The Golden Compass

As a child, and still now, I was fascinated by worlds of fantasy. I read whatever book I could get my hands on that told stories of other worlds, some like my own, some vastly different. But, when I brought home Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass from my middle school’s library my mother immediately told me to take it back.

“That book is evil,” she had said, “The man who wrote it is an atheist.”

Being an innocent and naïve child, I did as she said unquestioningly. If my mom thought it was bad, it had to be. Right? When we were given this assignment I immediately sprang at the chance to grab this book and read it for the first time. Many of my friends had experienced the same thing with their parents when they brought the book home, and after I looked into it more, apparently many, many other parents did too.

The Golden Compass, or The Northern Lights as it is titled in other countries, was first published in 1995 to great critical acclaim. It went relatively unchallenged by the gatekeepers for more than ten year until the film adaptation was released in 2007. That is when everything surrounding this magical story was placed under the prying microscope of parents. There are many things present in The Golden Compass that warranted other books to be banned and challenged at other times: violence (a bear gets its lower jaw ripped off, and many children and adults die, sometimes is fantastically brutal ways), the presence of magic and witches, and a rebellious and often foul mouthed protagonist (even though it is never explicitly written, Lyra is described as swearing and cursing quite a bit). What parents chose to hone in on though was Pullman’s treatment of religion (with an occasional spatter of issues with drug use alcohol). The Golden Compass was pulled from the shelves of many schools—most of which were Catholic schools—in both the US and Canada for the book’s “anti-Christian message” (Marshall University) in 2008 and 2009. The books all ended up being returned to their respective libraries, but now holding a sticker that said, “representations of the Church are purely fictional and not reflective of the real Roman Catholic Church or the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

In the same year Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, in which The Golden Compass is apart of, ranked second on the United State’s banned books list (Pilkington) jumping up from its fourth spot that it held in 2007 (Flood). In 2007 The Golden Compass received “420 formally submitted complaints to libraries and schools over ‘inappropriate content and subject matter’” (Flood). The author himself, stated that he felt “glee” when he discovered his book was being challenged. He also stated that he saw this rise in dissent over his novel due to religion was “the worst reason of the lot” (Flood). He was also quoted as saying that, “Religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good” (Flood).

This disdain for religion, though, doesn’t entirely permeate the novel. There are many people in the story who are Christian, or at least they profess to “God” and discuss matters of faith as if they follow a view of religion similar to Christianity, but these characters are not apart of an actual church or attend any semblance of organized religion. They hold a personal faith in God, not one dictated to them by an overseeing priest. The real villains of the story though operate under the power of “The Church,” and they are the ones to commit some of the most evil of deeds within the story. It can be assumed that Pullman does not have an outright problem with faith itself, but of the manipulative machinery of an organized religion. Making The Golden Compass into one of just a bashing of religion really takes away from the power behind the story, though.

The protagonist, a young girl by the name of Lyra, a stubborn and feisty child, is driven by a deep moral sense and urge to do what is right. She, and every other human in the novel, is accompanied by her dæmon (pronounced like the word “demon”) Pantalaimon. A dæmon is the physical manifestation of a person’s soul that takes the form of an animal (a literal spirit animal). It is notable that the dæmon of a child is able to shift between different animal forms until puberty, when the creature settles on a single form that most reflects the person they belong to. Lyra grows up as a ward of Jordan College in Oxford, blissfully unaware of the world around her until she spies on a conference of scholars and finds out about a mysterious substance called “Dust” and the presence of another world visible within the Northern lights, which is where this Dust seems to be originating from. Soon after Lyra discovers this she also finds out that children all over the world are disappearing from their homes, especially children of poor families and from the nomadic Gyptians (a play on Gypsies)—all in all, children who won’t be missed by anyone but their families. These child abductors are referred to as “Gobblers” by many people, due to the idea that they are taking the children and eating them, while in reality what they are doing is much more sinister than that. This ordeal strikes close to home though when Lyra’s friend is abducted by the Gobblers. Before she is able to do anything though she is granted into the care of a scholarly woman named Mrs. Coulter and granted an extremely rare tool by the master of Jordan college called an alethiometer (a truth reader) that she is told not to show to Mrs. Coulter, and informed that she would one day learn to read it.

