting tale of a woman who slowly loses her sanity.

Interestingly enough, as the readers, we see the story through Jane’s (the protagonist) eyes and experience her interaction with a yellow wallpaper throughout the story. As her conflict with this wallpaper grows, we begin to see the process of her loss of innocence as insanity slowly starts to touch her previously innocent mind. Personally, as I read the story, my thoughts progressed from considering Jane as an ordinary person who suffers through life’s obstacles to thinking that she is one crazy woman. Although her switch from sanity to insanity was more gradual than instantaneous, it was extremely clear that her mind was long gone by the end of the story.

I attributed her loss of innocence to the end of the story, where Jane also completely loses her marbles. If you think about it, a loss of sanity is most definitely a loss of innocence. You go from rationalization to an utterly new way of thinking while simultaneously shedding your previous identity. In Jane’s case, she completely disregards her earlier self so severely to the point that she no longer refers to herself as Jane or associates the name to her new personality.

"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"

Despite my very strong suspicion that Jane was becoming insane, this one line validated everything. Here, she no longer refers to herself as Jane, but has manifested into “the woman behind the wall”, a completely new person. Embodied in this is Jane’s complete and irreversible loss of innocence.

There’s a slight loss of innocence with the readers accompanying this line as well. We go through the story on a sympathetic level where we connect with Jane and her tale while also believing it to be true. However, this line opens our eyes to the fact that she has ultimately lost her sanity, making us doubt everything we’ve already read and making us question how we felt about the protagonist. In a sense, the story betrayed me. It betrayed my trust in Jane and her story while ripping away my innocent assumption that she was a normal woman experiencing a light form of depression.

One thing I couldn't pinpoint was the one reason why Jane actually went insane. Yes, there is an inner conflict that she struggles through, but in my eyes, there is no clear or explicit reason as to why she loses that sanity.  Jane struggles through her depression which eventually progresses to insanity, but what pushed this progression?  Perhaps it was a combination of stress, her newborn child, the expectations of loved ones.  Even though it’s in our nature to want to find a clear answer or explanation to everything, sometimes there is no explicit answer. Sometimes, there is no specific reason that people turn insane or lose their innocence. It’s just a combination of hardships and it's just a part of life.

-Number Six

Hello, hello! Number Six back again with one more blogabout Frankenstein.  Although this may be a bit out of place for our website, I want to address how manipulation plays a key role in the novel.  Technically, this manipulation drives thenovel and therefore the characters' loss of innocence, so we're all good here.  On one side of the manipulation we have the creature, while on the other, we have none other than Victor Frankenstein himself.  In this case, both characters attempt to use manipulation to their advantage, but in my eyes, only one prevails, and that is the monster.  

Throughout the novel, Victor Frankenstein uses manipulation in order to try and defend himself for the creation of his monster.  Strangely enough, I mainly see his manipulation at work on himself.  Even though almost every progression in the story should prove him to be at fault, he manipulated himself into believing that he is only a victim of an uncontrollable series of events.  

On th eother side of the manipulation is the creature.  Truthfully, I sympathize much more with him than I do with Victor, which can only be proof of the success of his manipulation.  With his side, the manipulation is much more explicitly used and is meant to make others feel bad for him and the hard life he has had to endure.  The monster specifically uses this method on his creator, Frankenstein, in his nonstop quest to gain a female creature like himself.  The fact that Victor even decides to listen to the monster and begin the process of creating the female monster displays how well manipulation worked here and how successful it was in making Victor feel sorry for the monster.  How diabolical, right?

Even though I said I would be taking a quick break from analyzing the story in terms of loss of innocence, I lied.  I just want to briefly tie it back to that theme and clarify that Victor's eventual breaking of that manipulative hold the monster had on his is what ultimately leads to both characters' loss of innocence.  It is the original trigger leading the the numerous events which all play a role in that combines loss of innocence.  

Tragically, this is my last blog post about Frankenstein, but have no fear!  I'll be back before you know it with some new analysis on loss of innocence and some new literature to dissect.  

Until next time, 

-Number Six

So we have reached the end of the book, and we have also reached the end of both Victor's and the monster's innocence. Ironically, both characters lose their innocence in very similar processes and have their loss of innocence thrust upon them rather than losing it through their own realizations and actions.

