Cross over

First impression

Our last week’s theme was crossover and I have read three of the books on the list, so I will talk a bit about all three because I cannot choose (having finished my blog now, it might be a tiny bit long, so sit back and enjoy..).

I read His Dark Materials about four years ago, my sister gave it to me and I loved it! I just could not stop reading. I really enjoyed trying to understand all the physics, but what really got me was the magic, the love, the idea of always having your daemon next to you, to never be alone. That thought to me is so beautiful. When Lyra had to leave her daemon behind, I felt so sad that I cried, I felt her pain. I read all the books in no time and consider them some of the most beautiful books I have read!

I got The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas from my cousin. I had to get used to the childish way it was written, but after that I really enjoyed reading it. The fact that you know what is going on and the protagonist does not, makes it bitter-sweet. It is sad, but it is good to see the innocence and good in children. The last part where the Bruno and his friend walk into the room hand in hand, and he says that nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go, really gave me goosebumps.

The other book I read, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, I got from a friend. One of my students had his presentation about the book and it did not really appeal to me. But if somebody goes through the trouble of finding me a book, I will go to the trouble of reading it and I am glad I did. It is different from other books, because of the way it is written. Sometimes it was a bit slow and repetitive, but I thought it was very interesting to look inside Christopher’s head and to be taken along in his way of thinking and to see and understand his logic and his fears.

All three books had passages in it that really shocked me or made me very sad, that is why I first wondered whether the books were even suitable for children. But after talking about it in class and looking up information for this blog,  I am sure children will love these books as much as I did, because they experience the stories in a different way.

Class discussion:

When I was young I also read my mom’s book and enjoyed them very much, also lots of adults can really appreciate youth literature as well. There never was a term to describe books that appeal to children and adults at the same time, but since Harry Potter there is ‘cross over’. Harry Potter was the first book which had two different covers, one for children and one for adults. We discussed why grown-ups like these books so much, is it because the general intellect is declining? Or is it because church is less and less popular and people try to find the magic in another way? Or maybe we are all just too busy and stressed in our normal lives that we just want to be able to relax and read easy books. There might be truth in all these statements, but to the people who are reading, it does not matter.

The primary power of a cross over novel is the quality of the story-telling. In any case it should be good children’s literature, this way the author will have to stay true to the story line and entertain the reader. The characters, setting and the plot lines should captivate the reader: child or adult. And although there is (a lot of) violence and emotional conflicts, there is a much broader sense of friendship that ties the story together (WCPL, 2013). This is clear in all books, but to me most obviously in His Dark Materials. The characters, the whole setting and plot hook you, from the way the landscape is described, the lovely daemons, to the talking polar bears. The violence and the cruelties are horrific and very painful but on the other side you see the tight friendship between Lyra and Will and the bond, love and care between the children and their daemons.

We also discussed in class that a lot of children wish or think that their parents are not their real parents. This happens more or less in all three stories (and coincidentally in all these three stories it is the child against his or her father), but mostly in The Curious Case and His Dark Materials. This makes sense as Erikson describes this inner urge of ‘rebelling against parents’ in the fifth stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion, when children are between twelve and eighteen years old (thiememeulenhof, n.d.). The protagonists in these two books are respectively twelve and fifteen and so fit into this stage. Bruno, the main character of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is nine and still in stage four, where he is ready to start sharing responsibility and striving to make plans and build up something with other kids (thiememeulenhof, n.d.). Bruno starts to have these feelings, but you sometimes see that he is not completely ready to take the responsibility yet (e.g. the scene with Shmuel in the kitchen, or eating the food meant for Shmuel). Because he is not in stage five yet, he is not rebelling that obviously against his parents, although he does disobey them by going to the fence which he was not allowed and we eventually know that he dies ‘because of his father’.

Age suitability/theory:

Looking at the different stages described above I would recommend The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas to children from nine and up and adults of course. I have looked on a couple of websites and it seems that children get education on WWII from about the age of 10-11 (eureka, n.d.)(onderwijs, n.d.). Therefore the young children will in my opinion not grasp the real awfulness of what is going on, but they will understand Bruno’s feelings of wanting to go out and explore and secretly meeting with his new friend. Adults and older children on the other hand will know what is going on and will feel the sadness and danger throughout the whole book.

