ENG4U Blog

Ever wonder how looking at the same story through different lenses can completely change what you notice? I looked at Heather O’Neill’s book Lullabies for Little Criminals through three perspectives: feminist, archetypal, and reader-response. While each gave me something new to think about, the feminist perspective gave me the deepest insight because it pushed me to connect Baby’s struggles to larger issues of neglect, exploitation, and poverty. Photo By Dylan Doyle. Reader-response made me focus on my feelings. It really made me realize my privilege of having two loving parents. For example, Baby describes how Jules was always "disappearing" and how the stretches of time he was gone started getting longer (O’Neill 141). Her childhood was so unstable compared to mine. At the end of the day, this perspective mostly reflected how sad and shocking the book is, rather than O’Neill’s deeper commentary. Through an archetypal lens , I saw Baby as the Child and Jules as the Failed...

Reading Lullabies for Little Criminals through a feminist lens made me realize how much of Baby’s suffering comes not just from being a child, but from being a girl in a world where men hold most of the power. Heather O’Neill makes it painfully clear how unsafe and limited Baby’s life becomes when every door she walks through seems to be controlled by men. Baby does not have any strong, stable female role models in her life. Her mother passed away when she was a baby, and living in the red-light district of Montreal, she was surrounded by sex workers and addicts (O’Neill 5).  Photo By Maµrício. Instead of showing women as protectors, O’Neill portrays them as trapped by poverty and addiction. Society judges them harshly, but it also gives them almost no choices. O’Neill seems to be highlighting how society’s structure limits women’s power and options, showing that Baby’s loneliness is not just personal, but it is part of a bigger system that keeps women vulnerable. That abse...

What if the people who are meant to guide us in life end up being the ones who fail us? I’ve read about two-thirds of Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill, a story about a little girl named Baby surviving the streets of Montreal with her addict father, Jules. In this post, I want to explore how Baby reflects the Child archetype and how Jules, instead of guiding her like a Mentor should, becomes a failed version of that role. The Child archetype often represents innocence, vulnerability, and hope, but it also depends on others for safety and guidance. One scene that stood out to me was when Baby says she wants to go with Jules to a drug deal and even mentions that she likes Paul, the drug dealer (O’Neill 11). This moment shows Baby as the Innocent Child because she doesn’t recognize the danger and instead trusts Paul in a childlike way. Her trust mixes curiosity and naivety, highlighting both her vulnerability and isolation. Photo by Fayssal ZAOUI. Her innocence hide...

After reading the first third of Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill , I was shocked by how unsettling the story felt. The novel follows a 12-year-old girl named Baby, who is raised in Montreal by her father, Jules, a drug addict. Her childhood is completely different from mine growing up in Canada, which made me realize how much circumstances shape a child’s life. What struck me most was O’Neill’s choice to tell Baby’s tragic story in a playful, childish voice, which makes the sadness even more haunting. Photo By Gene Korolov. One moment that shocked me was when Baby describes how her father and his friends call heroin chocolate milk. I was disturbed when Baby admitted, “Jules and his friends had been calling heroin chocolate milk for years" (O’Neill 10). The way O’Neill writes Baby’s internal monologue with such certainty makes the scene feel even more jarring. O’Neill filters it through Baby’s innocence. This narrative choice makes the story even more heartbreak...