It is soon revealed that Mrs. Coulter is a wicked, although charming woman, who works for The General Oblations board, also known as the Gobblers. This is a secret, yet church sanctioned, organization that is kidnapping children to study to understand the relation of Dust to human beings. It is discovered that Dust is completely absent in children until they reach adulthood and their dæmons become fixed. The Church believes that the presence of the dust is equivalent to the presence of Original Sin, so what better way to save children from sin then to separate them from the very essence of their souls, and what they believe to be the source of the sin—the fixation of the dæmon. Lyra discovers what Mrs. Coulter is doing and runs away and goes on a perilous and magnificent journey to the North to save her friend Roger and the other kidnapped children from the fate set before them. It is revealed along the way that Lyra is destined to save their world from destruction, but only if she does it unknowingly.

The story itself focuses highly on the power and cunning of children, exhibited strongly through Lyra. Children are often presented as vulnerable and dense throughout the novel, but Lyra is able to overcome all of that, leading as an example to the other children, and most likely to the young people reading the novel. At the same time though, Pullman does make it clear that sometimes children may be powerless to control some of the situations that they are in, but he shows that there is always a better way to look at it, or a cunning way of handling it through Lyra’s adventures and exploits. She is often shown coming up with things that many adults never would have thought of, and her determination is what drives the story forward. Lyra can be viewed as a picture of power to young readers who may aspire to be as brave and smart as her. Despite all that though, Lyra is often treated like a child and is subject to the will of the adults around her. These scenes almost serve as a reminder for her to stay in her place. She must ask permission to do certain things while in the company of adults, and she must obey their orders—at least until the finds a way out of doing it.

The nature of children though is most deeply explored through the concept of dæmons, though. They constantly shift into different animal forms depending on the situation that they and their person are in, or to reflect the mood that the child they are attached to feels. This ability to constantly change shape and form mirrors how children themselves are able to do this. Nothing about a child’s life or personality is set in stone. They are free to be whatever they want as they shape their personality, and sometimes that varies by day or even by hour. Nothing is definite about them, so why should their soul be contained in one shape? The idea of the dæmon settling into one shape as the child approached puberty though seems to harness the lingering idea that the children will be slipping more into a certain personality and appearance that they like best. They are starting to realize who they are, and therefore their dæmons also settle.

The idea of banning a story just because it disagrees with your religious views is pretty outrageous. Closing our minds to ideas and views of life that differ from our own can severely limit the experiences that one can have. Keeping children from reading books such as The Golden Compass deprives children of a truly magical and heart-touching experience. Thinking that a child can be so easily swayed from the way they were raised to another opinion just from reading it once in a book severely underestimates the morality and faith of children, which is what I think Pullman is trying to get to the heart of in his series.

Works Cited

Flood, Alison. “Pullman Defiant over US Protests against Northern Lights.” The Guardian.          Guardian News and Media, 29 Sept. 2008. Web.

“Marshall University Libraries.” Marshall University. N.p., n.d. Web

Pilkington, Ed. “Children’s Writer Philip Pullman Ranked Second on US Banned Books                List.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 30 Sept. 2009. Web.

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Print.

Forever

 

Judy Blume, a New York Times Bestselling Author, wrote Forever in the mid-seventies and published it for the first time in 1975 and then renewed the publishing again in 2003. Forever is a story about seventeen year old high school senior, Katherine Danziger’s experience of meeting a boy, falling in love, and having sex for the first time. The story begins as Katherine and her best friend, Erica Small, decide to attend a New Year’s Eve party at Erica’s cousin’s house, Sybil Davidson. This party is where they met Michael Wagner, Katherine’s first love. Meeting Michael would change Katherine’s life, both emotionally and physically, as she falls in love. Katherine’s story is one that many adolescents can relate to as they look back at their first time or as they dream about what they imagine their first time will be like. Blume paints a vivid picture on topics that all adolescents go through in Forever by going into detail regarding such subjects as masturbation, pre-marital sexual intercourse, and a girl’s first trip to the gynecologist. However, she comes at them from an educational point of view as they are topics that are both controversial and real life.

Some things have changed from the time that Blume wrote Forever and present day. Back in the seventies, pregnancy was the biggest fear of pre-marital or non-monogamous partners. Since then STD’s became a fact of life and Blume added a note to the reader regarding the awareness of protecting themselves against STD’s and pregnancy with the use of condoms. The book is written in a mainly factual manner rather than geared toward a moral view, after all, the seventies were a bit of a sexual revolutionary period. Blume was writing this novel during the time in her life when she had a fourteen year old daughter, Randy, for whom the book was dedicated.

