Loss of Innocence in Silas Marner and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by George Eliot and Jeanette Winterson

Childhood is a very crucial period in the life of any human being. It is a moment of great innocence and naivety. Young men face various societal situation that often transform them for life. The main objective of this payer is to is identifying the reasons behind the abrupt loss of innocence of the protagonists Silas and Jeanette in the novels under study. Using Historical Criticism, this paper tries to situate the literary work within its historical and cultural context, and draws connections between the text and the respective author’s life experiences or the socio-political climate in which each novel was written. At the end, the research has illuminated the multifaceted underlying causes of the protagonists’ loss of innocence, revealing the profound impact of societal norms, power dynamics, and unconscious desires on the human experience of innocence and its erosion.