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The Loss of Innocence- Personal Narrative
Orientation, introduction, moving in classes, fraternity exams midterm finals, all flying by with the roar of drag car screaming past you on the side. That is how this past semester has felt like. So far everything has been a blur, "tunnel visioned" towards the end that is now wider as I start to comprehend all of the emotions and information from this past semester. Sitting here in front of my computer finishing on of the last essays I will write this semester about the thing that I have done this semester. Tired, hungry and wanting to go home have been the reoccurring themes so far in my college career.
At the outset of college, orientation, I was not so thrilled. Number one because Mason likes most everyone else was my second choice. I had hope to get into UVA but I knew my grade point average went to *censored* my senior year and it wasn't going to happen. So here I am sitting I the theater in the basement of Johnson Center listening to some old guy, whose brown suede jacket and bright pink shirt are making me dizzy, go on and on about the honor code. Don't cheat, gees that's a new concept. The night finished up with some cheesy get to know you class dance and sleeping in the dorms at Wilson. Ah the smell of stagnant air that had not been circulated in four months. Combine that with a super soft sinking mattress and one can image the kind of sleep I got. It made staying home and working at Wal-Mart looking more and more like a wise career move.
Move in day. Hot, lines of people and once again hot. As I sat there in traffic fanning my self I could see the air before me blur from the invisible rising heat off of the asphalt. A sense of relief washes over me though when I find that I am to be living in the new dorms. Three gorgeous sorority girls, who help carry my stuff to my room, greet me the minute I get out of the car. I get in meet my room mated whom appears to be, and as I would soon find out, to be a pretty normal guy. My parents leave after what seems of hours of kissing and hugging and I am on my own.
In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah deals with his loss of innocence as he is forced to join the children army of Sierra Leone in the country's civil war after being conscripted to the army that once destroyed his town in order for Ishmael to survive. His memoir acts as a voice to show the many difficulties that the members of Sierra Leone's child army had to suffer through and their day to day struggle to survive in the worst of conditions. In order to escape the perils and trials of war, Ishmael loses his innocence as he transitions from a child who liked to rap with his friends to a cold blooded solider in the army during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Through his transition, Ishmael is forced to resort to the addiction of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and “brown-brown” just so that he, along with the other members of the child army can have the courage to be able to kill their fellow countrymen and slaughter entire towns who stand in their paths. In order to portray his struggles in the army, Ishmael uses the dramatic elements of memories explained using flashback, dialogue, and first-person narration in order to establish the theme of the memoir being how war causes for a child to lose its innocence. The transition shown in the memoir illustrates how the title of the novel, A Long Way Gone, was chosen because it demonstrates how he is a long way gone psychologically, emotionally, and physically, from the child that he was when the memoir begins to the soldier that he is forced to become.
The setting of a novel aids in the portrayal of the central theme of the work. Without a specific place and social environment, the characters are just there, with no reason behind any of their actions. The Age of Influence centers around the Old New York society during the 1870’s. Most of the characters are wealthy upper class citizens with a strict code to follow. The protagonist, Newland Archer, lives in a constant state of fear of being excluded from society for his actions. Archer’s character is affected by standard New York conventions as well as the pressure to uphold his place in society, both of which add to Wharton’s theme of dissatisfaction.
Loss of Innocence in Killing a Mockingbird Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather, the streets turned red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. " (Lee 9). This environment, as Scout Finch accurately describes, is not conducive to young children, loud noises, and games. But, the Finch children and Dill must occupy themselves in order to avoid boredom.
In A Separate Peace, John Knowles carries the theme of the inevitable loss of innocence throughout the entire novel. Several characters in the novel sustain both positive and negative changes, resulting from the change of the peaceful summer sessions at Devon to the reality of World War II. While some characters embrace their development through their loss of innocence, others are at war with themselves trying to preserve that innocence.
Loss of Innocence in Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds A rite of passage is defined as a ceremony marking a significant transition or an important event or achievement, both regarded as having great meaning in the lives of individuals. In Sharon Olds' moving poem "Rite of Passage", these definitions are illustrated in the lives of a mother and her seven-year-old son. The seriousness and significance of these events are represented in the author's tone, which undergoes many of its own changes as the poem progresses. From its title, the tone of the poem is already set as serious, and we know there will be a significant event taking place in someone's life. As earlier stated, a rite of passage is an important ceremony or a life-changing event.
“Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud, It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear forgotten.” (Knowles 59-60). Gene Forrester, one of the main characters in John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace, describes his best friend Phineas' fall from a “tremendous tree, an irate steely black steeple beside a river,”(Knowles 6) at their all boys boarding school, Devon. Gene is an introverted young boy who is very academically gifted. Finny, however, is an extremely extroverted childish young boy who is very athleticaly gifted. Finny's fall eventually leads to terrible things, such as death and guilt. Throughout the novel Knowles uses Phineas' fall from the tree to symbolize his loss of innocence, to show Gene's guilt, and to develop Phinea's death.