The Curious Case tells us about a fifteen year old, but because he is autistic he sometimes comes across as younger, that is why I believe that it would be a suitable book for children from the age of eight and up. Although it was written for adults, children actually love it. The writer’s son has read it three times now and he is twelve and he states that he had a different experience every time he read it. He realized things about Christopher’s point of view, he took it on face value at first then he started seeing other point of views which contradicted with his and it got more and more sophisticated (the guardian podcast, 2013). This is what we discussed in class as well, young children do not care when other children are different, they just accept them the way they are. As they grow older, they start to see the differences and they will form an opinion about it. So at every age they will have a different experience reading the book. For adults it is absolutely interesting to look inside Christopher’s head, to see how he forms certain ideas and why he acts in a particular way, they might even be able to connect with him sometimes (the guardian, 2013).

The author did not have a specific target group in his mind when writing His Dark Materials, when thinking of his audience he thinks of a group that includes adults, children, male, female, the old, middle-aged and the young, everyone who can read actually (Philip Pullman, n.d.). That is why I would recommend this book from the age of nine and up. Lyra is twelve so she still has the innocence of children in stage four. Children can definitely identify with her, with her quest to find her father, with her love for her daemon and her caring for her best friend. Adults will think about the physics and could recognize other themes and subjects in the book, a few of them are: the Inquisition, the Fall and Temptation, good and evil and another look on some Christian convictions (Philip Pullman, n.d.) .

Epilogue:

When I heard at the start of this block that we had to read a book a week I was happy that I had already read a lot of them (and I still am, because it is a lot to do), but having finished this course I know I haven’t nearly read one tenth of all of the books I want to read. Looking on websites, searching for literature and insides on the books, themes and theory, I came across more titles I want to read and more authors who have written even more books I need to read. I saved them all in my phone not knowing where to start. I also read some of the books my teammates read for the bookfair, but most of them have sequels and I do not know which book to read first now. I really enjoyed this block, the class discussions were very interesting and having to read books is the best homework you can get. Even though I did not like writing the blogs, looking up information for them did make me alter my thoughts about the book sometimes (Catcher in the Rey for example).

I do look at stories in a different way now. I realize that when I recommend books to my students now I give them different reasons to read it to what I used to do and I might even be more passionate about it than I already was...

Sources:

Eureka. Retrieved November 6^th from http://eureka.inos.nl/?q=node/51

The Guardian. Stage. Retrieved November 6^th from 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/apr/28/curious-incident-olivier-awards

The Guardian. Podcast. Retrieved November 6^th from http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2013/may/03/mark-haddon-curious-incident-podcast?popup=true

Ga het na Onderwijs. Op bezoek. Retrieved November 6^th from http://onderwijs.gahetna.nl/op-bezoek

Thieme Meulenhoff. Retrieved November 6^th from http://tm.thiememeulenhoff.nl/assets/documentenservice_zen/hjk/archief/2002/10_juni_2002/jrg29-juni2002-vos-vertrouwenkrijgeninjezelfendewereld-erikeriksonhetfundamenteelvertrouwenvoordeidentiteitsontwikkeling.pdf

Washington Centerville Public Library. Retrieved November 6^th from http://wcplfineprint.blogspot.nl/2010/11/crossover-literature-its-ok-to-read.html

Percy Jackson - The Lightning Thief

First impression

This week’s theme was fantasy and we had three books to choose from, the Hobbit, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Lighting Thief. Many years ago I started reading The Hobbit but I never finished it, I did not really like it, but maybe I was too young and it was just too difficult (because I almost always finish a book when I start reading it), however, this book did not appeal to me now. The second book we could choose was one of the Narnia books. I have once seen one of the movies which I liked, but it did seem a bit childish to me, therefore I decided to read the book I knew nothing about yet, the Lighting Thief. I borrowed my mom’s e-reader, downloaded the book and finished the book in no time. At first I saw a bit too many similarities with Harry Potter (being the weird kid, strange things happening, no parents, special camp), but the main story eventually was quite different and I liked it a lot. So after this test week I will download the other books about Percy Jackson.