Katherine’s whimsical romance evolved as many young teenage loves do. She and Michael exchanged phone numbers and going on dates with some kissing and over the clothes fondling at first. Katherine is a virgin while Michael has had experience with one girl before. Blume uses Katherine as a voice to all girls that they do not and should not be forced or pressured into having sex if they are not mentally and emotionally ready as Katherine establishes this from the start with Michael. She makes her boundaries clear as they explore each other and when she asks Michael to stop, her respects her wishes. Katherine, like most teenage girls, wants her first time to be special and with someone she loves. As she and Michael grow closer, she realizes that she has fallen in love with him and she wants him to be the one. She and Michael believe their love will last forever.

The love continues to grow and bloom for these typical teenagers while life begins to unfold as it does for all seniors in high school. They begin planning for their futures by applying for colleges, searching for summer jobs, and finishing out their senior year. Blume gives us a glimpse into many of Katherine’s normal life experiences throughout the story such as her close and candid relationship with her parents and grandmother, the pleasant relationship she has with her little sister, Jamie, the death of her grandfather, the acceptance into two of the schools of her choice, and the disappointments of having to take a summer job that would keep her away from Michael for a whole seven weeks.

More controversial topics arise as Katherine, being the responsible young teenage girl, decides to call and schedule an appointment with the Planned Parenthood organization in order to be place on the pill. Blume describes this process in great detail which is excellent for the curious or scared teenage girl who has never been to a gynecologist and has no idea what to expect. From the short questionnaire that must be filled out, to the physical exam, including the instruments used during the examination, and ending with the prescription for birth control pills being handed to her, Blume gives the reader the inside scoop, so to speak.

Katherine and Michael also went on double dates with Katherine’s best friend, Erica, and Michael’s best friend, Artie, which became a couple out of sheer physical exploration rather than love. Artie is portrayed as a quiet yet talented seventeen year old boy that suffers from depression and pressure to meet his father’s approval. Artie also seems to be confused in regards to his sexual orientation and Erica deems it her personal responsibility to see that Artie figures this out with her as his guide even though Erica is a virgin. Erica’s desire to lose her virginity is a driving force that pushes Artie away and eventually leads to them breaking up. Between this and Artie being forced to go to a college that his father picked rather than the college of his choice, Artie attempts to hang himself from the bathroom shower rod but fails and ends up in the local hospitals psychiatric ward, missing his own graduation.

Blume also presents teenage pregnancy as a factor into this book as Sybil, Erica’s cousin from the beginning of the story, becomes pregnant. Sybil is portrayed as a very promiscuous girl and does not know who the father is. She hides her pregnancy from her friends and family until she is threatened to be sent off to a fat clinic at Duke University for the summer due to her obvious weight gain. Sybil chose to hide her pregnancy for fear her parents would force her to have an abortion. She wanted to experience childbirth, which she described as “no big deal”, as she was receiving a whiff of gas with every contraction so that she wouldn’t feel the pain. (Blume 174) This is definitely one of the more controversial reasons Forever is censored. Most adults do not want teenage girls to be misled into thinking that childbirth is easy and painless. Sybil also made the decision to give her baby up for an adoption which was portrayed as a difficult but well thought out plan.

As the story unfolds, Katherine, Michael, and Erica graduate high school. Katherine goes off to her summer job as tennis instructor at her sister’s summer camp and Michal is off to his summer job in North Carolina on his uncle’s lumber yard. They write each other and tell of their experiences. At camp, Katherine meets a boy named Theo who causes Katherine to doubt the longevity of her love for Michael. She experiences a closeness with Theo who is there to comfort her through the learning of her grandfather’s passing. Katherine also feels a strong sexual desire for Theo and wonders what it would be like to be physical with him. This leads to the end of Katherine and Michael’s relationship as she realizes perhaps forever is to long for a teenager.

Forever stirs up many controversial topics that placed it on the challenged and banned list for Young Adults books. The reasons cited for this placement include, demoralized pre-marital sex, descriptive sexual passages, sexual frequency, the lack of sexual monogamy for all characters, the lack of moral tones, the lack of abstinence, parental disobedience, profanity, and the talk of masturbation, teenage pregnancy, and birth control. Which was more than enough for Forever to be placed on the ALA list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009, at number sixteen.  Although some of these topics would not be considered reasons for being challenged in current times. Topics such as birth control, profanity, and have become a cultural norm in recent YA books. The reason Forever remains on the list is obviously due to the free spirited attitude toward sexual promiscuity and the graphic description of the sexual activity in the book.

Despite the banning, Judy Blume has sold more than 75 million copies of Forever. Blume gives teens an insight into the reality of relationships not lasting forever and the risks of becoming sexually active at a young age. This book gives teenage girls a romantic fantasy that they can relate to and dream about while educating them about real life scenarios that involve difficult decisions with serious consequences. Its real and its raw which is why it is challenged but that is also what makes Forever appealing to both teenagers and adults.

