How are children more vulnerable to the harsh realities of an environment that does not nurture them and what, do the authors suggest, are the consequences of a child’s fall from innocence?

In most cases, the children in this novel are not protected from the realities of their environment, and their parents are, in fact, a direct cause of the traumas they experience. The young women are exposed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse from a very early age, and in Pecola's case, she is sexually violated by the very man who should be protecting her. The consequences of "their fall from innocence" is further abuse, and for Pecola, having a child of her own.