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?
In the Young Adult book, "13 Reasons Why", written by Jay Asher, Clay Jensen finds himself in a far from desirable situation. His former classmate, Hannah Baker, who just recently took her life, leaves him along with 13 other kids tapes describing how they are each somehow responsible for her suicide. The book takes place mainly over a span of one night, filled with truths being revealed, rumors proved wrong, and an unimaginable amount of regret because of the words uttered from now dead Hannah Baker.
The tapes lead readers through the story, with Hannah's "voice" shaping the story's plot arc. The author's writing style is very poetic, with a great deal of thought provoking imagery. One of the lines spoken by Hannah on the tapes is particularly meaningful, as she describes the feeling of having someone she thought of as a friend choose to believe rumors over her own word. This line, "…It's more than a scratch. It's a punch in the stomach and a slap in the face. It's a knife in my back because you would rather believe some made-up rumor than what you knew to be true.", represents both the arc of the story, as well as messages conveyed throughout the whole book.
I think this line really shows the arc of the story and how the plot builds towards the climax. For example, the idea of the growing pain, going from a punch to a slap to a knife in the back, represents how increasingly worse and worse issues in Hannah Baker's life got. At the beginning of the book, Hannah is still optimistic, with no intention of taking her life, or having no reason to. Throughout the story, each of the 13 classmates' actions seem to grow more harmful, causing Hannah to feel more and more pain. The story goes from her being invaded by a creepy kid taking pictures of her in her house, to her almost being raped. These are obviously two extremely different invasions, and show the surreal increase in the seriousness and pain Hannah suffered. By the end, in the story she says, "The night was over. I was done." This clearly shows how easy it is for one issue to build on top of the other until life is too much to handle.
Also, these escalating circumstance really shows how one person's actions effect another's, and how that can spiral into something horrible. This is clearly shown within the story when one of the teens on the list, Justin Foley, reappears throughout Hannah's narrative. He is the start of the tapes, her first kiss; the boy who decided to spread a rumor making a simple kiss appear as something scandalous. His actions made other people make judgements about the kind of person Hannah was. Even Clay, the narrator and main character, says that when he heard things about her he thought "she was building quite a reputation in a short amount of time." The fact that Clay Jensen, a really sweet guy, came to this conclusion displays the influence a rumor can have. Later, the whole story comes back to Justin again, where Hannah witnesses him raping another girl. This is close to Hannah's breaking point, and it shows how she got to that point of being so miserable with her life from the simple rumor in the beginning of the book. The author uses this as a lesson, showing that your actions have much greater consequences that what you could imagine.
This line also represents a bigger picture; it sums up the idea of teen suicide. Issues build on top of each other that cause teens to go down into an unimaginably deep depression, which they can no longer be pulled out of. The line says, "… you rather believe a made-up rumor than what you knew to be true." This line really acts as a lesson and message that applies to the whole story. The idea that believing a rumor is a choice is really powerful. The idea that YOU yourself make the decisions in YOUR OWN life is something that everyone could learn from.
I think teens who read this book can really use the lessons and themes shown in that line in their own life. Being able to choose whether you want to "be the bigger person" or just be a follower is a choice that almost everybody is faced with at one point or another in their lives. It is so important for us to understand the consequences of our actions, and have the ability to stand up and make a change. Especially when you see someone suffering, it is our job to help them out of that dark place before it gets to a point where no one can do anything any more. This book shows the way problems in life escalate, and unless someone steps in, it can get to an unimaginably dark point.
"Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood", by Sherman Alexie, argues that young adult books are the most powerful books because they are the ones that get teens reading: teens can relate to them, escape from their lives with them, and seek advice from YA literature. Sherman Alexie goes into detail on how shielding teens from YA fiction is only shielding them from issues they are already dealing with in their lives. To support this idea, Alexie passionately disagrees with Meghan Cox Gurdon's article, "Darkness Too Visible" which defends the opposing argument that YA books should be banned. He makes multiple points in his argument, such as that taking away these books is like trying to shield poor kids from the idea of poverty. Alexie also relates back to his own experiences to enforce his ideas. He recounts a recent visit to a high school, where he heard "individually tragic” and "collectively agonizing" stories from teenagers about their own lives. These real life stories support the position that many young adults are experiencing the very issues that the critics feel should not be published for those same young people to read. Alexie also discusses an interaction with a young man whose father wanted him to become a solder and join the military, while he himself wanted to be a writer. He uses this situation to make readers understand how ridiculous it is that if a boy is "old enough to die and kill for his county" and "old enough to experience the infinite horrors of war", some still feel he is too young to read a YA book that describes those same infinite horrors.
The author's passionate writing style causes me to think that the opposing argument is ridiculous. He wants readers to think it is unfair of people to suggest that books containing such raw, dark material should be banned. One powerful way Alexie gets his point across is by describing, in detail, his own youth, and the positive effect YA books could have had on him. For example, he describes, "When I think of the poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish… that I'd been given the opportunity to read 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' (written by Sherman Alexie himself) … or 'Speak'." Both books are filled with the young adult issues being critiqued, such as tragedy, self- harm, abuse, and sexual content. Understanding this connection to his own personal struggles makes me feel sympathetic to him, and it really brings home his point that YA books can create an escape and a source of advice for teens experiencing similar issues. Sherman Alexie also really enforces his ideas and opinion by just simply throwing opposing ideas back at Meghan Cox Gurdon. For example, he says, "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 had been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?" Alexie's passion is like a slap of reality, making me get passionate and worked up over the injustices in the world. By making the tone of the piece so forceful and filled with honest passion, he wants to make readers think that it is ridiculous to ban books that only echo the realities of what many young adults suffer through.
