Craig Silveys remarkable novel Jasper Jones succeeds in its intention to address real issues facing young readers today. To a certain extent, significant life topics including the hardships adolescents face through a coming of age, the deep rooted fear of prejudice and the dark, struggle that is fear and courage are all expressed around the central protagonist Charlie and the small country town of Corrigan. In this essay I will give and insight to these issues, discussing how it involves and affects today youths. The trials and tribulations adolescents face as they shed their innocence and cross the threshold into adulthood is a universal issue facing young readers in all eras. The dazzling use of simile in Charlies’ statement “my exit from …show more content…
The opinionated tone of Charlie’s voice mixed with the personification of the lying town through the statement “yes, I think Jasper Jones speaks the whole truth in a town of liars” sums up clearly the reputation of both the city of Corrigan and Jasper Jones. In today’s society people can get lost in tumbleweed of racism, it still exits but it isn’t accepted as casual document of speech. Moreover short, slang and derogatory terms of “haft Cast”, “shot cong” and “fuck off, C*** eyes” mixed in with the obscenities of “his word isn’t worth shit” employ how the outcasts of society are trampled upon like a stampede of bulls. In both present and past times you are criticised on your appearance and judged on by steamy rumours that are constantly altering. Deep personification of Mad Jack Lionel’s unfairness in the course of the description “But tall stories and rumours all weave wispily around one single irrefutable fact” underlines the alienation that he experiences as everyone in the town knows of him but not about him. Fear of him is deceived though false word of mouth. Furthermore the use of the repetition of “its” combined with certain lexical choice of the line “this world isn’t just right, its small, it’s nasty and it’s lousy with sadness” highlight the desperate tone that Charlie is conveying in …show more content…
A maxim of courage throughout the statement “courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” mixed in with the repetition of ‘of fear’ alludes to Mark Twain’s superior comments in Huckleberry Finn. Charlie finds courage through his interpretations of powerful southern gothic novels. Young readers today still deal with ache of facing and accepting the truth. The commanding anaphora of ‘if’ and the depressed repetitive tone through the line, “if I run, I’m caught and floored and nailed. If I try to fight back, I risk complete annihilation, if I insult them, the same. If I tell someone about it, it’s a suspended death sentence” demonstrate a fear that Charlie constantly deals with, as he is seen as diverse in his country town Corrigan. The protagonist Charlie sees past the conformist and etches the truth through assertive tone with the phrase “everyone in this town is going to see that there’s nothing to be afraid of”. Additionally the pain that appears with facing fear is highlighted with an extended metaphor of darkness and symbolic cosmic imagery though Charlies line “often it’s not the darkness they’re afraid of, it’s the fact that they don’t know what’s in it”. Yet most significantly it is the fact that Charlie develops the courage to face these truths that shows us that he has truly developed “in a town full of liars”. The relevant themes of fear and
One of the fundamental principles of any young adult novel is its relatability. Oftentimes, teenagers are forced to read outdated, complicated written works for school for the sake of introducing them to the literary canon. More often than not, teenagers cannot relate to these works due to a variety of factors: the language is complex and difficult to read, there are no exciting characters or plot events, or it’s just plain old boring. As a result, teenagers turn to young adult novels as a safe haven—it is where they find books they can actually relate to. Consequently, any worthwhile young adult novel has to be both interesting and relatable, risking limited success if the latter is absent. Without a doubt, Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered is nothing short of interesting, documenting the exciting tale of a young girl’s journey throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo during heightened civil unrest. However, when it comes to the relatability of his novel, Schrefer takes a risk as a result of his setting and plot choices, but still succeeds in presenting something teenagers can relate to through the character of Sophie.
Bigotry and stubbornness are perceptible attitudes of small-town communities in 1960's Western Australia. The notion that the inhabitants of the tight-knit community of Corrigan are racist, prejudiced and ignorant is explicated in Craig Silvey's coming of age novel, Jasper Jones. The bildungsroman is narrated by Charlie Bucktin, an adolescent from the small town of Corrigan. Charlie becomes unexpectedly involved with a local indigenous boy, Jasper, as they set out to discover the truth about the death of a young girl from their community. Throughout this quest, Charlie comes to many realisations about life, ultimately, that society can be very cruel. The prejudism and ignorance of the tight-knit community of Corrigan manifests in the
Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that
Any rational reader who perceives this gripping, energetic adventure novel (of satire) as nothing more than a mere raft ride down the Mississippi thus misses the point of the journey entirely and, of a surety, will likewise evade the lexicon and lessons learned inside the head and heart of the central character, Huckleberry Finn, who is undistracted – even nonchalant – about his own external environment which provides many threats, yet lesser instructions.
The struggle between the standards of society and the desires of the individual are as old as the institution itself. The three main characters in the books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Things They Carried, and The Red Badge of Courage are all put into situations that are separate from normal, everyday life. This gives them a much needed outside perspective and reveals a lot about their own personal struggles with society. Their paths differ, but they arrive at the same point; it is far better to arrive at one’s own conclusions and decisions than to follow the crowd, no matter how hard it may be.
