1. Find two quotations that portray the character of the protagonist. Explain what the quotation reveals about the main character and the meaning of the work.
Quote 1: “Xavier wasn't put on earth to witness the bad things like Jules and I were. He has been put here to notice lovely things, things that God had created and no one had any complaints about. The leaves turning red in autumn. How when the tide goes out, the shells are left on the shore. I was put here - Jules was put here - to see sadder things. We had to stand in the rain and explain why the world was a lovely place.” (pg 246)
Xavier is a wealthy, innocent, and naive boy who Baby starts spending time with him when they are paired together for a school project. She enjoys hanging out with him because he makes her forget about her life of drugs and prostitution and focus on things children should be thinking about like skipping stones, playing games, or doing schoolwork. This quote is showing her view on Xavier’s life compared to her own; How Xavier was put on the earth to have a good life and notice the happy things when she and her father were put there to experience the harder side of it and strive to make the best out of a seemingly unending amount of horrible situations. This quote shows Baby’s character because it reveals some of her traits including perseverance, acceptance, and observation skills. She recognises that she was put on the earth to be handed one bad situation after another and continuously overcome them, which she definitely accomplishes in the book. Baby deals with disrespectful pimps, violent customers, foster homes and faces abuse both mentally and physically from her father, yet she always finds a way to come out on top, no matter how horrible and impossible the situation may be. She is always able to accept other people, which is also shown in this quote. Throughout the book, Baby is accepting of her dad’s drug dealing friends, other children at the foster home and anyone else she comes into contact with. This quote reveals her accepting attitude because she knows she was put on the earth to to overcome these tough obstacles and she accepts that fact. It reveals the meaning of the work, which is perseverance, because of Baby’s outlook on the situations handed to her and the ways she deals with each one.
Quote 2: “He thought he had chosen the perfect girl when he had seen me in the park with a black eye. He must have thought I was so mature. He must have thought I was sad and sweet and vulnerable. But he had chosen wrong. I wasn't like that at all. There was a part of me that was smart and original and nerdy too.” (pg 266)
This quote is describing the first time Baby met her pimp, Alphonse. He saw her sitting in the park after being beaten by her father and approached her with these prejudices in mind. The reason he was able to convince her to start prostitution and heroin was for these specific reasons, yet Baby still feels like she is not this person Alphonse sees. Baby knows she is intelligent and unique, two things he did not see at first. Although Baby may have portrayed the personality traits that Alphonse saw at first, she is in fact someone very special. Baby is continually able to persevere through hard situations and provide for herself what others could not. She is a very strong person who can make it through anything and can achieve more than he probably knows. It angers Baby that Alphonse does not understand this. Baby is capable of a lot more than she ends up achieving in Lullabies for Little Criminals mostly because of Alphonse and the labels he puts onto her. He slowly makes her believe she is vulnerable, which destroys the vision she has of herself at the time of this quote and enables him to take advantage of her and destroy the potential she might have had. This quote shows the meaning of the work because in the end, Baby leaves Alphonse proving she in fact is a strong person, smart, and able to persevere. Qualities she always knew she possessed but maybe never fully realised until this point.
2. Create a personalized license plate for the protagonist, which may contain no punctuation marks or symbols and which consists of no more than seven letters, seven numbers, or a combination thereof. Explain why your license plate is apt for the character.
AD1C T3D
I chose this licence plate because Baby is in a way addicted to the life she has in Montreal . She knows it is bad for her and the people surrounding her influence her to do things she normally wouldn't, yet she stays and sussumbs to many individual addictions while living in Montreal. Baby becomes addicted to Alphonse, her pimp, because she cannot live without him. He is her source of food, shelter, and money, so she feels she cannot leave his care because she wouldn't have anywhere to go. Living with him leads her to becoming addicted to heroin and prostitution in the process. The heroin addiction started slowly with one hit here and there to calm her down, but she became dependant on it quite quickly as evidenced by her withdrawal symptoms in the end of the novel. She is also addicted to prostitution because she feels she has no other option to support her heroin addiction and her rocky relationship with Alphonse; once she entered that world she quickly became more involved and it was harder and harder for her to leave. The only reason she was able to be free of all three of these addictions was Alphonse’s death, which prompted her to find her father who then forced her to leave Montreal and be free of her addiction to that lifestyle.