Age suitability-theory

In the notes from class I see that the class would recommend this book 14-16 year olds or even cross over, but I disagree. This book is written in a very uncomplicated way. The language used is not difficult and the story is not either. Things that happen are explained in quite some detail and very vividly. This all makes it very accessible to kids. Besides that, it is written in the first person point of view, therefore the reader can effortlessly identify with the main character and his feelings. This can also lead to ‘experience-taking’, which means that in the right situation it may temporarily transform the way readers view the world, themselves and other social groups (Christine Hsu, 2012). This can be very positive for kids that, just like Percy are dyslexic, have ADHD and feel they fail in everything. Suddenly they see this ‘loser boy’ becoming a hero and saving the world! Who knows, maybe they will be a hero some day as well. Even when children do not know a lot about mythology, they can still enjoy the adventures. Very sensitive twelve-year-olds might want to wait a year or two to read this book as sometimes it can be a bit scary with monsters attacking Percy or his mom dying, but that depends on the child (focusonthefamily.com).

Class discussion/theory

As I could not make it to class last week I received last week’s notes from my classmates. I looked at the element of fiction and I felt stupid, how come I never realized? The Call, The Journey, The Obstacles, A Final Ordeal and eventually Achieving the Goal, it is the same formula in every book L. No wonder I recognized Harry Potter in this book! Even when looking how a hero is formed, there are only minor differences. The unusual circumstances of birth (Percy does not know for a long time that his father is a Greek god), he leaves his family and goes to live in a camp, there he gets his special quest with his magical pen-sword and the help of his special friends, and so on. It kind of ruined the magic in fantasy books for me for a moment.  But looking back, it is the same in action or love stories, but that is just not that detailed. Thinking of Harry Potter, the formula is not that obvious, because those books are very well written and it would be hard to write a fantasy book in a different way. I do not believe every author has these ‘guidelines’ lying beside him when writing a fantasy book, it just forms itself this way naturally. In the notes I did not read anything about Percy Jackson, but comparing the outcome of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with The Lighting Thief, the formula of the story is the same again.

All fiction requires a balance between elements of the strange and the familiar. If all the elements of fantasy are fitted to their purposes and used to create a moving story set in a convincing world, then the story has the potential to be a good story (Austen, 2002) . The Lightning Thief combines these two elements; there are monsters, swords, the gods and fights as the fictive elements and next to that we also have friends, family,  rivalry, smelly step dads, bus rides and school to keep our two feet on the ground.

The theory of Gardner on multiple intelligences was also discussed in class. I had not heard of this before so I looked it up. Gardner states that people have a unique blend of intelligences and that the big challenge facing the use of human resources is how to best take advantage of this uniqueness confer (Smith, 2008). I am definitely going to look further into these different intelligences because it makes so much sense and I am sure applying this theory into my lessons will improve my way of teaching!  

Interesting to know

There is a huge difference in characteristics of the hero, depending whether the author is male or female (Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2010).

Sources

Alec Austin. Retrieved 26^th of October from http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020624/epic_fantasy.shtml

Christine Hsu, Science-tech. Retrieved 26^th of October from http://www.medicaldaily.com/psychologists-discover-how-people-subconsciously-become-their-favorite-fictional-characters-240435

Focus on the family. Retrieved 26^th of October from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/protecting_your_family/book-reviews/l/lightning-thief.aspx

Mark K. Smith. Retrieved 26^th of October from http://infed.org/mobi/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-and-education/

Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology. Retrieved 26^th of October from http://137.140.1.71/jsec/articles/volume4/issue4/IngallsVol4Iss4.pdf

The Cather in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

First impression and background book

My first impression? Well, I would describe the book as slow, depressing, boring and repetitive, but then I might sound a bit like the protagonist, superficial and recalcitrant, so I won’t. I really wanted to read this book, I heard about it in high school and I saw it reappear in every top-whatever-list on best youth literature. I did not have a clue what the book was about, so I dived into it open-minded. At the end of the first page I was already annoyed by his use of language. He swears a lot and uses expressions like ‘and all’ too often. The book is mostly about his thoughts and these are not go very deep and very much the same. He thinks everybody is phony and depressing, when actually, he himself is the one that is phony and depressing. He talks tough, but undertakes nothing when push comes to shove.