With the monster, we see his complete loss of innocence arrive in chapter 20 through the discovery that Victor has destroyed the female monster he was in the process of creating. This realization forced the monster to understand that he has no chance left to find acceptance anywhere. He will eternally be an outcast and an outsider in search of love but never destined to find it. In my previous blog post, I discussed how the monster clung to his shreds of innocence through this hope of acceptance, however, it has now been extinguished and he truly understands how alone in the world he really is. Personally, I sympathize with the monster and believe him to be the true victim of this book, being brought into existence but just as quickly abandoned by the one man who had the power to change his fate. Victor turned his back on the monster, which not only planted the first seeds of hate in the monster, but also his extreme need for love and acceprance. All of society, like Victor, views the creature as a monster, but is he really the true monster in the story? Perhaps I am slightly biased when I say this since I dislike Victor, but he arises as more of a monster than his creation does in my eyes. Whenever we hear the name Frankenstein, we always associate it with the monster in the story.  I grew up believing that Fankenstein actually was the name of the monster, but of course, reading the book taught me otherwise. However, this connection made me realize that we associate the name with the monster since it is Frankenstein who is the true monster of the story. He created life, similarly to how a woman gives birth to a child, but abandoned him while expecting everything to work out. Throughout the novel, he blames the monster for almost everything, but in cases such as with Justine and William, Victor refuses to take and part of the blame for being the one who created this "awful" monster.

Victor loses his innocence with the death of Elizabeth and his father in chapter 23, where he undergoes a realization that, like the monster, he is ultimately alone and has no one left who cares about him. This sadness is almost instantly transformed into rage toward the monster, therefore sparking the beginning of his relentless desire to kill him. The loss of innocence is a very tragic event. It is sad to no longer have those once child like views that are so genuine and so innocent that you can't help but be nostalgic about when you think of them. With innocence, we can the see the pureness in the world, in every action, we can see a good intention. When stripped of this innocence very suddenly and prematurely like the monster, it is very difficult to resist feelings of hatred and resentment, and it is easier to allow them to consume you. Although the book has ended and so have the stories of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, we must remember that monstrosity is acquired, not born with, and that innocence can be found in us all.

-Number Six

Innocence itself is a truly delicate and and easily breakable aspect of life that resonates in each and every one of us. However, the moment we lose our innocence, it is impossible to reverse the process and revert back to our simple, naive state of mind. When the idea of the loss of innocence arises, we automatically connect it to childhood. As a child, we experience the most genuine and innocent ideas by which we understand the world to be pure and gentle. However, this perception of the world is eventually manipulated and distorted until we are forced to accept the evils of the world, hence our loss of innocence. Although this is true, a complete loss of innocence is difficult to achieve in one stage, and especially in this novel, is more fragmented and messy than a clean cut. Victor Frankenstein's monster experiences the most fragmented loss of innocence, and of the chapters which we have already read, there has been one quote which made me abruptly stop and recognize this.

"Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom though drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I an irrevocably excluded." (P.87)

Frankenstein's monster is undoubtedly torn between his experiences and his desires which create a conflict between the preservation of his innocence and the loss of it. He resents his creator for casting him away such as Lucifer was casted out from Heaven when he feels as though he should be treated as Victor's Adam, or prized creation. Neither Lucifer nor the monster committed any wrongdoing for them to be cast away by their father, and to be treated as insignificant as a speck of dirt. Now, before you jump to argue about Lucifer and how he was evil for desiring to become God, think about it. Is it really such a crime to desire more power? Or is it just an undeniable aspect that comes with being human? Even though Lucifer, like the monster, would not fall under our definition of human, they have humanistic qualities and needs which ultimately make them no less human than you or me. Being human comes with the innocence which my fellow groupmates and I have been addressing, and what better way to lose it than by being completely rejected by your creator? The monster was abandoned by Victor and was forced to grow up on his own, living in hatred and disgust of himself rather than the love and sense of protection that a child should be brought up in. This greatly impacts the monster's innocence, yet doesn't demolish it. Despite his thirst for revenge and resentment toward Frankenstein, the monster retains his desire for love and acceptance. Even though he has most likely endured an overwhelming amount of hardship that can shatter anyone's innocence, he continues to cling to the childlike strive for attention and companionship. If the monster had fully lost his innocence, he wouldn't experience the need to find his creator and relate his story, nor would he find it necessary to kill his creator's brother (William) out of spite. You might wonder how killing someone can display an aura of innocence, yet what truly makes this action innocent is that the monster doesn't know that what he is doing is wrong. Much like a child, he has completed an action which society views as wrong, but due to his innocence, he is unable to recognize that it is wrong. In his own mind, killing William was the right thing to do since it offered him a way to feel better. We don't have the ability differentiate right from wrong until someone tells us, and in the monster's case, no one was there to teach him how to behave. Until then, until we actually come to terms with the fact that there is evil in the world, we simply act on impulse.

-Number Six