Room at the Top

What Literature should adolescents read?

Without a doubt I feel that adolescents need to be indulged in literature that not only deals with issues they struggle with, but issues that are often viewed as controversial. Today many YA novels are challenged and many are banned because of inappropriate material, but what the naïve people who challenge these books need to realize is that the inappropriate material in the novel is found everyday in the hallways, it is simply unavoidable. The best way for teens to deal with issues such as drugs, sex, and partying is to be educated about them, and besides the obvious resources such as parents, literature is a key source that puts characters in realistic situations in which the reader can identify with. For example my YA group just finished The Outsiders, a book that deals with gangs, murder, and drugs and alcohol. While exposure to these issues may seem detrimental to our youth, they are bound to deal with them someday, so in order for teens to make the right decision when need be they with have the proper information to make the right decision because of an experience that a character they read about might have had.
On the website www.ala.org a list of the most frequently challenged books is given, and after looking into a few of these books the reasons were very similar to the three I listed earlier along with the addition of profanity and the issue of death or murder. For example the book that topped the chart was “The Chocolate War” and the reasoning was because of sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoints, and violence. The problem that I find here is that I dealt with every one of these issues by the 9th grade, and the problem was I had never had to deal with anything like that before so I was totally clueless when confronted by different people and the issues they brought with them. If I simply had been exposed to books such as “The Chocolate War” then I would have made better decisions when confronted by these people, but because so many books that dealt with these issues were banned I knew so little.
Another book that was mentioned was “Go Ask Alice,” which is very similar to another book that I have read entitled “Jay’s Journal.” Both stories involve teens who spiral into a pit of drugs, promiscuous sex, and in Jay’s case Satan worship. Now these books are definitely risky and contain material that teens shouldn’t be dealing with, but once again we need to be realistic. There is no sense in fighting a cause that will always be around, but instead we should try and work with the students and show the aftermath of their decisions with these books before it is too late. Sure the books both are dark and deep, rather disturbing really, but in every town across America there are students experiencing the same problems that Alice and Jay experienced, we need to find ways to reach them. Throwing them the typical 8th and 9th grade books is worthless, the students will fail to connect to any character, lose interest considering they ever had interest, and eventually stop reading altogether. We need to keep literature that is interesting and helpful to students in their hands; I can not state enough that we simply need to be realistic.

Ann’s research into the idea of gangs and bullying really intrigued me as I often realize that these issues will probably never be solved, however that is no excuse to try and cure as many socials issues and gaps as we can. I was never part of a gang, I lived in the country and the closest thing to crime and delinquency was shoplifting. Teachers in my school were extremely fortunate to not have to deal with endless fights and social outbreaks, but I realize that someday I may have to be prepared for that type of behavior, so I often wonder what will I do, how will I handle it? The website http://www.bullyonline.org/schoolbully/school.htm really offers a lot of information that does not necessarily provide physical procedures for outbreaks in school, but rather offers a teacher information as to why students act the way they do, and more times than none it is because the student’s life at home. Whether it be neglect or abuse, students often are simply reaching out for attention, releasing frustration, or simply modeling what they are use to seeing. So why is Ponyboy so different, why is he such a good student, I mean if my parents were both killed and I was left in the hands of an older brother I am sure my social conduct would go downhill. Well the answer is Darry. As much as Ponyboy complains about how hard he is on him, Darry is simply making sure Ponyboy remains not only a good student but a good person as well. The character of Darry really reveals to the reader that a good role-model is extremely important in the upbringing of a teenager.

“It was real nice night. I guess I was still out of shape, because we all three tied. No. I guess we all just wanted to stay together.”

These lines spoken by Ponyboy may seem relatively minor to some, but they really hit in an interesting way due to the fact that I could not imagine having to say to myself that the only people I had were my siblings. Many readers may not take the situation of Ponyboy and his brothers very seriously because after all the book is fiction, but there are hundreds of homes that resemble the Curtis’ all over our country and there are hundreds of fourteen year old boys telling themselves that the only people they have left are their brothers. When we put our selves in Ponyboy’s shoes and really try and imagine life without our parents or grandparents or even aunts and uncles who all love us then this quote’s significance is revealed. Besides a great sense of pity towards Ponyboy we too need to have a great deal of respect for not only him but both of his brothers as well. For example Darry; I cannot imagine having to quit college and work everyday of my life just to put my little sisters through high school, especially with the potential that Darry apparently had. And even though Soda didn’t have the potential Darry did he still could have made it further than working in a garage, but no, he was there everyday solely for Ponyboy, and that really allows me to appreciate the lifestyle I live and my parents as well.