In our forever changing society, it is important to have teen literature as a source where young adults can learn about and enhance their knowledge on issues related to adolescence and the progression into adulthood. Young Adult novels such as ‘Tomorrow, When the War Began’ by John Marsden and others alike provide an escape where young people can be introduced to and understand certain concepts, whether they deal with growing up or just life in general. In the novel, ‘Tomorrow, When the War Began,’ first published in 1994, the teens make many choices, both good and bad, and through this it conveys to the audience that these choices are essential to the fundamentals of life. With the book having a mostly young audience, this type of information is important because it shows that youth is about learning to make good choices and how these choices are the catalyst to becoming an adult. Examples of how teenagers are represented include: heroic, intelligent, brave, noble and powerful, just to name a few. From this characterisation, it empowers readers to reflect upon how they act in their daily lives and this then allows them to know that they themselves can have any of these qualities in their lives. If readers can identify with given themes from a novel, it allows them to relate the themes to situations that they may be going through and in turn, it lets readers normalise the struggles that they may be facing in their lives. In the journey of the characters in the novel,
The author, Keren David’s effective writing of the plot and the use of characters created a sense of imagery to help the young adult audience realize that with the right confidence, any challenges faced can be defeated. Teenagers deal with many difficult problems, but imagine being isolated from the only slightest memory of your family, slowly fading away. The protagonist, Cass’s holds onto what she remembers of her long-lost brother and does not dare to let it go.
An English teacher named Bill recognizes Charlie’s wisdom and intuition, and assigns books to the troubled teen for stimulation beyond the classroom. Bill befriends Charlie and assists the boy throughout the story. One day, as Bill spots Charlie looking at other students during class, he calls Charlie to his desk and asks him what he was thinking about. After hearing Charlie’s response, Bill encourages his student to redirect his thoughts away from himself and to try to “participate”. Before Charlie leaves, Bill tells him, “Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve” (24). Charlie never forgets these potent words throughout the entire school year. This is when his mind, at first filled with thoughts of hopelessness, slowly begins to grow more optimistic.
The school story is an important, recurring sub-genre of children’s literature, and is specifically rooted in British culture, where boarding school are more common and provide an enclosed, secular setting to the characters’ adventures, often becoming a character in its own right, and acting as a stage for the protagonists to grow, learn, fit in or stand out, deal with and challenge authority. The hero is rarely alone; surrounded by the opposing and balancing forces of responsible adults and mischievous peers. From Tyke Tyler’s Danny Price to Harry Potter’s Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, friends in the school story are the centre of the protagonist’s world, providers of balance, perspective, conflict and support. For the young reader, these friendships suggest the need for company and intimacy in order to succeed at school and in life, and can even be seen as guidelines showing children how to fit in and strike their own friendships. While this effect on the reader’s life can be seen as positive, providing them with positive role models and examples of kindness and sharing, literary friendships often reveal, upon closer analysis, some darker and somewhat unhealthy dynamics.
students at a young age to dig deeper into the meaning of stories. This is evident in one famous
Good morning and welcome to my lecture! Today we will be comparing and contrasting two great examples of modern Young Adult literature.
Recommendation: This manuscript is worthy of publication and would serve well in the late teen education space. It has the potential to be a staple of High School English studies owing to its historical, geographic and social placement; with an intensely focused Australian cultural slant. As a competently edited novel, this manuscript could easily offer itself to guided literary analysis and potentially has a non-compulsory market in the baby boomer generation, who post-date the literary period by two generations which will cement their identification with the trials of the protagonist.
Young adult literature is a blooming literary category. This newly discovered territory is ever developing. Elysia Liang, author of Canonical Angst in Young Adolescent Literature, insists, “The notion of adolescence as a stepping-stone between childhood and adulthood is recent” (2). She associates this with a direct change in childhood development, stating, “Before the 20th century, the marker of adulthood was entrance into the work-force. With children as young as 10 holding jobs to help support their families, few entertained the existence of an in-between stage of development” (2). Before the explosive growth of YA, adolescents were subject to read either children’s books or “‘Adult Books for Young People’ ” (3). To truly understand the growth of the young adult category, one must look at the figures. In 1997, 3,000 books were published that fit the YA category, according to R.R. Bowker’s Publishers Weekly. In 2009, that number jumped to well over 30,000.
Fiction is used as a widespread educative tool to inform adolescents in contemporary society. Therefore, writers have to be cautious in writing youth subject matters. Particularly, the themes should be appeal the interests and the age group, ability to explore the world complexities and problems encountered in teenage (Stark 2013).However Young fictions themes has created controversies in modern Australia.
Gail Gauthier focuses on notions of community between the adolescent reader and protagonist, facilitated by the adult writer, and how this affects why and how adolescents are reading. Gauthier uses Robert Daly’s theory of communitas as this basis to describe the connection between adolescents – this is “a sense of comradeship among equals to which liminality