On the other hand, this book was written more than half a century ago and therefore is a kind of relic that also shows us the historical background of America in the 1950’s. Surprisingly, it stíll portraits issues relevant to today’s young boys (Levity, n.d.). Dr Graham of Leicester University says that before the 1950’s the teenager years were not seen as a particular kind of identity and that is why it also became very popular, it speaks to the moment when the teenager emerged as a sociable recognizable group (bbc, 2013)

Thát I did find interesting, to look into a teen boy’s thoughts. And maybe it is me being too old or a woman, or the combination. But I do not understand him and maybe that is just the thing I should remind myself of now and again; I can try, but I will not understand the thoughts and feelings of a sixteen year old boy. In the end I am glad that I have read the book though, because it is a classic and I can underpin my opinion about it.

In class / theory

In class we talked again about Erikson’s stage five ‘identity vs role confusion’ (Allpsych, 2011), but this time we discussed the different types of role confusions, which were new to me. There are four types (moratorium, foreclosure, negative identity, false identity), that we projected on this week’s books.

Moratorium: you keep on experimenting with roles but you do not commit to a certain type of identity. Our protagonist, Holden, was definitely experimenting. He tried to be cool by inviting the singer in the bar for a drink and drinking a lot himself (but he obviously could not hold his liquor). He tried to be a gentleman on his date with Sally (which failed). He was the comforting big brother to Phoebe, who said it was all going to be okay. He was the nonchalant student at college, who did not care, but he felt really bad about it and did not want to confront his parents, because he did not want to disappoint them again.

Foreclosure: The exact opposite of the above. You do not explore, but you immediately commit. Holden was still a long way from committing and getting mature.

Negative identity: you define yourself by what you are not. Holden points out all the negative things in others all the time, things he despises and he does not want to be associated with: ‘she is phony, he is depressing, he only talks about sex, he does not have any friends, he is not interesting, she is still a kid’. But what we realize, is that he is all those things himself. The story of Tracy Baker also had negative identity, but in a different way.  Tracy was not smart, not lovable, not popular and she was made to believe this by the outside world, whereas Holden determined this for himself.

False identity: you integrate all the different types of roles. Holden’s identity is not false, it just has not settled yet.

The Wasp Factory is a very strong example of foreclosure and false identity as it is about a girl being raised as a boy. This topic was the spark for a real interesting ‘discussion’ about baby boys and girls being treated differently from the day they are born and people undergoing sex changes. Like Annabel said: “children reading this book might think ‘I am not going to complain anymore because my life is not that bad after all”, and that is more or less what I felt like hearing about what people go through when trapped in the wrong body…

Furthermore we discussed narcissism, where secondary narcissism means that a person’s gratification comes from what they have achieved, so from the outside world (branded clothes, number of friends, etc.). We all agreed that these people are kind of annoying, but that we actually should feel for them because most of them are very insecure, as teenagers are, as our students are, as Holden is. In our group we concluded that Holden looks in the mirror a lot, he cares about what he looks like and what people think of him… although he pretends he does not give a goddamn thing.

Age suitability

No matter how much I disliked the book, the more I learn about it, the more I would recommend it to my students (16 year old boys). When I read the book, all I thought was ‘Holden: grow up!’ and that is exactly what this book is about, a young boy growing up! This book shows us what it is like to be a teenager. Holden feels isolated, lonely, confused, depressed, sarcastic, directionless, confused and scared. (bbc, 2013). And as I said before, it still reflects matters that are relevant to the youth of today (levity). It is exactly what teenagers go through when they are trying to find their identity, their own role in life.

