In Lullabies for little criminals, I analyzed the novel through postcolonial literary criticism. It is well displayed in the novel that there is domination and control of one class of people by another class of people. This meaning that the men have more domination and control over the women, than the women do over the men.
The men in the novel are described as the drug dealers and users, as well as pimps. They are treated in a fair way in the novel, since nobody causes problems with the men. The women in the novel are described as the sex figures or objects and this is how they are treated. Even Baby, at the age of thirteen, becomes a prostitute because Alphonse makes her feel worthy to him and gets her into his prostitution business.
The text reveals that gender is shaping our perceptions of ourselves and others due to how the class that has domination and control treats the lower class. The men treat the women as useless and that they do everything wrong, like when Jules began blaming all of his problems on Baby. Alphonse uses women to his advantage for prostitution and makes comments to Baby that she is something special. The women in this text perceive themselves as nothing due to the way they are treated by the men, and when Alphonse takes Baby under his wing she perceives herself as used and only good for prostitution. Therefore, the way the different gender types act towards the other help shape the way they see themselves.
When it comes to the men they perceive themselves as something great since they feel like they're "winning." Alphonse creates his own income through prostitution and has no probably getting any girl he wants, and because of that the women make him feel like he is great and doing everything right. Although for Jules, he turns to drugs to make him feel like he is great and having Baby to blame for his problems makes him feel like he is winning over her.
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