The loss of innocence is an occurrence that happens in every life, and it is so easily taken. A traumatic moment is often the thief of innocence, leaving the victim scarred from the experience. Events like these are often the process of paving the road into adulthood, and aid in the metamorphosis of a child to an adult. In “My Father’s Noose” by Grace Talusan, “Dothead” by Amit Majmudar, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, each of the characters do not understand the concept of negligent personages. Once the protagonist knows that society is not composed of perfect people, their character and personality changes, as it forces them to take a look at their own morals. This prepares the protagonist for the lives
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct. It is also bounded by different religious beliefs. Still, no matter which culture or religion is at hand, there is always more than one way to lose one’s innocence, and every member of that particular culture or religion experiences a loss of innocence at least once in their lives. In addition, the individual’s loss of innocence will impair him or her emotionally and/or physically.
Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's tale of one man's journey, both mental and physical, into the depths of the wild African jungle and the human soul. The seaman, Marlow, tells his crew a startling tale of a man named Kurtz and his expedition that culminates in his encounter with the "voice" of Kurtz and ultimately, Kurtz's demise. The passage from Part I of the novel consists of Marlow's initial encounter with the natives of this place of immense darkness, directly relating to Conrad's use of imagery and metaphor to illustrate to the reader the contrast between light and dark. The passage, although occurring earlier on in the novel, is interspersed with Marlow's two opposing points of view: one of naïveté, which comes before Marlow's eventual epiphany after having met Kurtz, and the matured perspective he takes on after all of the events leading up to his and Kurtz's encounter.
Young adults are losing their childhood innocence; replacing it with the world of adulthood. The most reoccurring theme throughout the book, Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill is the loss of innocence. The protagonist named Baby, lives with her father, Jules who is a heroin addict. Jules and Baby are constantly moving to different apartments in Montreal, where Baby is exposed to drugs, juvenile detention and forced into prostitution by her pimp. Baby experiences many obstacles in her life at the age of thirteen because she doesn’t have a father that loves her enough to guide her into the right path of life. Therefore it did not take long for Baby to lose her innocence.
Something happened my sophomore year of high school that little did I know would change my perspective, not only of myself, but life in general. I was looking for something new and exciting to enhance my high school existence and decided to give the Criminal Justice Club a try. I was familiar with the advisor of the club, but knew that the club had astigmatism for attracting those students who were just looking for something easy to do. I knew about the criminal justice system, but only what they show on Law and Order. However, I immediately fell in love, not only with the club but the entire prospect of Criminal Justice. I stepped into the club as if it were a place I belonged and easily became a leader. I was able to learn things the TV shows
Lifting my heavy head with eyes half asleep off of my comfortable and plush pillow I see 7:20am with the date of August 25th on my phone screen. The second day of classes is now upon me, trying to adjust not only to a new semester at school but also to living away from home, with strangers now known as roommates, and as a transfer student. Starting school has never felt this way, living in a brand new environment with my mom not being there to make me breakfast and to encourage me saying “Have a great first day, I know you’ll do great!” I was now one among the thousands of people that have worked so hard towards attending this prestigious University and some that were thousands of miles away from their homes and families.
This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school.
Throughout the entire novel of Life of Pi written by Yann Martel the theme of loss of innocence and "coming of age" is shown. The first glance of this theme is at the beginning of the novel when Pi’s father believes that the only way to make sure of the safety of his children around the zoo animals was to show them how dangerous animals can really be. Pi believed that that day he “Learned the lesson that an animal is an animal, essentially and practically removed from us, twice: once with Father and once with Richard Parker”. Pi’s father took Ravi and Pi to the tiger cage where he made them watch a tied up goat get eaten by the zoo’s tiger. Pi learned that “Life will defend itself no matter how small it is. Every animal is ferocious and dangerous.”
Embarking on a collegiate journey can be a complete and utter whirlwind. Uprooted from the consistency of the past eighteen years, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Everything I feel comes in waves; waves of excitement, waves of nerves, waves of uncertainty. Waves crash on top of other waves endlessly until I feel as though I am drowning. This campus is my new home, and it is unfamiliar. As I round corners, walk campus grounds, and look through windows, I do not feel. I do not feel because I have not yet formed a connection; there are no memories embedded into campus grounds. However, the very instant I step foot into Rosenn Plaza and I am faced by the Emerging Sculpture, the choppy, incessant waves stop crashing; I am no longer drowning. In