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 Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Claudia recalls: Our astonishment was short-lived, for it gave way to a curious kind of defensive shame; we were embarrassed for Pecola, hurt for her, and finally we just felt sorry for her. Our sorrow drove out all thoughts of the new bicycle. And I believe our sorrow was the more intense because nobody else seemed to share it. . . . So it was with confidence, strengthened by pity and pride, that we decided to change the course of events and alter a human life. ‘What we gone do, Frieda?’ ‘What can we do? Miss Johnson said it would be a miracle if it lived.’ ‘So let’s make it a miracle.’ (191)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?