 

Blume, Judy. Forever. Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury, 1975. Print.

“Censorship & Judy Blume.” N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2016

“100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 1990 – 1999.” Banned and Challenged Books. American Library Association, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2016

Just Listen

Sarah Dessen has become a well-known young adult novelist. Since 1996 she has written twelve novels and one novella. Dessen writes stories mostly focused on some kind of trauma in a young girl’s life and how this character changes and evolves as a result of the conflict set in play. Just Listen, which was published in 2006 and was Dessen’s seventh book to be published, is no different. The story line follows a seventeen year old girl named Annabel Greene who is the “it” girl at her school and seemingly has it all; popularity, friends, and a booming modeling job. However, Annabel’s reality could not be further from this perceived perfection.

Just Listen begins at the beginning of a new school year in-which we quickly learn that Annabel is no longer welcomed in her group of friends. Sophia, her best friend for four years shows up at her car door and mouths off some strong language about Annabel. Emily, another friend in their group is with Sophia, clearly choosing her side instead. It is obvious something has happened between the two, but it takes a while in the story before we are given the reason for the strained relationship. She is alone and left to sit outside without any friends to talk to at lunch. The only person remotely close to her outside is a boy named Owen Armstrong who is engrossed in his music and does not pay any attention to her. To complicate matters her older sister Whitney is living at home while she receives treatments for her eating disorder all while Annabel’s mom is obsessed with pushing Annabel into modeling. Each of Annabel’s sisters has modeled and it is something that seems to be a dream of their moms rather than theirs.

As the story progresses we see Annabel begin to connect to Owen through the music he listens to. It takes a while, but she begins to open up to him and her to him. The two form an unlikely friendship that leads into a romance between the two. After an incident in which Emily, Annabel’s old friend, is raped by Will Cash, Sophia’s boyfriend, we learn the real reason for Annabel’s ostracization from her group of friends. Like Emily, Annabel was raped by Will. However, Sophia believes that Annabel hooked-up with her boyfriend and not that he raped her. Annabel keeps the rape to herself throughout most of the story. Like our young character in Speak, Annabel does not know exactly how to handle the situation. Emily on the other hand takes matters to the police, and Will ends up in court. When this happens Annabel finally comes out about what happened to her and speaks at his trial against him. Because of their testimony’s Will is put in jail. He has apparently done this to a few other girls.

This book deals with a very important issue faced by untold numbers of adolescents today. Rape is a topic no one likes to talk about, but it is something that if not discussed could cause great damage to young people in society. This issue needs to be addressed and books like Just Listen and the one we read in class, Speak, need to be available for teens who might face the same situation but not know how to handle what has happened to them. They need to see through characters such as Annabel that being silent is not the answer, speaking out against their predators is the only way to stop that person and hopefully help future victims. With the content being rape and covering some strong relationship issues between friends, families and even boyfriend/girlfriends Just Listen was deemed “too intense for teens” by the Hillsborough County school system in Florida (Doyle 3).

While Just Listen was only banned by the one county in Florida it has received some concern from others; however, it has not made it on a banned list since 2007. This story deals with the struggles of preconceived appearance in people. Annabel was believed to have the ideal life from the outside. Yet, her life was falling apart all around her. On her website Sarah Dessen discusses what prompted her to write this book. She explains that it stemmed from her flipping through a High School yearbook and seeing a “shot of three beautiful girls, obviously sisters, all blonde, posing together by a pool, and even at first glance all [she] could think was that they looked like the kind of girls who had everything” (Dessen). From there she began to form the story of Annabel. The thought that we judge people by what we see without knowing the situations in their lives is so relevant in society today. Between Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and whatever else you want to name our lives are all played out in front of the world in idyllic fashion. The heart of the issue is that most of the posts are not real. Young teens compete to have that perfect picture that will gain them the most attention. They want their life to seem so much better than everyone else around them and Dessen captures this issue by tackling the reality of a teen who otherwise seems to have it all together.

Throughout the book we get a sense that teens are expected to put on a show for everyone around them. Annabel herself does not tell anyone what has happened to her because at home her family is facing other issues with her older sister and at school she is seen as the one who was in the wrong for actions outside of her control. For Annabel hiding what has happened to her seems to be the only option she is left with. No one stops to ask Annabel what has happened to her, no one seems to see the transformation that has taken place with her. This theme in the books is one that plays out in society all too often. A teen becomes withdrawn and many blame it on their age, the hormones, new pressures; however, if you do not ask the teen what is happening with them to cause this transformation you cannot know for sure it is as simple as the normal stereotype.

