Respond to "Darkness to Visible"

            In the article “Darkness Too Visible,” Megan Cox Gurdon discusses how young adult literature isn’t for teens. Gurdon feels that young adult literature is too dark and she shows the reader this by using examples from specific books. For example, she mentions the books The Marbury Lens and Rage. Gurdon argues that there are no appropriate young adult books on shelves today.

            In the article Gurdon talks about several books. In the part that my group annotated she talks about how in the book The Marbury Lens, “Young Jack is drugged, abducted and nearly raped by the male captor.” The reason why she put this description in was to show the reader how inappropriate young adult literature  can be. Another way that Gurdon gets her point across is by using imagery. “’She sliced her arms to ribbons, but the badness remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had gouged her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she still couldn’t breathe.’” This quote is from the book Rage and the purpose of using this quote in the article is to show the reader how gruesome books can be. Lastly, Gurdon helped make her point by using sophisticated language. For example, in describing these books she uses words such as “unimaginable gore and cruelty,” “nightmarish,” “sadistic sexual prank,” “tortured adolescent,” “emotional turbulence” and many more.  This helped Gurdon show the reader that there is some pretty terrible material in young adult literature that teens are reading.

            Are there really no suitable young adult books for teens? I don’t think so. In the whole article, Gurdon mentions twelve books and I’ve only read two of them. This proves that the books that she mentioned aren’t necessarily books that teens are reading right now. Additionally, young adult books are written for young adults and not once does Gurdon mention what teens thought about these books. All in all, Megan Cox Gurdon proved a strong argument, but young adult literature isn’t as bad as she said it is.

Hate List Reading Response

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

                                                                                                                                    -Nelson Mandela

            In life, time and time again, people fall apart but the hard part is picking yourself back up. Falling down is never fun, but that doesn’t mean that you should be afraid of recovering. Last year whenever I was having any problems I would try to face them head on instead of shying away from them. In Hate List, by Jennifer Brown, the author portrays the main character, Valerie and her struggle in the aftermath of a school shooting. Valerie’s boyfriend, Nick, took the “hate list” that they had made of the people who they hated. Nick shot people who are on the list, as well as shooting himself. Throughout the book, Valerie deals with people not understanding that she didn’t do anything to hurt anyone. Even people close to her realize this. In this book, Valerie is exposed to many very difficult experiences that cause her pain, but she is able to overcome them.

            Pain is something that we all experience in our lives at some point or another. Pain is inevitable. Therefore, “Just like there’s always time for pain, there’s always time for healing” (p.273). Consequently, you can always get back on your feet after falling down. Moving on, no matter how hard, is always very important. If you don’t more on with life you will miss all of the great opportunities that it has in store for you. In life, we should try to make the best of our lives as well as making our lives fun and enjoyable. Once Valerie was able to go back to school and make friends she was more satisfied with her life.

            However pain is not always feeling hurt physically, it can also be feeling hurt emotionally. Because of what happened Valerie was thinking, “I didn’t want those people dead…And you never would’ve never even known about that list had Nick not lost it. But Nick lost it, not me! Not me!” (p.301) This pain that Valerie is feeling is that no one understands her. Even Valerie’s parents don’t really believe her or trust her. Her dad thinks she should go back to a mental hospital and her mom is just uneasy around her. This makes Valerie feel even worse about herself and because of this, Valerie’s inner pain becomes even stronger then it was before.

            Valerie experiences a lot of pain throughout the book, whether it is being shot by her boyfriend or having to face many people who are angry at her or who think she is guilty. But Valerie is able to cope with this pain, she doesn’t just let the pain get the better of her. I believe that in life we shouldn’t just focus on our inner suffering, but instead try to move past it and live life to the fullest. In the book, Valerie overcomes her loneliness and anger by going back to school and moving on. Overcoming fears is harder then it seems. In my life, up to this point, I haven’t been able to overcome any of my bigger fears. After reading Hate List I’ve realized how essential it is to overcome your fears. In the end, being able to cope with pain helps in getting through the hardships that one has experienced throughout life.