As a teacher I like to be up to date with what my students are reading and talking about. Over the past few years I have noticed an increase in the number of fictional novels being published that champion the idea of young people fighting against each other in the fight for survival. The novels that I am specifically referring to in this post are:
- Hungers Game: Trailer
Image from: KPBS Book Review
- The Maze Runner: Trailer
Image from: According to Brie
- Divergent: Trailer
Image from: extra
These novels are all part of a series and have all since been made into movies. They have been extremely well received by teenagers and often have associated Fandoms (a topic discuss in my next blog post called: What’s popular? Fandoms).
For those that haven’t read the books or seen the movies, these stories often involve young people becoming entrenched in some form of battle between other young people or a type of governmental figure head. They regularly face the moral dilemma of “kill or be killed” and often have emotional repercussions to deal with.
My issue is this:
Is our society really at the point where young people are needed to be warned and taught about the experience of taking someone’s life, even if it is the “right thing to do?” Dealing with dwindling hope and not getting that perfect, happy ending that we have grown up believing is possible for everyone?
Please don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the books myself. I fell in love with characters and became emotionally invested in their struggles. However, I do wonder at the factors leading to authors writing novels with underlying values such as this.
The actual themes of the novels, such as faith, strength, justice, friendship, love, teamwork, etc., are a very welcome inclusion into today’s popular culture trends. However, I often wonder about the setting in which these themes are portrayed.
Of course, I could be overreacting to the whole issue. However, I do remember vividly being at the premiere of The Hunger Games and at the end, the majority of the audience cheering for the survival of Katniss and Peeta, not seeming to understand that:
- They haven’t actually won
- The fight for their survival continues
- Killing someone will haunt them for the rest of their lives
- Their hope is dwindling
- They do not believe that they will ever get a happy ending
I suppose then that authors may feel the need to try and educate the youth of today regarding some of these slightly more sensitive issues. It is certainly something that contrasts with the “once upon a time stories” and “happily ever afters” that we are so used to seeing. Perhaps this is exactly what our society needs, a good dose of reality that says:
Life is never easy. Not everyone will get their happy ending. You can only hope that during these trying times, whatever they may be, you find love, friendship, faith, justice, teamwork and strength, just like the characters in these novels.
Youth, Popular Culture & Text: Assignment 2 
I definitely understand your concerns Krystal, I don’t think teens have the emotional intelligence to deal with some of the ramifications of the character’s actions in these books, but I also think that the “fighting” is actually a metaphor for the struggle and inner turmoil teens may be feeling within themselves at this point in their lives. Being able to read about and explore these things in a safe environment such as a book is really important. The high school as “hell” trope for example has been most famously (in my opinion!) used by Joss Whedon in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series where the lead character week after week faced vampires, demons and other various mystical baddies which were really a metaphor for all the struggles one can face in high school. I think this quote by Joss really sums up how I feel about “horror” and dark material in YA books and on film.
“I think there’s a lot of people out there who say we must not have horror in any form, we must not say scary things to children because it will make them evil and disturbed… That offends me deeply, because the world is a scary and horrifying place, and everyone’s going to get old and die, if they’re that lucky. To set children up to think that everything is sunshine and roses is doing them a great disservice. Children need horror because there are things they don’t understand. It helps them to codify it if it is mythologized, if it’s put into the context of a story, whether the story has a happy ending or not. If it scares them and shows them a little bit of the dark side of the world that is there and always will be, it’s helping them out when they have to face it as adults.” Joss Whedon.
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Your response reminded me of the article about Gothic Literature and how it helps young people deal with the horrors in our world. It points out that the monsters in the story are no longer considered ‘scary’ compared to the monsters of our world. It also states that young people need to learn to create resilient identities, therefore getting young people used to these monsters and no longer scared of them could make them more resilient to the real horrors.
Carrignton, V. (2011). The contemporary Gothic: Literacy and childhood in unsettled times. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. doi: 10.1177/1468798411417373 pp. 1-18.
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