Exploring Familial Absence and Addiction in 'Lullabies for Little Criminals'

The novel Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill is narrated by Baby -- the 12 year-old protagonist and daughter of single father and heroin addict, Jules. Baby never knew her mother and is unaware of any extended family. She lives in various shabby hotels with her father in Montreal’s red light district. This paper is an exploration of the pathway effects caused by lack of familial support and how Jules’ addiction created a milieu that Baby entered at birth. Suggestions are offered to alleviate their struggles.

As Karl Marx famously said “[people] make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted

According to Davidson (2015) genetic predispositions can strongly override life experiences, and the contexts of infancies, needless to say changing the circumstances for Jules and baby will improve their experiences. Therefore with an upstream thinking approach, enrolling Jules in parenting programs and classes to learn a trade, will increase his chances of securing legitimate employment and seek out better coping mechanisms. Baby and Jules are perfect candidates to be benefactors of authentic care initiatives like Housing First, it will provide them with stability and a sense of belonging. A Basic Income (BI) program would have helped Jules with the finances and alleviated the financial stress he encountered. BI, access to free healthcare and education allows individuals to reset family histories more expediently than under a neoliberal framework; thereby alleviating or ending intergenerational problems. Johnson duly noted that “People make systems happen - consciously or not - and systems lay out paths of least resistance that shape how people participate.” (Johnson, A.G 2008 p.g 19). In order for our system to work effectively, the rules must be fair. Undeniably, raising children in unstable home environments creates generational problems of dissimulation, stigma, poverty and dysfunction; therefore paternalistic governments are needed to promote healthy families to reduce social and economic inequalities. There's a mutually inclusive relationship between a society composed of healthy families and sound government (Meile 2012). We are left with a glimpse of redemption, when Jules and Baby finally escaped the city and seek out the help his cousin Janine. I suspect O'Neill wrote this book to highlight our deficiencies as a society and demonstrate our