Although the intended audience was not teenagers, adults still give it to teenagers hoping that it will make them see that the thoughts and feelings they have are normal, to reassure them. (bbc, 2013) Looking at feedback from readers, there are a lot of people who say they related to Holden and that they felt understood.

Thinking of my own students I especially recognize moratorium and negative identity. The experimenting I think is natural, the negative identity unfortunately in most cases are not, a lot of them are dyslectic and have heard they will never understand, they cannot study and mbo is the best they can do. Therefore I think many of them will feel the book, will like the book.

Nice to know

The book has been banned from libraries, stores and schools because of its profanity, sexual subject matters and because it rejects some traditional American ideals (Levity, n.d.).

Salinger did not want his book being made into a movie (Collider, 2013) 

Sources:

Allpsych. Retrieved the 11^th of October from http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/erikson.html

BBC. Retrieved the 11th of October from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8084931.stm

Collider. Retrieved the 11th of October from http://collider.com/catcher-in-the-rye-movie-rejection-jd-salinger/

Levity. Retrieved the 11^th of October from http://www.levity.com/corduroy/salinger1.htm

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/2/4795966/jd-salinger-didnt-hate-all-film

Twilight

Twilight

First impression:

Yeeeey! Our theme this week: ‘First Love’. Throughout this course I have realized I am still an adolescent myself; as I can still blame others if they make me feel bad, I still do not really know what I really want to do with my life, and I can still fall in love with movie stars. That is probably the reason why I already read all three books when they came out and many others alike.

The book starts with the death of the protagonist and this is described in such a way that you want to keep on reading. I did not read that part of the story until I read the last book, but by then I had already forgotten that that’s why I started reading at the first place. I now wanted to know everything that was going to happen and, of course, I was madly in love with Edward…

First impression vs. class discussion: 

This is the kind of love that every girl dreams of, to have a boy who would ‘kill’ to protect you, somebody you would ‘die’ for, figuratively speaking of course. But the ‘of course’ is not that obvious in this story and that is what actually came up in class. This kind of shocked me because I never looked at the story in this way. Yes, my first impression indeed was that it is a super romantic story, when we looked deeper into the story, there is a different layer in the story, with a total different feeling to it. Bella and Edward are hopelessly in love with each other. Their feelings become so strong that they almost appear to be obsessed with each other, they completely loose themselves in one another and cannot seem to think realistic anymore. This is what attracts teenagers, going through puberty they feel everything very intensely and two things stick out, their interest in love and in darkness, and that is exactly why these kind of stories appeal to them that much (Scheller, 2012). They understand these feelings, because they have them as well, in real life maybe, but in their fantasies for sure.

Class discussion / theory:

We discussed a lot of theory in class, most of  which sprouted from the theories of Erikson. Erikson describes the phase which the main characters are in as stage five, Identity vs. Role Confusion. In this stage adolescents are discovering how they fit in and what they want to do with their lives. (symplypsychology.org). Piaget says that, whilst thinking about these matters, adolescents will start to consider possible outcomes and consequences of (their) actions (About.com, n.d.). Naturally these two aspects bring along pressure and therefore it is a very insecure and confusing period in a teenager’s life. They believe all their thoughts and feelings and problems to be unique and they believe they have to face all their problems alone. This is what you see in Twighlight as well, Bella has nobody she can confine in, because nobody understands her. There is role confusion, Bella is desperately in love with Edward and does the craziest things for him, but she also wants to be a good daughter, it is very hard to be both. This is what teenagers encounter daily, they want to do good in school, but that is not cool. They want to be the cool football player, but they also want that particular girl to see that they can be sweet. How to be all? What do they really want, and what is merely pressure from the outside? In this stage they struggle with questions like what is good and what is bad. This is literally one of the themes in Twilight, the forbidden fruit (hence the apple on the cover), is it good or is it bad (Stephenie Meyer, n.d.)

