1. psychological determinism: your environment and social conditioning leave an indelible print on your personality that no degree of “free-will” can change or erase. You are a product of forces beyond your control. Also referred to as “naturalism.” Early in the story we see that Uncle Gil has never outgrown the habit of referring to him and his friends as “delinquents,” suggesting he’s never escaped that identity, true or false as it may be.
2. disaffected: the condition of being emotionally withdrawn, reserved in a condition of learned helplessness and cynicism, emotionally unreachable by the wall of defenses that were created long, long ago. We this disaffected quality in Uncle Gil who seems to have no ambitions or lofty aspirations. We can also infer that he has no commitment in his life, including commitment to a woman.
3. Innocent child’s dream of the omniscient parent: Andrea sees his father as “the perfect being, the creator of the sky and the earth.”
4. Sadistic: taking pleasure in meanness, which is to say exacting cruelty upon others, especially the helpless
5. Post-traumatic stress disorder: depression, aggression, violence, and paranoia that results from repeated violent abuse. Sadly, we see that Valerio suffers from this disorder.
6. Rite of passage; a significant event that marks the passing from innocence to initiation; dubious outsider to loyal tribal member; childhood to adulthood; placid passivity to rigorous curiosity (the need to see how the world really works, in Andrea’s case).
1A Class Notes: Loss of Innocence and Maturity Entail the Following:
1. To be expelled from the security blanket, the womb of comfort and to lose the delusion that you’re invincible because you’ve been wrapped in the cloak of your parents.
2. To realize that your parents are not ultimate authorities or all-powerful protectors
3. To have a consciousness of evil and a strong sense that the world is not fair or just
4. To develop a strong sense that brutal madmen reign in high places and our conformity to their agendas makes us complicit in their evil doings.
5. To have a sense of your lost innocence means part of you has died forever and you cannot get it back. All you can do is move forward; to look back is to indulge in self-pity and bitterness which will inevitably lead to death.
6. To realize that a curiosity about how the world really works, even though traumatic, is essential to developing survival skills and street smarts.
7. To let go of your idealized representations of people you’ve put on a pedestal and as such you take away their power and you become free.
8. To let go of nostalgia, which you realize is a fixation on a romanticized past, which was weighing you down with cheap sentimentality and making you a drama queen.
9. To free yourself from tribalistic prejudices and tribalist behavior, also called groupthink, which is to sacrifice your critical thinking in order to go along with the group’s ideas and ways. Immature people are forever tied to the tribal order and never question it. We see this in the movie Pleasantville.
10. To give up a vain image you’ve had about yourself. The mature person has a self-image that is neither grossly inflated or under-inflated, but has a clear grasp of strengths and weaknesses. Most people error in having an inflated self-image or they sells themselves short. In both cases, there is a failure of responsibility.
11. To give up self-pity and resentment because you’ve found a life calling or passion that’s more interesting to you than your ego, which compels you to wallow in self-absorption.
Study Questions for “The Innocents” by Gipi
1. Explain the story’s theme of innocence as it pertains to the Uncle Gil’s “delinquent” friend. He represents a side of life that Andrea has never seen before.
2. Do you think Gil has beaten his drug addiction or that he in fact has ever had one? He’s clearly a disaffected character whether or not drugs are involved.
3. Describe Gil and Valerio’s encounters with the sadistic anti-terrorist squad. They were in fact innocent and bullied unfairly.
4. What made Valerio a “different person”? He becomes defensive, paranoid, mentally unstable, violent, disaffected, the victim of abuse, torture.
5. What are the story’s different meanings of the word “innocent”? Andrea’s innocence is rooted in naiveté. Then of course the notion of being falsely accused, persecuted, and victimized. Then there is Gil who has never been a parent, in some ways has never grown up and remained an “innocent.”
6. Why is Valerio sentenced to twelve years for attempted murder?
7. Why is Gil plagued by guilt?
8. How is Valerio depicted as a sort of ghost when we see his reunion with Gil? Gaunt, emaciated, living off the fumes of his past life. He envies Gil’s opportunities, privileges, and family belonging while he languishes as an outcast.
9. What is Valerio’s revenge plot regarding the two cops busted for extortion and blackmail?
10. Does Andrea change by the end of the story? Perhaps he appreciates his privileges and his sense of family belonging as evidenced by the “lie” he will tell his mother about Valerio’s fate. He questions Gil’s authority; he learns to lie in order to hang out with Gil again; he seems to see the difference between the good family life he enjoys and the less fortunate life of others.
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