Loss of innocence
A young person is taken advantage of by an older or more powerful person, resulting in the loss of their childhood innocence, developmental trajectory, or sense of self. Distinct from general betrayal in that the power imbalance is the defining characteristic - the speaker was too young or vulnerable to have consented meaningfully. In Taylor's writing this appears as the retrospective recognition of abuse that was experienced as exciting or flattering at the time.
Appears in 2 songs
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify loss of innocence as central to the song, reading Peter as a sustained meditation on the inevitable loss of childhood wonder and fantasy. Uncle Jerry describes 'a lost childhood, lost innocence there' and notes the song's overall tone as 'not just a lost love, but a lost innocence, a loss of childhood, a loss of an understanding of the fantasy in the world.' They discuss how the speaker cannot remain in the cedar closet of childhood and how the woman who sits by the window turning out the light represents the final acceptance that innocence must be surrendered. Uncle Jerry connects this to Peter Pan's inability to grow up and the crocodile's clock as time's inexorable march that strips innocence away.
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss at length the power imbalance of a 19-year-old with a 32-year-old (John Mayer). Uncle Jerry identifies the verse's rhetorical progression where metaphors give way to the literal statement 'if I was a child', she was a child, and the metaphors are stripped away to expose that reality. Angela discusses the 'promising grown man' line as invoking the cultural protection afforded to older men in cases of sexual misconduct. Uncle Jerry reads the Pilate hand-washing imagery as the older man evading accountability. They discuss the developmental disadvantage and how writing at 32 (the same age as her abuser) gave her new perspective on how wrong it was.