Lullabies for Little Criminals

The heroin subculture weaves together Baby’s environment. Heroin is the force that drives everything Jules does, and it’s a rite of passage into adulthood for Baby and the other children in the novel. Jules refers to heroin as “chocolate milk” (10) to hide it from Baby, but since she knows what he’s referring to, it makes heroin seem as innocuous as a child’s drink and as common; it takes away the danger. This is why when Baby first tries heroin, she feels like it was inevitable and she’s not scared. Heroin has always been part of her world.

For Baby and the other children, heroin is one of the only constants in their unstable world. When Baby is separated from Jules, prostituting, and living with Alphonse, she turns to heroin as a way to cope. She’s too young to realize that heroin is the source of her problems rather than a remedy. Heroin makes her feel complacent and numb to her problems, which prevents her from actually facing them.

Baby has a complicated relationship with heroin. In the beginning, she resents Jules’s heroin use because it continually takes him away from her.