With this book being challenged it begs the question why would you not want your child to read about these issues and become aware that someone around them, if not they themselves, might be facing these kinds of issues? As a whole, why has society chosen to keep these types of works out of the libraries and off the bookstore shelves? Teens every day and all around the world are faced with the types of issues discussed in Just Listen yet it was challenged for being “too intense”. Rape is a real issue. Many teens know of someone who has been in this situation and because of this book they might be empowered to help them speak out about it. Yet, this book is viewed as too intense. There is a problem greater than censorship when you try to ban books that speak out about the unwanted issues in life. The greater problem is that these situations go un-talked about and unnoticed when not mentioned. That should be the real concern for parents and other authority figures. Not that a book addresses the tough problems faced by teens, but if they do not. Books are a source of information for many young adolescents. Through a fantasy world they are able to read about strong situations that happen in life and are empowered with knowledge about how to handle these situations should they ever arise. If books like Just Listen are taken off the shelves many young adolescence are sent out into the world without any real practical tools for how to address hard times. Sure they are supposed to come to the adults in their lives when these situations happen, but all too often they do not and the books that address the big issues are the ones that just might have the answers they are searching for.

Works Cited

Doyle, Robert P. “Books Challenged or Banned in 2007-2008.” American Library Association, Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

“Just Listen.” Sarah Dessen RSS. Web. 3 Mar. 2016

Dessen, Sarah. Just Listen. New York: Viking Children’s, 2006. Print.

I volunteer as tribute

“The Hunger Games” published in 2008 is a YA novel written by Suzanne Collins that portrays a dystopian society called Panem. Panem is split into twelve districts and two tributes, a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are selected from each district to participate in a fight to the death on live television. The point of these games, known as the Hunger games, is to remind the districts not to rebel. There can only be one winner everyone else has to die. Katniss Everdeen is the protagonist of this story, and during the reaping (the process used to select the tributes) Katniss’ little sister Primrose is selected as one of the tributes from district twelve causing Katniss to volunteer in the place of her sister. The second tribute who was chosen was Peeta Mellark, the son of a baker, who just so happens to have a crush on Katniss. After the reaping all the tributes from each district are taken to the capitol where they are taken through various trainings to discover their strengths in an attempt to highlight these abilities to give them a chance of surviving. Once at the capitol each tribute is given their own personal entourage. The Hunger games are as much about entertainment as they are about issuing a warning to the people of Panem. Each district is known for a specific role or contribution to the capitol. Starting with district 1 they were known for Luxury, they make the beauty goods that decorate the capitol. District 2 represents masonry used for the fortification of the cities. District twelve, the district Katniss and Peeta are from, is known for mining. The reason the representations that each district stands for is important is because the outfits that are designed for the tributes are based upon what their districts are famous for. As I mentioned earlier these games were heavily based on entertainment. If the tributes made a good impression on the audience watching at home, then it was possible for them to get sponsored and that would increase their chances of survival. Supporters had the power to send things to the tributes that they need such as medicines and food. Districts like one and two were at an advantage because they have trades that can be easily displayed in a desirable fashion. However districts such as twelve who have the trade of mining are a bit more difficult to dress up, but fortunately for Katniss she had an excellent entourage and her clothing designer Cinna, who came up with the concept of “The girl on fire” which gained Katniss an immense amount of notice during the tributes first appearance before the audience.
This book portrays several different themes that are significant in the lives of adolescents. A few examples of these themes are identity and society and class. In the beginning of the novel Katniss is defined as a girl with impeccable hunting skills, a dislike for cats, and a deep love for her sister. In fact this love was so deep it caused her to volunteer in her sister’s place, but throughout the games Katniss is forced to portray a different girl on camera to impress the audience at home watching enough to gain supporters. This is reflected in adolescents by their need to be accepted by their peers. Much like Katniss had to put on this façade in front of cameras in order to get people to like her, adolescent children do the same when it comes to being accepted regardless if that is who they truly are. The theme of society and class is represented in this book by the different districts. The districts that were of higher class such as Districts one and two trained their children their whole lives until the age of eligibility and they volunteer for the games. On the contrary, districts like twelve who come from much poorer circumstances view being selected as tribute as death sentence so no one willingly volunteers. This book highlights the unfairness that occurs in the world when you are not on the richer side of society. The way this book portrays adolescents varies depending upon whether one identifies as a career tribute (a tribute from district one or two), or if one identifies as one of the lower districts. Childhood for someone who grew up as a career would drastically differ from that of the childhood of someone coming from one of the other districts. For adolescent children, who come from poor families, the way this book sets up the dynamic between people who have money and those who do not speaks volumes. Much like the Capitol and the wealthier districts in this book, more privileges are afforded to people who have more money than those who do not and adolescent children are aware of where they fall on this spectrum of the “haves” and the “have nots” and if they are the “have nots” unfortunately they do not expect to be granted as much as the “haves”.

