Pregnancy and Zombies, How Come?

       A whole community forced to build a colony because of zombies, abortion and cinematic narration of events are only some of the many themes and elements used in ‘Sparks Fly Upwards’by Lisa Morton.  In the story, the author uses YAL(Young Adult Literature) which is a literary genre directed to adolescents  containing several specific characteristics that make the narrative quite appealing to young adults.  By combining the previously mentioned elements under the umbrella of the YAL concept, Lisa Morton makes clear her stance on such subjects as teenage pregnancy and abortion.  This raising of taboo topics into debate along with zombies and filmic narrative of the plot, makes the story an excellent fitting product for young adult literature.

     An entire community have to build a whole new place to live since zombies start to appear in southern California, making the living unbearable for human beings. Tom and Sarah, a young couple with three children, are the protagonist of the story.  They live in the ‘colony’, the fortress forcefully built by the terrified Californians.  Unfortunately, in this place, survival is far less comfortable than in the past.  For example, food supply is limited, space to build new houses is reduced and as a result of these two facts, the population cannot grow.  To control these issues, the ‘colony’ has a chairman named Doc Freeman who is in charge of making the important decisions and is the one everybody consults if advices are needed. 

     Robert C Small Jr was able to define the most specific features that build up YAL.  For him in order to attract adolescents’ attention, the story’s events and problems must be related to them. And that is exactly what happens in this story, although Sarah and her husband were already parents, she gets pregnant during the difficult times of the ‘colony’ and this coming of a new babe resembles the tough situation of teenage pregnancy. This is clearly illustrated in this quote[: “We become obsessed with the idea of having a baby again and somehow we would convince Doc Freeman to let us have it.” In this way, the couple acts as if they were teenagers facing the difficult situation of having to tell their parents that they are going to have a baby.

      Unfortunately, the answer to their request is negative and the only solution is to have an abortion. Obviously, the equipment in ´the colony´ is not enough and the couple along with Edward, the only doctor in the ‘colony’ able to deliver the baby, will have to go to the only prenatal clinic in the abandoned town of southern California, but the city’s streets are full of famished zombies who will make the entrance to the clinic a rather difficult task. For this, Sarah, Tom and the doctor arm themselves with pistols, hunting rifles and machetes.  Basically, the author narrates the dangerous trip to the clinic as cinematographically as possible where the protagonists shoot the dreadful zombies or run over them on the way to through. This is another way to make the story attractive to teenagers since is contains guns, killing and suspense.

     The narrator makes clear her stance by saying: “An early fetus is only an extension of the mother’s body and as such each woman has the right to make her own decision”. So, it can be inferred that the story purposely uses elements that easily attract most adolescents with the only aim of putting the author’s voice in the spotlight. Even though the stance leads to heating debate about being in favour or against abortion, the story possess the necessary elements to be considered a case of YAL.

---