Innocent until Guilty

“My father had tried to keep his land holy and pure, but perhaps it was impossible. Perhaps the llano was like me, as I grew the innocence was gone, and so too the land changed.” (Anaya 167-168)

The concept of losing one’s innocence throughout the book Bless Me, Ultima really interests me. When I was thinking about what stories were written about a young boy’s journey to becoming a man, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn came to mind. I thought it very interesting that both main characters, Antonio and Huck, had a black and white view on the world. Antonio was a completely pure child, just as all start out as, until he began to witness what the world did to people: rage, death, and carnal desire. And yet, even after witnessing these, he’s still innocent, although he doesn't see himself so. He believed either you were completely innocent, or you were doomed to destruction: a completely black and white view.

Like Antonio, Huck Finn also viewed the world similarly, but from a contrasting perspective. Huck is much older than Antonio, and has seen a lot more sin, in a sense raised by it. Yet, he’s still innocent, because his knowledge of right from wrong was a child’s. He had no religious education until his foster mother taught him. But everything about religion made little sense to him, resulting in this passage suggesting men are either completely clean or damned:

“…I would take up wickedness… for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog. (Twain 26)

Why, even coming from completely different mindsets—one knowing he was “wicked” and the other wanting to stay innocent—do these two boys see only the black and white? What does this say about childhood? Does there even need to be a grey?