According to Stephan Lee, “The Hunger Games” has been challenged because it was deemed as having “anti-ethnic” and “anti-family” themes, “insensitivity, offensive language, occult/satanic, violent, religious viewpoints” and it is unsuited for the age group. I can see where parents would have an issue with the aspect of violence in the book. After all it is essentially children killing other children for the entertainment of the people watching and so the president can make a point about the destruction that rebelling brings. The capitol manipulates the games whenever they are not going the way that President Snow wants them to. President Snow wants to ensure that the games are entertaining for the people at home watching. So whenever he felt that the games were going too slowly, people were not dying quickly enough President Snow had the people who were in charge of the games make them more difficult. The point about the book being anti-family I cannot see where the basis for this argument comes from. If anything this book highlights the importance of family and making sacrifices for them. Katniss took the place of her sister in a fight to the death. She knew that there was a chance that she might not make it out of the games alive, and she was willing to take that chance as long as she knew her little sister was safe at home. Also during the games Katniss met a little girl named Rue, who reminded her of Primrose and she did everything within her ability to protect Rue, and when Rue was killed Katniss made it a point to give Rue a proper funeral. Most parents want their children to have every opportunity they possibly can, and for those opportunities to not even be offered to them because they do not come from a certain social class. “The Hunger Games” is highlighting how people are dealt different hands in life and that because of that hand; this game is a lot harder to play. This idea that this book is highlighting undermines what most parents teach their children which is that they can grow up to be whatever they want to no matter what their circumstances are. “The Hunger Games” challenges that teaching in a way that causes adolescents to look at their individual situations and decide whether they are Careers or if they are like the tributes from districts like twelve. If they are like the tributes from district twelve, then this book also encourages them to fight back against things that tell kids that they have to submit to authorities that tell them that they are less.

Unwind

Unwind, a controversial YA novel written by Neal Shusterman, draws readers in in a very intriguing way. The novel, published in 2007, is a science fiction novel with an unusual setting. The novel is set in a post-second Civil War America, presumably not too far from present day, which was fought over the issue of pro-life versus pro-choice. Now, parents have the option to “unwind” their child once they reach the age of thirteen, and the option of unwinding remains an option for parents until the child reaches the age of eighteen. Unwinding is a process where every body part of the person being unwound is donated to someone in need, or at least given to someone in some way, so while they do not really exist, they are not technically dead.

The novel follows the narration of three main characters- Connor, Risa, and Lev. All three characters have very different circumstances, yet faced with the same fate: they have been ordered to be unwound. Connor’s parents decided to unwind him because of his “violent” behavior, while Risa, who is a ward of the state, is sentenced to be unwound simply because there is not room for her anymore. On the other hand, Lev is meant to be unwound as a “tithe.” His parents, religious people, are tithing him (i.e. human sacrifice) as a part of the “ten percent” they owe to God. Lev was born with the destiny of being unwound at age thirteen. While Connor and Risa would do anything to be kept from being unwound, Lev is under the impression that his unwinding is a work of God: that is, until he meets Connor and Risa. The novel focuses on the three characters lives, and their personal experiences while trying to keep from being unwound.

Though the novel is science fiction, the novel holds a lot of significance for young adolescents in the current day and age. All of the characters in the story are very relatable, in one way for another. Many teens will be able to relate to Connor’s temper and struggling grades in school, Risa’s lack of control in life due to being owned by the state, and Lev’s eventual struggle with his religious parents.

There are also key themes in the text that are something that teens can relate to. For example, today’s young adolescents live, also, in a very divided world. Though nothing such as unwinding exists right now, adolescents hear every day about pro-life versus pro-choice issues. They are berated by opinions that they may or may not agree with, and at this age, there is not much they can do about it. Similarly, there is not a lot that Connor, Risa, and Lev can do about their fate or the world that they were born into. Connor states that, “Everyone knew that an unwind order was irreversible, so screaming and fighting wouldn’t change a thing” (Shusterman 1). Assuredly, many teens can relate and sympathize with Connor, who is essentially having his life taken away due to his inability to control his anger at all times, and his subpar grades in school. Having teens that are able to relate to situations like these makes this part of the text really relevant to readers, and causes them to analyze what could happen in the world if something like unwinding came around. In that aspect, the novel certainly calls these young adolescents to consider the world in which they live.