Age suitability / theory:

Looking at the theory above you can see why this book could be suitable for children age thirteen to eighteen (or in my case, thirty-four). They encounter the same problems in life. They develop a sense of self (psychology about.com). Personally I would recommend this book to students, but to girls, because it just obviously is a girlish book, seen from a girlish perspective. For a girl it is easy to imagine she is Bella, as the only thing we know about her is that she has brown hair, is clumsy and insecure. Not every girls has brown hair, but, especially at that age, they all feel clumsy and insecure.

As said above, adolescents are very sensitive in this phase of their lives, they experience every emotion very intense. They can have the feeling their heart can explode when everything comes together at the right time at the right place with the right people, but at the same time they can feel extremely lonely, sad and insecure. That is why Twilight will appeal to this age group that much.

Teens are obsessed with romantic relationships, but because a lot of teenagers do not have their own personal experiences yet, they read stories that tell them about it. They get sucked into it and experience the whole story as if it were their own. Besides that, they often feel insecure in their own lives, a bit trapped and helpless, they do not have the feeling they are in control and through these stories they are, they suddenly have the power to do as they like and what feels right. Around this age children start to explore the dark side of their personalities, they might for example get ‘interested’ in things like suicide and the less colorful sides of humanity. Bad things might happen around them (friend gets pregnant, loved ones die) which make them realize they have to deal with these happenings, this is reality. So these children love to read about love, but they are very well aware of the fact that the world around them isn’t all rainbows and unicorns and they like to see that reflected in the stories they read. This way they feel like they are not alone and somebody more or less goes through the same as they do (Scheller, 2012). This of course is the story in Twilight as well, there are so many obstacles Bella and Edward have to overcome and they feel like the whole world is against them. These are the same feelings a lot of adolescents have to deal with.

Nowadays, a lot of young adult literature is edgy, it pushes the limits of socially acceptable content in teen books, especially regarding drug and alcohol use, violence, abuse, suicide and social norms in human sexuality (Morrissette, n.d.). Obviously Twilight touches a lot of these subjects (the abuse, violence, sexuality) and challenges these boundaries. 

In class we discussed three important elements for a book to be attractive to this target: identification, realism and thinking. 

Identification: as opposed to the theme of the imperfect world, the plot is subordinate to the unfolding of the characters, which we see in the book. There is an intense emotional involvement, you can see the inner struggles they have. The attraction to each other is the impossible love, which is one of the strongest. They are trying everything to stop it… and they will do anything to see each other. Life is so hard and we are feeling every moment of their pain.

Realism: it is real enough, even with vampires and werewolves. The reader must be able to relate to the characters and I believe a lot of girls can relate to Bella, being clumsy, feeling ugly and being in love with the most handsome guy in the world. Life in the book is not fair, just like the average adolescent’s life. Bad things happen, wrong decisions are made and the characters struggle, just like the readers do.

Thinking: Girls reading this book will recognize the feelings Bella has, utterly-and-totally-head-over-heels-scale5plus in looooove. They will understand most of the decisions Bella takes, even if they are wrong, but on some occasions they will realize that they would have reacted differently. Besides that they will start thinking about why certain things happen, but unfortunately they will not get all the answers in the end.

Some people might say this week’s books are not suitable for children of this age. We discussed in class that “Cal” for example had a love with a big age difference and a lot of violence in it. “Forever” was very controversial for its time and may still be with its detailed descriptions of sex. Twilight might be seen as controversial, because of the age difference between Bella and Edward. Besides that, the vampires and werewolves might stir people who are religious. Apparently there is a lot more controversy to be found in Twilight, like pedophilia, the abusive relationship between Edward and Bella, women having no choice in life, sex being bad and abortion being worse. (sarahgetscritical, 2012). I can agree on some things, but personally I think if you look hard enough you can even find controversial things in Sesame Street. 

Nice to know:

Stephanie Meyer based her novel on a dream she had about a girl and a vampire falling in love. Choosing a name for them took them ages, but she named Bella after the daughter she never had, Isabella. She actually googled for the most rainy place in the States and a small town named Fork came up, with a beautiful rainforest nearby. When writing the story she just could not stop and therefore, could not sleep. Edward and Bella were in her thoughts (and actually having conversations) 24/7. In the end, from dream to print, it only took a total of six months (Stephenie Meyer, n.d.).

