Novel chosen: Let the Right One In.
Thesis: In Let the Right One In, the theme of loss of innocence is told through interchanging stories of Oskar and Eli, who show their exposure to violence, moral dilemmas, and trauma and how it corrupts their childhood innocence. By taking Oskar’s stories of becoming a morally gray accomplice, a stark change from his early vulerabilites, and combining them with Eli’s “childlike” appearance that masks lifetimes survival and hardship, this novel sheds light on the tenderness of innocence in a society where horrible evils exist in both the human and monster world.
Examples:
1. Oskar and Violence: Oskar is known to collect newspaper clippings about murders in the area and would also fantisize about killing those who bullied him. This shows the beginning of his loss of innocence because he starts to turn from a victim to a person fantisizing about killing people.
2. Eli’s Looks VS Who He Is: Eli looks like a normal child but is really a centuries old vampire who has to kill to survive. This profound identity shows the loss of innocence on a grand scale. This even makes the reader have to come to terms with such an innocent looking thing being capible of such violence.
3. Oskar Leaving With Eli: At the end, Oskar decides to leave with Eli. This marks the complete loss of Oskar’s innocence. He fully leaves behind the innocent world as he knows it to persue a life of danger with Eli.
Write around 1100 words about these examples using a thesis sort of like the one above. I also need examples and quotes from the book.