Risa’s fate also causes readers to relate, and question the world around them. Risa may be owned by the state, but she is also a fantastic pianist. She is gifted, however, that is not enough. When her fate of being unwound is revealed, the main reason that they give is that they have to “cut 5 percent of our teenage population” (4). With overpopulation being an issue in our current world, it is undoubtedly scary for young adolescents to consider something like this ever happening to them, especially for no other reason besides population.

The novel suggests a lot about adolescence to its readers. However, the most prominent may be that adolescence is a difficult time, no matter what year you live in. Though readers today may not have to worry about being unwound come age thirteen, they do have a lot going on in the world around them that they have to deal with. Abortions happen every day, and though they may not be happening in the same manner that these characters are being unwound, they do happen. These are issues that adolescents have to learn to live with, no matter their stance.

The novel also acknowledges that young adolescents do have some power. Yes, they may be young and unable to change major issues in the world, yet they do control part of their own fate. Connor, Rise, and Lev are able to defy their fate in the end. They go to extreme measures to do so- running away, and risking their lives many times. However, after they struggle for months to evade their sentence, they do make somewhat of a difference. In the end of the novel, when Connor has finally defied his fate of being unwound, he dedicates his life to other sentenced to that same fate. He states: “We have a right to our lives” and “We have a right to choose what happens to our own bodies” (46). Though adolescents today may not be risking their lives to support or protest abortion, Shusterman is still showing adolescents that they can make a difference in some way, though they may be young.

There are obviously many reasons that this book has been banned, or viewed as controversial. In the ALA short list of banned books for 2009-2010, they state that parents have complained about the novel containing “foul language and cover topics – including sex, child abuse, suicide, and drug abuse” (Doyle 8). The novel has also been viewed as controversial because of what it seems to say about abortion, and the implications of that. However, it could be argued that any young adolescent novel that is to be viewed as realistic contains some of these aspects. All of these issues are things that adolescents today are going to have to deal with, and therefore the opportunity to immerse in versions of them should not be hindered. A young adolescent in any school will hear and be immersed in situations that are not what their parents may consider “appropriate,” yet parents do not complain about these kinds of things. For this reason, it seems incredulous to rationalize Unwind being banned due to controversial themes it may hold.

Unwind, in its own way, seems to say that these kinds of issues matter, and readers should be able to read about a world where these kinds of things could happen. While Unwind may have controversial themes, it is important for the reader to understand that while the novels portrays a certain kind of construct of adolescent- troubled, unwanted, or even sacrificial- it is not saying that every adolescent will be put into this situation. Rather, in a way, Unwind shows that the expectations for adolescents may be too high. Giving a young adult a fate of being unwound for something as simple as a bad grade could be revealing that society today is too hard on the adolescents, and the novel could act as a reason that these expectations should not be set so high. Unwind, as whole, works to show young adolescents that they do have power, and also works to expose them to real world types of situations. Despite its controversies over characters and themes, Unwind is an important read for adolescents. It really implores a world in which abortion is constructed in a new way, and encourages these young readers to really put themselves in the characters situations.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Doyle, Robert P. “Books Challenged or Banned in 2009-2010.” Ala.org. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.

Shusterman, Neal. Unwind. New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2007. Print.

 

The Dreaded Word: “Cancer”

Jackie Comerford

The Fault In Our Stars

            Many have probably read the book, The Fault in Our Stars, or have seen the movie. It’s a story written by John Green about young adolescents that have been diagnosed with cancer, and tells the heart-pulling story of love. Many wonder why they should read a story that sounds like the typical Nicholas Sparks books. The answer is simple. It’s because it involves more than just cancer and young adolescence. John Green writes about adolescence that experiences a love that is hard to describe, and tells the story of living with cancer. These teens experience hardships and experiences that people will never understand. The book involves the reader getting wrapped up in this adventure and has the reader feeling what Hazel and Augustus are feeling.

Hazel Lancaster is a 17 year old that was diagnosed with Stage 4 Thyroid cancer with metastasis forming in her lungs. She is able to breathe with an oxygen tank that she must carry around at all times. Hazels is told by her mother to start attending a support group that is filled with teens diagnosed with cancer. Little did Hazel know that one session would change her life. She ended up meeting an interesting guy named Augustus Waters and that is the start to a love that is hard to imagine. Hazel learns from Augustus on how to be happy and live her life to the fullest potential, while Augustus learns from Hazel to truly love someone, and think about life as a whole. There romance has taught them both what it means to live a happy life with cancer, and to have someone that they truly care about. But like any romance story, there are trials and tribulations. Hazel and Augustus both have issues when it comes to having cancer. They are both expected to have issues with their health, and this causes one of them to see what it feels like to truly lose something they love. This story teaches children to live life to the fullest potential, and to enjoy what you have in life.

