Independent Reading Essay
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word innocence as, “freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil.” One major component in being considered innocent is one’s age, as a whole; younger people and children are heavily portrayed as innocent. In Stephen King’s “Firestarter,” Andy and Charlie Mcgee are on the run from a secret government operation that has given them psychic abilities. This father daughter duo narrowly escape capture a couple of times but eventually get captured and tested, yet this doesn’t last long because Charlie escapes after using her pyrokinesis to burn down the place they were held after her father died. The theme of this novel is that perceived innocence is a determining factor in how much power a person is perceived to have.
One …show more content…
This makes her incredibly mature in the way that she thinks and feels things however this is contrasted by the fact that her body has not matured yet so she will always be seen by adults as fragile and naive. One example of this is prevalent in the end of the book towards the end of the escape scene when Charlie is depicted saying that, “She did not want to kill people. That had not changed. What had changed was that she’d kill them if she had to. If they stood in her way” (King 372). This quote functions to convey that she had to mature and age mentally while on the run and in the captivity of this government run program contributing to the loss of innocence. This poor girl has lost both parents and has been lied to by almost every adult in her life. This experience causes a specific theme of the loss of childhood innocence that occurs when a child has to assume heaps of responsibility, and they have to grow and mature so quickly that it is hard for others to recognize
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word innocence as, “freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil.” One major component in being considered innocent is one’s age, as a whole; younger people and children are heavily portrayed as innocent. In Stephen King’s “Firestarter,” Andy and Charlie Mcgee are on the run from a secret government operation that has given them psychic abilities. This father daughter duo narrowly escape capture a couple of times but eventually get captured and tested, yet this doesn’t last long because Charlie escapes after using her pyrokinesis to burn down the place they were held after her father died. The theme of this novel is that perceived innocence is a determining factor in how much power a person is perceived to have.
One …show more content…
This makes her incredibly mature in the way that she thinks and feels things however this is contrasted by the fact that her body has not matured yet so she will always be seen by adults as fragile and naive. One example of this is prevalent in the end of the book towards the end of the escape scene when Charlie is depicted saying that, “She did not want to kill people. That had not changed. What had changed was that she’d kill them if she had to. If they stood in her way” (King 372). This quote functions to convey that she had to mature and age mentally while on the run and in the captivity of this government run program contributing to the loss of innocence. This poor girl has lost both parents and has been lied to by almost every adult in her life. This experience causes a specific theme of the loss of childhood innocence that occurs when a child has to assume heaps of responsibility, and they have to grow and mature so quickly that it is hard for others to recognize