The book, "The Secret Life of Bees", by Sue Monk Kidd, follows the adventure of 14 year-old Lily Owens, an isolated and insecure white girl living in South Carolina in the 1960s. When Lily was four years old, she accidentally shot and killed her mother, and ended up alone with her abusive father who she calls, "T. Ray". Lily is a complicated girl, afraid of lacking beauty and femininity as she grows up. She believes her mother is watching over her, and still loves her from wherever she ended up. Lily's housekeeper, Rosaleen, who helped raise her when her mother was no longer alive, is a feisty black Southern woman, who continuously pushes limits for the time period. One day Rosaleen gets herself into trouble with a group of white men, and is put into the hospital before being sent to jail. Before this can happen however, Lily helps her escape the hospital, and together they run away so that Lily can escape T. Ray and find out more about her mother. They end up at a beekeeper's house belonging to three black women named August, May, and June. As time progresses, Lily learns her own mother once stayed at this house. Throughout the story, more complex issues of racism and injustice of the time period come through.
Towards the beginning of the book, the whole plot line is set up when Rosaleen gets into a fight with a group of white men. Rosaleen and Lily had gone into town where they ran into three white men who began to taunt Rosaleen. Already, the power struggle in this situation was a more complex issue actually happening. Clearly, Rosaleen was struggling to attempt to be equal to these men, but because of the time period, race was an overpowering issue which completely put Rosaleen at a disadvantage.
As Rosaleen got fed up with the men in this part of the book, she poured her chewing-tobacco juice onto their shoes, which only made the situation worse. These men called the police and freaked out, attacking her. The police said, "You're under arrest… Assault, theft, and disturbing the peace." Rosaleen did not steal anything, she did not physically assault anyone, and the ones who really disturbed the peace were the white men, who started the whole fight. This just shows how racist people used to be. Although the author doesn't come out and say, "The police man was mean to Rosaleen because she was black", it is so clearly obvious that if she was white, she would have been judged and treated much less harshly than she was in fact treated.
This situation makes me wonder about the more complex issues happening. One obvious one would be discrimination; obviously the men reacted differently because this woman was black. In South Carolina in the 1960s, race was such an overwhelmingly judgmental issue; it controlled people's minds and views of others. Later in the book, a police man stops by the house where Lily is staying with August, May, June, and Rosaleen, and he inquires why she is alone with four black women. He also warns her she better get out of that house, because if he comes back and finds her still living there, he won't be happy. This scene shows how the expectations of the time period really distorted people's views of what was "right". This police man wasn't necessarily a bad person. Perhaps he was a great guy, and his only flaw was that he let the racial problems of the time influence him. That makes me question whether that itself is what determined true character back then- whether a person was strong and smart enough to know better than to be influenced, and in fact take a stand against what was clearly wrong.
I also wonder if gender played a role in the situation. Would it have been different if Rosaleen was a man? Even if she was black? Even today these physical characters are so overpowering in a horrible way. People still, in some parts of the world, believe that men should be treated as less then woman. Some people still view African Americans as foreigners.
It's stunning, and somewhat appalling to me that someone could still go through life with that perspective. The history and the cruel events that have taken place contain thousands of examples for why it's cruel and disgusting to be someone who looks down on others because of race. In my life, I live in a community that is so incredibly diverse and accepting, I could never imagine living in a world like Lily Owens did.
"Writers today feel the real freedom to write what they want, light or dark." (Levithan,Teen Fiction Plots are Darker and Starker) Literature has grown and changed as time moves forward. With that, Young Adult fiction has become increasingly darker to match the reality of the time period. What once might have been a graveyard knifing is now a person taking a knife to them self because of the endless amount of torture in their school and home lives. These newer, dark issues seem to pose as threats to some parents and critics; that this will negatively affect their child's life and mind. In reality however, these books only speak truth about the many troubling realities Young Adults face in our world today. Access to these books dealing with dark issues should not be limited because it creates awareness among those who need them, and gives teens struggling with similar issues something to relate to. Preventing access to books does not help teens but rather hurts them in the end.
YA books make teens more aware of the consequences of their actions. Access to books about suicide, for example, open teens' eyes up to the dramatic effect of bullying. It shows them that their actions, which they may view as small and trivial, are actually a much bigger deal. In the YA book "13 Reasons Why" written by Jay Asher, it shows how simple bullying adds up to catastrophe. Hannah Baker records tapes explaining why a certain 13 classmates are responsible for her suicide. Clay Jensen, a name on that list, listens to the tapes, and through him, readers see just how unraveling and traumatizing it is to hear you're responsible for a suicide. This dramatic story can set an example of the effect of your actions and how you might not be aware of them. Another example is in the article "Has YA Fiction Become Too Dark", the author writes, "We read… to learn." We learn lessons from YA fiction. We learn to not take our lives for granted. We learn that the reality is some teens suffer through the same issues these characters do. YA fiction acts as a teacher, creating awareness about your actions and reality.
In addition, books dealing with dark issues should not be limited because it gives teens struggling with similar issues something to relate to. For example, in “Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood" Sherman Alexie discusses a teen mom, who wanted to graduate high school, but had to deal with her pregnancy. Now, years later, she's a mother and managed to become a high school graduate. Clearly, this is reality; teen pregnancies do happen. So why should we pretend they don't by taking away books about it? Also, in the same article, Sherman Alexie writes about his past: "When I think of the poverty stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish… I'd been given the opportunity to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (written by Sherman Alexie himself). YA fiction acts as a guide and a point of reference for teens who need some reassurance that they aren't alone. A final example is in "Teen Fiction Plots are Darker and Starker", in which William Porter writes that reading YA fiction is a way of dealing with the present, but through a fictional story. Teens need a way to feel like someone else understands what they are going through. YA books in this way can save young adults from spiraling into a lonely depression.
Alternatively, some critics are troubled by the content in YA fiction. Meghan Cox Gurdon, author of "Darkness Too Visible" for example, feels strongly that the dark and agonizing issues are too much for “kids” to handle. She says it’s too much for them to handle- but wait, didn’t we just come to the conclusion already that many teens have suffered similar issues as characters in the books? So is Meghan Cox Gurdon suggesting they can't handle their lives? Maybe that’s so, but in that case, that is the exact reason YA books are so necessary to help teens understand what they are going through. As Sherman Alexie writes, "Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she 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?" Are we really protecting them by taking away these books, or just turning a blind eye on reality?
All in all, access to YA books dealing with dark issues should not be limited because not only do they make teens aware of their actions, but also because it may help them struggle through their own lives. Dark issues are not the problem. If they were, then some teens' lives should be banned. The real problem is people's inability to understand the needs of teens who deal with such heavy topics. And because of this inability, teens turn to these YA books to get through their lives when they can't turn to a person. So if we ban these YA books, what will be left for struggling teens to turn to?