Without surprise spark notes focuses primarily on idea of the gap between the rich and the poor in The Outsiders as well as other obvious themes such as loyalty amongst friends and guy-girl relationships. However the information I found most intriguing was the motif of eye shape and eye color in the story. I never realized how reoccurring the descriptions came about of each character’s eyes, and after reading all the examples spark notes gives the fact is obvious that Hinton is really placing importance on the appearance of her character’s eyes. The short paragraph states, “Characters’ eyes represent key facets of their personalities. For example, Darry and Dally—the two boys with whom Ponyboy feels the least comfortable—have icy blue eyes. Dally’s eyes, in particular, are narrow. The narrator considers these two characters to be hard, even heartless, and the narrowness and cool hues of their eyes reflect their invulnerability. Hinton repeatedly defines Johnny Cade, on the other hand, by his wide, brown eyes. In correspondence with his eye shape and color, Johnny is generally nervous, gentle, and vulnerable to attack.”
After reading these descriptions we can really begin to understand how eyes can tell us so much about a character. By simply adding colors and shapes Hinton gives us an excellent window into the description of each character, we get a great sense of each boy’s personality and can even make assumptions about each of their past just from their eyes, the best being Johnny. His eyes reveal that he is nervous and extremely jumpy, both characteristics that occur from abuse or neglect. While other physical descriptions are needed as well, I think that the understanding of each boy’s eyes tells us more than any other information that Hinton could include.

I’m sure I can join a list of readers who are in disbelief when they find out that the author of The Outsiders was a seventeen year old girl. The question comes to mind of how could a girl this young from Tulsa Oklahoma formulate such a story of delinquency and tough decisions, is it a reflection of her childhood or is Hinton’s imagination merely as wild as Ponyboy’s. I took a good look into a website that Jenny posted and found a lot of interesting information about not only the author but the book and movie made as well. The images from the movie really were quite interesting as I got a good idea of who these characters were suppose to be, what they really looked like because again as Jenny stated Hinton had a big say in the movies, showing that the actors were a pretty close fit as to how she viewed them in the text.
The website http://www.theoutsidersbookandmovie.com/InterestingInfoAndFacts.html really forced me to wonder again how Hinton created all of these characters, and often I tried to connect her to the character of Cherry. This would make sense as Cherry’s connection to both the socs and the greasers would allow Hinton to have an excellent understanding of both groups, eliminating any bias that might have occurred. I mean Hinton’s book really concludes with the idea that both social classes have it bad, and one of the few characters that understands that is Cherry because one she is a soc and two her relationship with Ponyboy. Whatever the source for the story Hinton’s background information is rather interesting and really brings a whole new perspective to the reader as they struggle with the fact that a girl could understand so much about a young boy’s life and what he thinks and feels.

As a reader I am often disturbed by the bitter reality that this group of boys who truly have good intentions at heart are hardened by a world in which they are forced to live in. Ponyboy is the primary example as we are allowed to see past his surface appearances and into a young teen who wants nothing more than to become successful, a boy who truly understands the significance of all that life has to offer. However his intellectual growth is stunted by the brutality of money, hate, and for lack of better terms tough luck. So why involve a character like Ponyboy, and go as far as to make him the main character? Well arguably there are numerous reasons, but one that stuck out in a rather significant way was the issue of stereotypes. Both in the book and in our world today we see characters such as the greasers and the socs become labeled by others and no matter how indifferent they are from they stereotype they are labeled with certain qualities, which are usually negative in some way or another. By opening up Ponyboy’s world and his genuine thoughts the reader takes a step back and is given a heavy dose of reality as we need to realize that many of us are not as we seem. Ponyboy is much more than a hood, Randy and Cherry go much deeper than a shallow soc, and characters such as Darry and Johnny too are bursting with potential; however all of this potential in all of the characters is buried in the lifestyle they are forced to live. Overall the reader really is reminded that people are more often than not much more than they appear to be, and we need to keep that in mind before we begin to make judgments.

As hard as I have tried I don’t think I can personally connect to a greaser, my life has been too good. However I can relate to another character, and have a good friend who has shockingly similarities to Johnny. As for myself I can relate to Randy. No I wasn’t a spoiled rich kid who went around jumping greasers when I was young, but I often found it difficult for someone to tell me no. My parents both were too cautious too yell and punish me in fear that I would rebel in some way that might make them feel that I didn’t love them, so things around the house basically consisted of me telling them what I was going to do, where I was going to be on the weekends, and how long I was going to be there. I never had to ask, I just told them and that was that. The situation was all too similar at school. Being apart of the football team was great; the weekly routine basically consisted of me and my buddies sitting in class because we had to, but never were we asked to do anything that we didn’t want to, and as for extra breaks and extended lunch periods to ice any sore muscles, well they were simply worked into the daily routine as any normal class would be, in other words they were expected. At the time it was great, we did whatever we wanted, me and my teammates that is, but looking back on it now I know that this type of lifestyle is absolutely a waste of time, I learned very few lessons from it, besides the very important one in which I know I will never allow my kid grow up in the same way.
As for my friend who can relate to Johnny, well that is a totally different story. Day in and day out he went home to yelling and screaming, and very frequently would spent entire weekends at my house or at a friends house just to get away, any hard floor was better than constant yelling and screaming and the reminder that his own parents didn’t even look his way when he walked through the front door. I have seen what this type of parenting can do to a kid, and understand Ponyboy’s description of Johnny rather well and my friend too always appears to be lost or afraid. Hinton does a real nice job in the fact that she develops so many characters in which we are bound to relate to at least one, and when the reader can relate in at least some way then the book becomes that much more real to the reader.