According to the Merriam Webster, the exact definition of innocence is the lack of guile or corruption, having a sense of purity. When putting this definition into perspective, what can be greater than being innocent? When we think of innocence, children are usually what enter our minds. Innocence and childhood are words that are directly related and bring about a sense of happiness. Being a child is something that many people often take advantage of, mostly because we are too young to know any different. At times, a child doesn’t even realize how great being a child is because of the strong sense of innocence they hold. In the short story “Don’t Ask Jack” written by Neil Gaiman, Gaiman uses specific, detailed, imagery very consistently to create a dark tone and to emphasize on how quickly innocence can be lost. 

When readers are first introduced to the jack in the box, it is depicted in a very positive way. Gaiman writes, “It was a box, carved and painted in gold and red. It was undoubtedly attractive and, or so the grown ups maintained, quite valuable, perhaps even an antique” (Gaiman 71). First, the box is explained to be gold and red. In psychology, the color red represents energy, passion, and ambition. The color gold represents success, achievement, and wealth. These words are all positive, descriptive words that go along with the children’s childhood. Energy, passion, and achievement are words that children usually hold a lot of meaning to. Gaiman chose the colors gold and red specifically to foreshadow the major themes of this short story. One of these themes being that the innocence of being a child is extremely blissful. The meanings of the colors emphasize that although the children’s childhood can be seen as a dark one when looked at a certain way, by the end of the story the children’s childhood would end up being the best part of their lives. Children are usually energized and full of ambition for the future. The description of the jack in the box also includes the word valuable. This jack in the box was an important aspect of their childhood and will always represent this time and hold great value. The adults of the household valued the presence of this jack in the box and it was an antique to their family. This use of imagery to describe the physical characteristics of the box is used to show the colorfulness of the past, and the happiness that once used to be in the children’s lives.

The next use of imagery that is important to the theme of this short story is when Gaiman writes, “For each one of the children, separately, remembered walking alone in the moon’s blue light, on his or her own bare feet, up to the nursery. It was almost like sleepwalking, feet soundless on the wood of the stairs, on the threadbare nursery carpet” (Gaiman 72). This imagery shows the imaginative minds that these children had while they were still young and able to come up with these crazy ideas. Each one of them had their own creepy, bizarre explanation that went along with this jack in the box. Gaiman explains, “One claimed that Jack was an evil wizard, placed in the box as punishment for crimes too awful to describe; another, maintained that Jack’s box was Pandora’s box and he had been placed in the box as guardian to prevent the bad things inside it from coming out once more” (Gaiman 72). Both of these explanations have an evil sense to them, motioning that the children really believed that the jack in the box was a terrible thing. These stories were simply that, just stories, and made up by the innocent minds of the children.  Another use of imagery to support this idea is when Gaiman writes, “On gray days when the wind howled about the house and rain rattled the slates and pattered down the eaves, they told each other stories about Jack although they had never seen him” (Gaiman 72). These creepy stories were just the children’s innocence and imagination taking off, as they were young and didn’t know any better. This imagery is used to set a tone of dull, dark and gloomy times. The use of the word “sleepwalking” implies that what could be scaring the children could have just been nightmares. When you are a child, nightmares are extremely common to have. The idea that the jack in the box is an evil entity is a nightmare in itself for the children. Similar to a nightmare one would have while sleeping, the nightmare is not real, just like the jack in the box being evil is also not real. This use of imagery makes the reader question if this time was actually scary and terrible as it is depicted as, or if it was the children and their creative minds coming up with this tone.

Lastly, Gaiman writes, “Years have passed, and the girls are old women, and owls and bats have made their homes in the old attic nursery, rats build their nests among the forgotten toys” (Gaiman 73).  Throughout the three pages of this short story, readers are steered towards the idea that the children’s childhood was a traumatic time for them. In reality, and shown through imagery, their childhood was the happiest time of their life and adulthood is the scary part. The stories of the jack in the box was just a representation if how amazing it is to still be young and innocent. Towards the end of this short story, the narrator goes on to explain all of the unfortunate events that have occurred to the adults as they grew out of childhood. The oldest brother in the family had died and no one in the family wants to go back to the house due to the fact that their lives will never be as happy as it once was when they were children. Bats and owls are now the residents of their old childhood home. Their old house will never be the same as it once was however many years ago.  Everyone has moved on into adulthood and changed from the innocent children that they once used to be. Their innocence has been lost.

Continuous use of imagery used by Neil Gaiman is directly related back to the theme of how quickly innocence can be lost in a person. This short story is only three pages long and in the beginning they are children and by the end they are adults, a very fast transition. Although at times, the imagery used depicts the children’s childhoods as dark and gloomy, that was really a foreshadow for how their adult lives turned out to be. The children coming up with the creepy stories that related back to the jack in the box were used to show how creative and imaginative the children were in their childhood. Children are meant to be creative and that characteristic is what causes childhood to be such a happy. Without the sense of innocence in their lives, the adult’s lives are now very dull and colorless.