(Quinault Rain Forest)

Sources:

About.com. Psychology. Retrieved 4^th of October from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial_2.htm

About.com. Psychology. Retrieved 4^th of October from http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/p/formaloperation.htm

Francine Morrissette. Retrieved the 27th of October from http://suite101.com/a/what-is-young-adult-fiction-a135786

Rachel Scheller. Retrieved the 27^th of October from http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/writing-for-the-young-adult-audience

Sarah gets critical. Retrieved 4^th of October from http://sarahgetscritical.com/2012/11/13/a-feminist-critique-of-twilight-emotional-abuse-child-grooming-and-pro-choice-plots/

Simply Psychology. Social. Retrieved 4^th of October from http://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html

Stepheny Meyer. Twilight. Retrieved 4^th of October from http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html

Hunger Games

First impression

Some stories just stick with you… I was captured by this one immediately. I was seriously shocked when I learned what the games were about, talking about an imperfect world! Last year we had to read The Lottery, which obviously has the same incident and yet it shocked me again. I think it is because the idea of sacrificing one of your own for a common good still exists. Things like this really happened in ancient times and upsettingly enough, they still happen. Although this story seems really farfetched and sick, people are capable of doing things like this to one another because of certain beliefs and convictions, and that is what scares me. 

It is interesting to see that the author was inspired and shocked likewise by a similar story. She based her books on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur: ‘As punishment for displeasing Crete, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur, which is a monster that’s half man and half bull.’ This story also took her breath away, because it was so cruel (school library journal, 2013).

Class discussion

Just like the story in the Greek mythology, the Hunger Games talks about a dystopia, or an ‘imperfect world’, which was this week’s theme. Making the mind map in class showed that there are a lot of topics that reoccurred to a greater or lesser extend in all the books. The most important themes are survival, peer pressure, fear, no guidance of adults, suffering, growing up and making your own decisions. In class we concluded that Lord of the Flies and Hunger Games have a lot in common, as survival is one of the main issues in both books and interwoven with this is peer pressure. These both books make your skin crawl, because you do not (want to) believe that people, children, could do this to each other. 

In these kind of books the quest is most important, not the development of the characters. In the Hunger Games this is also the case. Katniss’ personality does not fundamentally change, the circumstances change and we watch her deal with these situations. By facing these ordeals, she learns something and can take new actions. When looking at the character of Katniss, it is obvious that she has great control over her emotions; she volunteers to take her sister’s place in the game because she does not want her sister to get killed; she takes care of Rue in the games and kills somebody to revenge her; she kills to survive; she talks about the superficial bond she has with her mother, but she keeps the reel feelings away from her, everything Katniss says or feels is in a rational manner. She never seems scared for her own life, she just worries about others all the time.

Another feature typical for these type of books is a lot of repetition, literally or figuratively speaking. A few examples in this book are the Mockingjay, (the girl on) fire, goodbyes and hunting (Sparknotes, 2013).

Age suitability / theory

The books might be a little too bloody and ruthless for teenagers who are very sensitive, but apart that this book just SCREAMS adolescence and is absolutely suitable for age thirteen and older!

Erikson states there are six states children go through and in the fifth stage teenagers need to develop a sense of self and personal identity (About.com, 2013).This story is very much about that stage. Katniss is forced to explore her independence in several ways; at the start she has to take care of her mother and sister and make sure they have food, so she goes hunting which is illegal and at the reaping she makes the decision to take her sister’s place. At the Games she obviously is totally on her own, independence to the max. Just like Peeta wanted as well, Katniss maintains her sense of identity and integrity, despite all the things she has to go through (Sparknotes, 2013). 

In addition, appearances are everything in this story and she has to keep them up, that is the only way to survive. If she cries she is weak, if the public doubts that she is in love with Peeta they won’t support them anymore (Sparknotes, 2013). That is so recognizable in adolescents’ lives. Their most significant relationships are with peer groups (Americas Angell, 2011), so they have to keep up their appearance, their reputation, if they do not, they will also die in the jungle – survival interwoven with peer pressure (eHow, 2013). 

