Kaylee Rucker College Preparatory English Comparison/Contrast Essay November 28, 2016 Young Adults are Not Harmed by Dark Themes
A big topic of discussion among parents and readers is if dark topics being common in young adult literature is acceptable. Whether the topics in these books are harmful for the age range they are intended for or not is an ongoing controversy. Meghan Cox Gurdon and Sherman Alexie address this controversy from two quite different standpoints. Gurdon’s article “Darkness too Visible” and Alexie’s article “Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood” discuss the negative and positive effects of these books on their readers. Although both essays describe the effects of young adult literature, Alexie proves his side more effectively saying that he connects with kids with bad lives, is not introducing new concepts, and doesn’t avoid topics that stunt kid’s mental development.
The first point of contrast is that Gurdon believes modern young adult literature is taking away children’s innocence; however, Alexie writes to connect with kids who already have bad lives before they harm themselves in any way. Gurdon believes that young adult literature takes away a child’s innocence and impacts moral development in a negative manner. She tries to prove this argument by stating, “It has to do with a child’s happiness, moral development and tenderness of heart. Entertainment does not merely gratify taste, after all, but creates it” (Gurdon par. 6). Gurdon holds the idea that children’s mindsets come from what they read (Gurdon par. 7). Looking at the opposing side of this argument, Alexie believes that his writing connects with kids who have bad lives, as he did, before it is too late for them. He explains this belief by saying, “I can’t speak for other writers, but I think I wrote my young adult (YA) novel as a way of speaking to my younger, irredeemable self” (Alexie par. 11). He has the idea that these young adult novels show the kids that they are not alone and provide them with comfort. Alexie argues that kids need something to connect to when they are in bad situations.
Gurdon’s thought that dark literature will influence kids to act as the characters in the novels is not accurate because many of these kids have already seen dark these dark themes first hand while living through their own bad situations, so reading about them won’t push the kids over the edge. Gurdon tries to make a point that young adult literature commonly containing dark material makes this material mainstream; however, Alexie argues that these books are not introducing new information. Gurdon holds the belief that if the extremes demonstrated in these novels is mainstream, the readers will go to extremes they never would have thought of otherwise. She enforces this belief by saying “Yet it is also possible--indeed, likely--that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures” (Gurdon par. 13). Gurdon advises parents to not allow their children to read this literature in the fear that they will perform the acts demonstrated in these books. In contrast to Gurdon’s beliefs, Alexie says the material in young adult literature is not introducing new concepts to kids. He says that many kids have already experienced these horrors so reading about them is not shocking. He exemplifies this by saying, “Does she [Ms. Gurdon] believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life has been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?” (Alexie par. 10). He contends that oblivious adults try to protect children from reading material that they have already seen happen or have had happen to them in their lives.
Another argument is that the book industry only cares about making money and not the best interest of the kids; however, trying to take away these books shelters kids from reality. Gurdon expresses her opinion quite clearly that the book industry’s only goal is to make money and that they don’t care about the well-being of the children by saying, “The book business exists to sell books; parents exist to rear children and oughtn’t be daunted by cries of censorship” (par. 28). Gurdon believes that parents are wrongly being looked down on for trying to censor the books that their children read instead of the publishers and authors that are supplying these books. Alternatively, Alexie believes that censoring literature will stunt the mental growth of these youth and not prepare them for reality. He exemplifies this by saying “...they aren’t trying to protect African-American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their way to school. They are trying to protect privileged children” (Alexie par. 16-17). By privileged children he meant the kids who haven’t faced the hardships demonstrated in these books. These children will be too sheltered if they don’t at least read about these events. Young adult literature does not influence kids to do anything they would have otherwise not thought; this literature can, however, help kids through their own hardships. Although both Sherman Alexie in “Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood” and Meghan Cox Gurdon in “Darkness too Visible” wrote about the effect of dark themes on young adults, Alexie’s article was written better. Alexie did an outstanding job in his article by using personal experience to make points proving that YA literature does more good than harm.
Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood.” WSJ, Wsj.com, 9 June 2011, blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/06/09/why-the-best-kids-books-are-written-in-blood/. Gurdon, Meghan Cox. “Book Review: Young Adult Fiction.” WSJ, Wsj.com, 3 June 2011, www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.