Loss of Innocence in Sarah´s Key

Loss of Innocence
A child is known for having innocence, and bad experiences strip kids of it. In Sarah’s
Key by Tatiana De Rosnay, experiences cause a loss of innocence due to loss of freedom, loss of hope, and loss of family. Freedom is a right that allows humans to live life to the fullest.
In society when a child has no basic rights of freedom, it causes them to grow up and lose their innocence. In Sarah’s Key, Sirka describes how she feels at the camp: “The girl noticed a handful of people watching them through the barbed wire…. The girl felt like she had become someone else. Someone hard, and rude, and wild. Sometimes she fought with the older children, the ones who tried to grab the old stale bread she had found. She swore at them. She hit them. She felt dangerous, savage” (Rosnay 79-80). Sirka no longer has freedom because she is being kept in a concentration camp with “people watching them through the barbed wire” to keep them in, and prevent them from escaping. The experience of being held captive causes her to lose her innocence. Sirka has changed because she, “fe[els] like she ha[s] become someone else.” She no longer is a sweet, innocent girl but is now” someone hard, and rude, and wild” because she is violent, “f[i]ghting with older kids and she sw[ears]” and “ hit[s] them.” All the anger in her is due to the loss of her freedom changing her from an innocent sweet girl to a dangerous savage. Another example is when Sirka has to hide from the Germans:
The Germans were here…. As she lay under the potatoes,…Somebody had opened the trap door. Somebody was coming…. He was coming for her. He was going to get her…. These blood-thirsty monsters. Monsters! She hated them. She wished them a...

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...en-year-old girl”. She has now changed mentally into “someone much older”. The loss of her beloved brother means “nothing [will] ever be the same again, for her, for her family, for her brother”. She is losing her “happy” character, and now has a “viole[nt]” personality, that “[is] new to her”. A child losing its family causes a loss of innocence.
The youth are acknowledged for having innocence, and witnessing certain events can take it away. In Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay experiences cause innocence to be lost. Losing freedom affects an individual personality, making the person more mature. Losing hope causes an individual to change their views on life. A person’s family dying causes a lifetime of pain. When experiencing a horrible event, one should not let it change them.

Works Cited

Rosnay, Tatiana De. Sarahs Key. [Paris]: Succes Du Livre, 2008. Print.