John Green, author of the novel and also known for his YouTube videos for history of “CrashCourse,” published the novel in January of 2012 (Wikipedia 1). This is the “sixth novel by John Green” (1). A couple years after being published, it was soon picked up to become a movie. On June 6, 2014 the book was released into theaters around America (1). Many people began liking the novels of John Green, and eventually they all became increasingly popular. Most young adolescence read these books because they are more relatable to them. John Green has made the characters young adolescence and have problems that are similar to the characters in the story. They involve signs of depression, family problems, and of course romance. Young adolescence want books that they can relate to characters with or wish they could have. The main significance to the world it has is that it involves a topic that is very controversial. Talking about having cancer, let alone writing about it when one does not have it leads parents on a very thin line. Students are never exposed to what someone with cancer has to face, or understands what having cancer can do to one with cancer. John Green was able to incorporate a book that has multiple cases of cancer, and shows the world that these children can do just about anything. Cancer is not something that should be hidden or someone should tread lightly around, but gives students the idea that they are just like everyone else, except they have a sickness they are fighting against everyday. People should treat others the same way, and know that they are the strongest people one can meet. That is the significance to the world. It is making a statement.

A major theme presented in the novel is the theme of “death.” Death is a common theme for everything she does. Doctors continually tell Hazel that “we’d see tumor growth on the scans, which we don’t see. So it’s not that yet.’ Yet, I thought” (Green 82). They also like to tell Hazel “we don’t really understand the long-term effects of Phalanxifor (this is the medicine she is on) (83). This theme has defined all the characters in the support group because they are all living with cancer. It is a terrifying reality for these children because they are constantly being restricted from what others can do or being told depressing things. Many of the children in the novel are dealing with issues of curiosity of when death will come for them. For Hazel, a scare made her question when she was actually going to die. She was asleep when she realized something was wrong. She was in serious pain and could not breath. The pain was so serve that normally people will get knocked out and go unconscious, but she did not (75). Hazel explained the pain as “[i]n that moment, I would have been very, very happy to die (76).

The book defines adolescence as being the adults. Hazel remembers her mother wanting her to stay, but telling her to move on. Hazel did whatever her parents wanted because they were dealing with their daughter with cancer. One night, Hazel had enough and explained to her mother that “you were the one who didn’t want me to be a homebody” when she was wanting to see Augustus (172). Hazel fights with her mother and explains to her that “I worry that you won’t have a life, that you’ll sit around here all day with no me to look after and stare at the walls and want to off yourself” (201). Hazel acts as the parent worrying about her mother, but then she realizes her mother will be okay. Her mother explains that she is enrolled in classes to become someone who helps grieving parents with children of cancer (201). This reassures Hazel that her mother is actually going to be okay.

As stated in the second paragraph, the issue of talking about cancer is very controversial. Many believe that if cancer is talked about, it is bad. The world has been taught that if someone has a deadly illness, one cannot mention it because it is rude. Cancer is something that many people develop in the United States. During a study “In 2012, there were an estimated 13,776,251 people living with all cancer sites in the United States” (Surveillance 1). With that many people having cancer, it should be okay to talk about it. People feel they should not talk about cancer because they feel bad for those who have been diagnosed with it. Not speaking about it is worse than speaking about it because many children do not understand cancer. Most people in general do not understand cancer unless they themselves have been diagnosed with it, or know someone close to them who have. Without the proper knowledge of cancer, young adolescence will not know how to deal with being diagnosed themselves or having someone close to them get diagnosed. Not being informed will involve children being confused and hurt by the idea of cancer all around.

The Fault in Our Stars is a book that reminds individuals that it is okay to mention cancer. Most individuals have it, and the idea of not mentioning it is worse that mentioning it. Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters relationship gives young adolescence the opportunity to learn something about a disease and relate to characters their own age. This book is important to young adolescence because it gives them the opportunity to learn about something people are afraid to talk about. This is a heart-crushing tale that young adolescence can read and enjoy.

Works Cited

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton, 2012. Print.

“Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program.” National Cancer Institute. Surveillance Research Program, n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.

“The Fault in Our Stars.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2016. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.