As we grow as a person to a part of the society we learn about many different things, we learn how to cope with different situations in order to form into different individuals. We start seeing things from a different perspective and start forming our own opinions of people, situations, and the world in general. As many would think that this is the process of growth; it is also a loss of innocence. It is an aspect of coming of age or an experience in a child or person’s life that makes them more aware of evil, pain or suffering in the world around them. Not only so the characters face events that would make them lose their innocence but the movie opens the eyes of the audience as well. The audience sees how random strangers are ready to kill a man they don’t even know just so they could earn a little bit Of money for it. Innocence decreases as people realize the issues and cruelties in the world. This scene directly portrays the corruption which exists within societies over something materialistic like money.
As a society, we have developed and grown in many ways. We have technology and resources that can help us achieve whatever we set our minds to however, the fact is that we are exposed to violent acts, video games, sexual content, etc. As a consequence, children are being exposed to content or situations they are not mentally prepared for. Growing up before their time, thinking they are mature enough to handle life on their own is a huge issue seen in children today.
As humans, many other things drive us toward the loss of our innocence; poverty, greed, or jealousies are just examples of things that drive us to commit things that we should not commit. They expose people to situations in which they have no other choice but to lose their innocence. Loss of innocence is a very dominant theme in literature. This theme is normally initiated after a traumatic event that affects the way the character thinks and sees the world. It opens the characters’ eyes to a new world. We see this in novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Kite Runner, Lullabies for
Criminals, The Giver even in Shakespeare’s famous plays such as Macbeth and Hamlet. The characters in all these novels have different circumstances however, the fact that they all face an event which makes them realize that the world and the society as nice and perfect as it seems like. It takes away a portion of their innocence when they realize that everything they had always thought of as the truth was false. However, this is the great aspect that helps the character develop into a loveable or despicable person; one that creates and holds an effect on its readers.