After reading this article, I went from being slightly unsure of whether banning books may be a good thing, to feeling passionately that it is absolutely ridiculous. As Sherman Alexie so brilliantly put it, "They (cultural critics) aren't trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists. No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children". If YA fiction allows teenagers who struggle with pressing issues in their everyday lives to have an escape, or a way to relate and seek advice from something, then why would anyone suggest taking these books away from them? Why make their already hard lives harder to struggle through? This article so clearly shows that banning books won't protect teenagers from issues already present in their lives. They are too late for that. The only thing left to do is to give them something to grasp onto for help and reassurance. And that is exactly what these YA books provide.
In the story, "Faithful Elephants" by Yukio Tsuchiya, the cherry blossoms carry significant meaning throughout the passage. "Faithful Elephants" is a heartbreaking story told by a zoo employee in present day at Ueno Zoo in Japan. The story takes place during World War II, a time during which the United States was dropping bombs on Japan, and Ueno Zoo was in danger. In fear that a bomb would hit the zoo, releasing animals from their cages, the zookeepers had no choice but to kill the animals. The story focuses in on three elephants; John, Tonky, and Wanly, who were slowly and painfully starved to death.
In the beginning of the story, the author describes the cherry blossoms that are in "full bloom" at the zoo. In this part of the text, the blossoms represent a hopeful, light mood, before any of the pain from the past is revisited. The author writes, "Their petals are falling in the soft breeze and sparkling in the sun," By using the words "soft breeze" and "sparkling", the author is creating a very quaint, peaceful mood, which contrasts significantly to the other moods presented later in the story. I think that the reason the author uses cherry blossoms as this beautiful setting in the beginning is to really differentiate the past and present.
Throughout the story, the mood switches, and as the elephants are being killed, the setting changes to a painful mood and environment. At the end of the story, the author powerfully shows this change in mood through the description of the cherry blossoms as falling on the ground "like snowflakes".
I think this line really shows the author's attempt to contrast the multiple moods and feelings in the passage. As we know from the beginning, cherry blossoms are a very sweet, peaceful, beautiful object, whereas snow can give off a cold, harsh feeling. Winter is a time of death in nature- although a snowflake still signals something beautiful. This contrast makes me think of a bittersweet ending; although it is peaceful now, the past was far from it.
Another thing that the cherry blossoms represent to me is the passage of time. The idea of a tree changing with the seasons is a visual sign of time going by. When the cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the beginning of the story, the atmosphere is very different. The mood is much softer, and by the time the blossoms fall at the end, the mood has completely changed, and it feels as though a significant amount of time has passed as well.
I think that what makes this story so beautiful and powerful is that there is so much meaning in the simplest things. It makes me realize how much beauty and emotion can be held in little things in our everyday lives.
"Faithful Elephants" also makes me appreciate the world I live in, which is much like the world at the beginning of the story. Our world changes over time and as years and generations pass, it is important to keep the past alive, even though it may cause us pain. This story shows the meaning in our everyday life, and how lucky we are to live in the world we do, where every day, at least in America, we do not face the fear of praying a bomb won’t be dropped on our heads.
After reading about half of "The Member of the Wedding", written by Carson McCullers, I realized just how complex Frankie's character was. The author does an amazing job of developing this girl, who seems like such a normal 12 year old, who in fact is this obsessive person. Frankie is completely bored with her life. Every day she sits at her table with John Henry and Berenice, her black maid, playing cards and drinking cold cups of lemonade. This does not nearly satisfy Frankie. She longs for an adventure, longs to get out of her home and go somewhere. She is not sure where- no one is quite sure what's on Frankie's mine, truthfully not even Frankie herself. But as soon as she hears about the upcoming marriage of her brother, suddenly it is as though Frankie herself was asked to be married. The author does an excellent job slowly developing and increasing this obsession with her brother's marriage.
What begins as just excitement slowly turns into almost an addiction as the days come nearer and nearer to her brother's wedding. Frankie is so caught up in her own head, telling herself and convincing herself that she is indeed going to be a part of it. It is almost as though she believes they will have a triple marriage, with her being the third. Frankie is such a complex character, so it is hard to tell exactly how aware she is. She is a seemingly smart girl, but when it comes to this wedding, she acts as though she is the most clueless person. I would say she is self absorbed- but it's not in an obnoxious way. It's more oblivious- oblivious of the fact that this wedding does not revolve around her. For example, Frankie "changes" her name to F. Jasmine so that her initials can match those of both her brother and his soon to be wife. Frankie also talks excessively about her idea of going on the honeymoon with the bride and groom. In the text she says, "I love the two of them so much. We'll go to every place together. It's like I've known it all my life, that I belong to be with them. I love the two of them so much." If you ask me, anyone who speaks about another couple getting married like this has to be obsessed, and possibly a little crazy.
However, I do understand Frankie's motives for the behavior. I mean, she lives in a small town, doing the same, slow things every day. Frankie is just looking for a way out of her everyday life, and when the wedding comes along, she sees it as that way out. This is where the author does such a great job of building her obsession-- starting with just an interest and turning it into an addiction. Overall, Frankie being a 12 year old and having such a passionate feeling about something that doesn't involve her shows what an interesting character she is. The book is beautifully written, and almost gets to the point where it is haunting how obsessive Frankie is with her brother's wedding.