In the Hunger Games the hero suffers, for mere entertainment, not just purely physical but psychological as well (Sparknotes, 2013). Besides that we also see a lot of defiance to the government (Sparknotes, 2013), in case of teenagers in our world, this could be called rebellion (thinking back to the little video you showed us). Looking at all this, it is easy to imagine that adolescents can relate to the protagonist. They have to create their own identity and find a way to survive, which that is hard, just like it is for Katniss.

I realized that I have always been attracted by dystopian stories, now that I know that it actually is a theme. Thinking back there are a few stories that have always stuck with me, like Brave New World, Lord of the Flies and The Matrix. They filled me with this kind of horror, but intrigued me all the same, just like The Hunger Games and The Lottery did (which I have read ten times since last block of literature).  I believe this book will definitely capture young adults  the way it did me!

Literature written for teenagers offer them compelling stories which allow them to connect with and relate to the characters, to others. It also helps them to confirm themselves and their own experiences. They can explore incidents that they otherwise would not experience and this can help them to learn about the world outside of their knowledge (Morrissette, n.d.). When looking at The Hunger Games, this obviously is the case. Normally this would never happen to somebody. They can thinks about the way they would react and what they would do. Besides that, adolescents know that the world is not fair and that human beings are able to do these kind of things to each other and it will make them think. Through reading , children can ‘try someone else’s life on for size’. Reading can be a way to explore ways of living and points of view that are well beyond their experience, it is a new way of travelling (Reader, p.31).

This book is obviously written for adolescents, starting with the point of view it is written in the first person and this person is a teenager herself (Morrissette, n.d.). This way you can totally understand the protagonist, you understand her decisions (whether you agree or not), the difficulties she encounters, the feelings she has (although they are not described in depth in this book), the problems she has to solve. Teens realize that they are not living in a perfect world, they therefore like to be able to relate to the characters in the book, to their thoughts, feelings and actions (Scheller, 2013).

A few other aspects that show that this book is clearly suitable for adolescents are; the adult characters are marginal, of course there are a few adult characters like Haymitch and Cinna, but they are not main characters like Catniss or Peeta; the actions and concerns of the main character drive the story; few subplots, even the relations between Carniss and Peeta and Gale are part of the main story; and there are detailed description of other teenager’s appearances , mannerisms and dress (think about all the other kids participating in the game, or Catniss’s sister) (Morrissette, n.d.).

Nice to know

Collins came up with the idea of the Hunger Games when she was watching TV, surfing between reality TV and a war coverage and getting the stories mixed up. Besides the Greek mythology, the gladiatorial games also inspired her. The title comes from the Latin phrase ‘panem et circenses’ (bread and games), which is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement (Wikipedia, 2013). This comparison suggests that reality TV, sells real life as entertainment, which make the real people turn into a thing, it is a form of objectification. And this is very recognizable as we value reality TV with how much entertainment it gives us, the ‘actors’ therefore try to be as interesting as possible, losing their own identity as a result.

Sources

America’s Angel. Research. Retrieved 20^th from September from http://www.americasangel.org/research/developmental-stages/erikson-developmental-stages/#adolescent

Complete Reader (2013, p. 31), Youth Literature.

eHow. Retrieved 20^th of September from http://www.ehow.com/info_8358295_eriksons-stages-adolescence.html

Francine Morrissette. Retrieved the 27th of October from http://suite101.com/a/what-is-young-adult-fiction-a135786

School Library Journal. Retrieved 20^th of September from http://www.slj.com/2008/09/books-media/authors-illustrators/a-killer-story-an-interview-with-suzanne-collins-author-of-the-hunger-games/

Rachel Scheller. Retrieved the 27th of October from http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/writing-for-the-young-adult-audience

Sparknotes. Literary study guides - canalysis. Retrieved 20^th of September from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-hunger-games/canalysis.html

Sparknotes. Literary study guides - themes. Retrieved 20^th of September from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-hunger-games/themes.html