Quote 1: “Xavier wasn't put on earth to witness the bad things like Jules and I were. He has been put here to notice lovely things, things that God had created and no one had any complaints about. The leaves turning red in autumn. How when the tide goes out, the shells are left on the shore. I was put here - Jules was put here - to see sadder things. We had to stand in the rain and explain why the world was a lovely place.” (pg 246)
Xavier is a wealthy, innocent, and naive boy who Baby starts spending time with him when they are paired together for a school project. She enjoys hanging out with him because he makes her forget about her life of drugs and prostitution and focus on things children should be thinking about like skipping stones, playing games, or doing schoolwork. This quote is showing her view on Xavier’s life compared to her own; How Xavier was put on the earth to have a good life and notice the happy things when she and her father were put there to experience the harder side of it and strive to make the best out of a seemingly unending amount of horrible situations. This quote shows Baby’s character because it reveals some of her traits including perseverance, acceptance, and observation skills. She recognises that she was put on the earth to be handed one bad situation after another and continuously overcome them, which she definitely accomplishes in the book. Baby deals with disrespectful pimps, violent customers, foster homes and faces abuse both mentally and physically from her father, yet she always finds a way to come out on top, no matter how horrible and impossible the situation may be. She is always able to accept other people, which is also shown in this quote. Throughout the book, Baby is accepting of her dad’s drug dealing friends, other children at the foster home and anyone else she comes into contact with. This quote reveals her accepting attitude because she knows she was put on the earth to to overcome these tough obstacles and she accepts that fact. It reveals the meaning of the work, which is perseverance, because of Baby’s outlook on the situations handed to her and the ways she deals with each one.
Quote 2: “He thought he had chosen the perfect girl when he had seen me in the park with a black eye. He must have thought I was so mature. He must have thought I was sad and sweet and vulnerable. But he had chosen wrong. I wasn't like that at all. There was a part of me that was smart and original and nerdy too.” (pg 266)
This quote is describing the first time Baby met her pimp, Alphonse. He saw her sitting in the park after being beaten by her father and approached her with these prejudices in mind. The reason he was able to convince her to start prostitution and heroin was for these specific reasons, yet Baby still feels like she is not this person Alphonse sees. Baby knows she is intelligent and unique, two things he did not see at first. Although Baby may have portrayed the personality traits that Alphonse saw at first, she is in fact someone very special. Baby is continually able to persevere through hard situations and provide for herself what others could not. She is a very strong person who can make it through anything and can achieve more than he probably knows. It angers Baby that Alphonse does not understand this. Baby is capable of a lot more than she ends up achieving in Lullabies for Little Criminals mostly because of Alphonse and the labels he puts onto her. He slowly makes her believe she is vulnerable, which destroys the vision she has of herself at the time of this quote and enables him to take advantage of her and destroy the potential she might have had. This quote shows the meaning of the work because in the end, Baby leaves Alphonse proving she in fact is a strong person, smart, and able to persevere. Qualities she always knew she possessed but maybe never fully realised until this point.
2. Create a personalized license plate for the protagonist, which may contain no punctuation marks or symbols and which consists of no more than seven letters, seven numbers, or a combination thereof. Explain why your license plate is apt for the character.
AD1C T3D
I chose this licence plate because Baby is in a way addicted to the life she has in Montreal . She knows it is bad for her and the people surrounding her influence her to do things she normally wouldn't, yet she stays and sussumbs to many individual addictions while living in Montreal. Baby becomes addicted to Alphonse, her pimp, because she cannot live without him. He is her source of food, shelter, and money, so she feels she cannot leave his care because she wouldn't have anywhere to go. Living with him leads her to becoming addicted to heroin and prostitution in the process. The heroin addiction started slowly with one hit here and there to calm her down, but she became dependant on it quite quickly as evidenced by her withdrawal symptoms in the end of the novel. She is also addicted to prostitution because she feels she has no other option to support her heroin addiction and her rocky relationship with Alphonse; once she entered that world she quickly became more involved and it was harder and harder for her to leave. The only reason she was able to be free of all three of these addictions was Alphonse’s death, which prompted her to find her father who then forced her to leave Montreal and be free of her addiction to that lifestyle.
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