Chrissie Johnston

June 18, 2011

The Appeal of Dystopian Literature to Young Adult Readers.

               When I started teaching I was excited to pick out the books I would teach, and then I saw the list. I had dozens of novels to choose from. What was I going to do if the students did not like what I liked? I soon realized, “the danger rests in assigning a book that is so disconnected from student’s lives that it turns them off completely” (Hudson).  My teaching experience has shown me that if students are going to be interested in what they are taught, it has to pertain to their life or interests. This can be difficult because in any given classroom a teacher will have a diverse group of students. To further this problem, as students reach junior high and high school, they are going to go through radical changes inside themselves in addition to outside stimuli.  How do teachers appeal to these morphing creatures? I believe we appeal to these students through dystopian literature. Dystopian novels such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and Lois Lowry’s The Giver are tremendously popular with you readers. The question I wanted to find out is why. What draws young adult readers to dystopian literature?

               In “Monica Hughes, Lois Lowry, and Young Adult Dystopias”, Carrie Hintz writes that the biggest achievement of “young adult utopias is their advancement of a particular type of utopian pedagogy one in which political action is addressed within the developmental narrative of adolescence” (254). Hintz explains that dystopias are a sub-genre of utopias. Hintz says that in dystopias readers find well-designed and laid-out societies, intriguing leaders and masterminds, control over personal freedoms, and the needs and protection of the collective of higher priority than those of the individual. Hintz points out that in young adult dystopias a child or teenager if often the protagonist. Another popular story line includes a kid or group of kids creating their own specialized world as an escape mechanism. This can be found in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Most of the novels contain “political and social awakening” […] “combined with a depiction of the personal problems of adolescence” (255). The central characters often feel “different” than everyone else and try to fit it. In novels such as The Giver, the protagonist undergoes a transition from child to adult and this prompts him to change the malfunctions he sees in the Utopian community he was raised in.  Hintz asserts that the characters in novels such as The Giver are frequently scrutinized and have to deal with issues such as sexual longings. How each character deals with their personal issues while trying to fit into a utopian society or fighting to correct a dystopian one is a major attraction for readers facing similar situations.

               A debate in the New York Times asked 6 modern authors “What’s behind the dystopian trend in novels for teenagers, and why is there so much demand for it?” These writers said things similar to Carrie Hintz. One writer, Scott Westerfeld, author of the dystopian trilogy The Uglies, says kids deal with the ever increasing demands of “school, work, college applications, parents and menial jobs.” They spend 8 plus hours a day in school with dress codes, limited free speech rights, and are under constant watch. How can anyone be surprised at the popularity of dystopian literature with these kids? Westerfeld points out that there is also a rise in post-apocalyptic novels.  With all the demands placed on kids, Westerfeld sees the draw to a story where the “system” implodes, breaks down, and/or is over run, as natural. 

Another debater, Michelle Ann Abate, mentioned something I had not considered before. Abate says that the transformation from Victorian era literature such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz began in the 1960s and 1970s. The change went from “romanticizing children” and “sanitizing children’s literature” to a “desire to be more honest and open with children” and “new narratives began pushing boundaries of acceptable themes and suitable subject matters.” The violence in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders and death in Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia brought forth the acceptability of “social, political and cultural concerns” in young adult literature. Abate’s piece does not really address the question of why dystopian literature is so popular, but I included it because I felt it explained where young adult literature was before the dystopian trend. I believe it is important to know where you’ve been so you can understand where you are and where you may go.

Based off the articles I read, and my teaching experience, I believe I understand why dystopian literature appeals to teachers. They contain many teaching opportunities. I asked a fellow teacher what she thought the appeal of this type of novel was and she said, “I think that one appealing factor would be that we can sit back and think our society/world has its problems but it could always be worse… sort a false sense of security…”(Durio). Teenagers are always comparing what they have to others. It appears therefore that they can learn to appreciate their society when they compare it to one that is much more controlled.

Dystopian literature appeals to students for many reasons. This type of literature can offer them a means of escape or it can offer them chance at self-reflection. Teenagers are drawn to dystopian literature because the characters in these novels face similar issues to what the reads face.  What the research has left me wondering is what the future of young adult literature is? What will the popular trend be in ten or twenty years? I assume I’ll still be teaching them so I’d like to know.

Works Cited

Abate, Michelle Ann. “A Role for Children’s Literature.” The Darker side of Young Adult Fiction. The New York Times. 26 Dec. 2010. 16 June 2011.

Durio, Jackie. English I Pre-Ap. Texas City High School.

Hintz, Carrie. Monica Hughes, Lois Lowry, and Young Adult Dystopias. The Lion and the Unicorn 26.2 (2002) 254-264.

Hudson, Hannah. “Can’t Miss Middle School Books (and Ones to Skip).” Scholastic.com. August 2009. 16 June 2011.

Westerfeld, Scott. “Breaking Down the ‘System’.” The Darker Side of Young Adult Fiction. The New York Times. 27 Dec. 2010. 16 June 2011.