Olemeku Aledan Professor Harrell English 101 24 October 2013 Family Failure There is a point in everyones life for

when they lose their innocence. Some people lose it earlier than others. Two common ways people lose it would be through sex and the stunning realization that Santa Claus is not real. In The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, he tells the story of the Hadleys, a family who seemingly has everything is suffering from a misuse of technology. Farmer Finch by Sarah Orne Jewett is about a farmers daughter having a new outlook on life after much strife in her family. Lastly The Myth of Doomed Kids written by Bella DePaulo, gives information on substance abuse for the United States different family types. These sources all depict innocence being lost by children in three different ways, all due to the parents failing their kids. Being a single mother is not easy, neither is having one. The mother is often looked at as being incapable of providing for her children, or for cheating the system, whether this is true or not. Meanwhile, the children are viewed as sad cases or even bastards, and are described as illegitimate or as products of broken homes (380). However, in some cases it can be better than living with both of your parents. DePaul relays the message that, although mutual love and support is what adults hope to enjoy when they live together and raise children, sometimes what they get instead is chaos, strife and even abuse (383). This is the case for my family, a family that had been stricken with abuse, deceit, and depression when my father was here. My innocence was lost before my parents even separated because I knew from a young age that things were not going well my parents. The conversations I heard and abuse I witnessed (even

endured myself) changed me and my perceptions on relationships, because I learned that no marriage is salvageable, even after 21 years of marriage. The failure of a parent is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it will awaken something in the child, inspire them to do better. This is what takes place in Farmer Finch. Polly sees the dying situation of her fathers farm and career, and turns into something new for herself. Her willingness to step up and take over is where she loses her innocence. This forever stays with her, for when her life could use some encouragement: Ill see if the other side is any better, like my barberry bush (Jewett 20). Polly knows that situations are what you make it, and uses her barberry bush as a symbol for that. Like Polly I too view the situation with my father as a good thing. When he left he took with him the abuse, anger and anxiety that my mom, my sisters, and I shared. Financially things are hard, but we are happy. And like Polly I too have taken over the role of what was once my fathers domain. Taking matters into their own hands is a bit of an understatement when it comes to the Hadley children in Ray Bradburys, The Veldt. The children, Peter and Wendy, had their parents killed, because they had failed their children. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley failed their children the day they decided to let technology raise their children. This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents (14). In fact the house was their real parent, for it was the house that took them on adventures, read to them, tied their shoes, bathed them, and other acts that are associated with parenting. In a way I have done the same thing. I found a father replacement long before my father even left, because he had failed me. Therefore when he left, it meant nothing to me.

DePaolo, Jewett, and Bradbury used different techniques to show the loss of innocence. DePaulo used facts, Jewett used triumph in a farmers daughter, and Bradbury used the deception of what is real, and what is not. And as loss of innocence is what ties these sources together, so is failure. The failure that the parents presented in all of these sources, caused the children to react in some way. In The Myth of Doomed Kids they took to substance-abuse, in Farmer Finch Polly took over her fathers once pathetic farm, and turned it into something of abundance, and in The Veldt Wendy and Peter kill their parents. Everything that I went through took place because of the failure of my father. His failures of being a husband and father drove me to take his place. Although having to do this made me lose my innocence, it allowed me to gain a greater form responsibility than I had known. I consider myself the father of my two younger sisters, so that they may know that they have at least two adults looking over them and loving them.