45 pages • 1 hour read
Heather O'NeillLullabies for Little Criminals
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Baby
Baby is the thirteen-year-old protagonist of the novel. Although she is motherless and is being raised by a negligent, heroin-addicted father, she is intelligent and does well in school. She loves to read and craves the attention of the adults around her. In the beginning of the novel, she is desperate for Jules’s attention, but she rarely receives it because he’s too busy getting high. However, towards the end of the novel, she seeks adult attention wherever she can get it. This makes her vulnerable when she receives sexual attention from Alphonse, and it’s what ultimately leads to her prostitution.
Baby also seeks the attention of her peers. She is eager to have friendships with people her own age, and she realizes the gem that is childhood. This is especially true once she begins prostituting and is exposed to the nefarious side of adulthood, and it’s why she becomes so attached to Xavier—she just wants to live a normal life and have a normal childhood. However, most of the time, her desires are at odds with her reality. She wants to be a child but is forced to live adult realities. She wants someone to take care of her, but instead she’s forced to take care of herself.
She is a dynamic character in that she continually changes, especially from the beginning of the novel until the end. In the beginning, she is twelve years old and Jules is her entire world. In her eyes, he can do no wrong. By thirteen, after Jules sends her away and starts using heroin again, she realizes that he isn’t a good father. This realization prompts her to attempt to survive in the only ways she’s been shown—through doing drugs and prostituting. Alphonse becomes like a parent to her, and she listens, although sometimes rebelliously, to the things he tells her to do. By the end of the novel, she is reunited with Jules and allows him to guide her once more. Unlike the beginning, however, she isn’t following him blindly. She’s aware of his faults, and this allows her to choose to listen to him when he says that he wants her to live with Janine.
Jules
Jules is Baby’s dad. He became a dad at the age of fifteen, and he never matures into his role as her father. Instead, he becomes a heroin addict and leaves Baby to fend for herself. When he is on heroin, he is affectionate towards Baby, but when he’s sober, he is angry and argumentative towards her. He also becomes irrational when he’s sober and demonstrates paranoid behaviors. It’s never directly diagnosed, but it’s clear that he suffers from mental illness and uses heroin to cope.
Jules is a storyteller, and it’s one of Baby’s favorite qualities about him. She loves to hear him tell stories about her and her mom, although he always makes them up. He only tells her a real story about her mom at the end of the novel. By the end, it’s revealed that he was driving the car when Baby’s mother was killed in the car accident. He was never able to let go of that guilt, and he never loved another woman again after her death.
Jules wants to be a good father, but he’s always been incapable because of his addictions and probable mental illness. However, by the end of the novel, he finally takes a mature step towards Baby’s wellbeing. By taking her to live with Janine, he’s demonstrating that although he can’t care for her properly, he is sacrificing his own selfish desire to keep her in order to better her life. This is his biggest moment of growth in the book.
Felix
Felix is one of Baby’s first true friends. When she is sent to live with Mary, Felix becomes like a brother to her, as the two share many normal childhood moments, like making school projects together, playing games, and talking about life. Baby’s first drug experience is also shared with Felix when the two take magic mushrooms together. Despite doing drugs, the two keep their childlike innocence through the experience, as they contemplate childlike things during the hallucinations.
Theo
Baby considers Theo to be her boyfriend at one point, although the two are never intimate. Theo was kicked out of the community center for being violent towards another youth, but it’s clear that there is a connection between his violent behavior and the way he’s treated at home. Theo’s mother physically and emotionally abuses him, and the way he treats others is a reflection of the abuse that he’s endured. Baby is aware of this, and it makes her compassionate towards Theo, even though he abuses her as well.
Alphonse
Alphonse is the defining element that propels Baby into an adulthood that she’s not ready for. Alphonse is an adult pimp who takes advantage of Baby’s youth and innocence. When he first meets her, he grooms her by giving her gifts and compliments. He’s aware that she’s neglected at home and desires attention, so he becomes a father figure to her. He soon breaks this trust, however, when he has sex with her. He also forces her into prostitution and takes the money she earns to buy drugs. Alphonse is one of the biggest villains in the novel because he takes away what’s left of Baby’s innocence and gets her addicted to heroin.
