Adolescents, what a theme!
The more difficult age to deal with!
They are unwilling to read and the Classics are not their favourites.
What and how can we do to make them read? There is a genre focused on their
needs: Young Adult Literature.
YAL is a category of
literature address to adolescents. It includes many types of texts or genres,
such as horror, romance, science fiction, etc. YAL has gone through a
transformation since 1950. This genre avoided controversial topics, such as
sexuality, substance abuse and death, and focused on one socioeconomic class
until 1970, when authors started writing about the realities of teenage life.
The question is: How can we decide if a piece
of literature is YAL?
A few weeks ago I read the short story “A Case of the Stubborns”, by Robert
Bloch. It is about a grandpa who had died one night but the next morning he
came downstairs to have breakfast with his family, but the problem was that he
did not realize that he was dead. So,
the family had to work out a way in which he may be able to understand his
situation, that he was not alive. Luckily, the main character, Jody Tolliver,
figured out a solution to the problem taking into account what is said above, I
would say that A “Case
of the Stubborns”
may be considered as YAL.
According to some of Small’s characteristics of YAL, the main
character is often a teenager who is usually perceptive, sensitive,
intelligent, mature and independent, whose actions are major facts in the outcome
of the conflict. When reading Bloch’s short story, although the author never
mentions the age of the character, we can infer by the context that he is an
adolescent: he lived with his grandpa, mother, father and his little sister.
Jody is central in the resolution of the problem that he and his family were
facing. Although his mother and father tried in many ways to solve it, they
could not. Only the boy’s intelligence and perception could find out the
solution they needed. He could show his grandfather that he was not alive since
worms were coming out his mouth.
In accordance with Herz and Gallo, YAL
deals with many universal themes such us eternal questions, teenage pregnancy,
divorce, substance abuse, family conflict and death, among others. In this
case, the story deals with the death of a beloved person. Jody and his family
were heartbroken about that situation. But the teenager accepted the death of
his grandpa after finding a solution for his grandfather’s obstinate behaviour.
Finally, the family found relief and not sorrow when the conflict was resolved.
Another of Small’s characteristics is the
use of slang and the reflection of teenage speech in the dialogues. In Bloch’s
short story, the use of slang, contractions and teenage speech is widely used.
Some examples are the words: mebbe, onny and yessiree.
It is important to introduce reading since
childhood, but if it is not the case, YAL is a good tool to transform a
reluctant adolescent into a reader. One thing that adults have to have in mind
when finding a book for young adults is its content. The stories have to
enclose the features previously mentioned that Small and Herz and Gallo have
developed as
the case of “Case of the Stubborns”. These characteristics fit the needs of
nowadays teenagers.
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