Response: "Darkness to Visible" By Megan Cox Gurdon

Hana Jang
803
ELA

     
             In the article "Darkness to Visible" By Megan Cox Gurdon written in the wall street journal on June 4, 2011, the author explains how young adult books have drastically changed for the worse. Gurdon states that her and many others feel "thwarted and disheartened" at the sight of the current young adult books on display and are being sold now. She wants the reader to understand that these types of topics are not appropriate for these books targeted audience of young teens. She describes young adult literature as a "fun-house of mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is". This shows me that the author wants me to believe that the current topics of many young adult books are unacceptable and much too negative for someone so young.
           The author wants the readers to feel just as aggravated and upset as her. She does this by doing things like spinning the retells of some young adult books. By doing this she only highlights and displays the negative and dark themes portrayed in these books. When she does this she tries to further prove her claim of being against young adult book topics, instead of telling a full retell of these books including the positive parts. Gurdon also constantly repeats words like dark in her article to represent her negative opinion on teen novels. By doing all of these things she makes the reader constantly look at these young adult books in a negative way.
            I personally totally disagree with the way Megan Cox Gurdon sees and writes about young adult books. Not only does she not get the opinion of the targeted audience of these books but it seems more like these book disturb her more than any teenager. Just because she personally doesn't like a book topic shouldn't give her the right to take it away from a young reader who may enjoy it. Throughout the article she never states the good aspects to these somewhat darker books. They teach important lessons and whether there extremely unlikely to happen or happen to every teenager they show how wrong choices can lead to better decisions in the future, the consequences of some serious mistakes, and more. I think that every reader knows their own limit, and no adult, teacher, or anyone has a right to control what teens or anyone reads.

Final Draft

ELA

Hana Jang

803

            Tradition. A word that has the ability to plan out our entire future and life. Something we’re expected to follow without question.  But what exactly happens when we stray from our traditions and start to explore who we really are, the person that that has no limits or planned out life. This idea is played with in the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, as it tells the story of Beatrice Prior and her adventure in finding her true self and proving that her somewhat perfect world isn’t as perfect as it seems. To show how Beatrice rebels against her planned out life and tradition the author includes many symbolic objects that change Beatrice’s life.

One of the main symbols is the drop of Beatrice’s blood she uses during the choosing ceremony. With this small object she goes against her entire fraction and goes against tradition even though there were harsh consequences. This teaches that a break in tradition can sometimes be good and that going with what you truly want is better than what everyone else wants you to do. The chose Beatrice made in the book cost her a lot including her family and friends but she went with who she belonged with and in the end it helped her a lot.

Another important symbol in the story was the gun in the book. It shows how change can be good even if it feels strange at first. In the book trice feels as if the gun she is given in the dauntless fraction during training is wrong and is not used to having such a powerful object. She explains how the gun is nothing like she’s ever held before and has an obvious powerful energy. A change can be helpful and needed in the future even if it doesn't seem that way at the time. The simple change in learning how to use the gun helped save Trice’s life in the future even though it seemed unnatural at first. Change can be scary but helpful and useful. The new skill Trice was forced to learn from her change in fractions was one of the main things that kept her alive.

            And finally the tattoos Trice got at Dauntless are one of the largest symbols in the book. They represented her attachment to both of her fractions. Both Dauntless and Abnegation are huge parts of her, which is why she didn't just get one tattooed on her. These tattoos symbolize that people aren’t just made up of one thing even when those two things don't seem compatible. This symbol teaches that everyone has different sides and different parts that make them who they are.

             These objects in the story have a much deeper meaning than just what they look like. They all showed small ways Trice strayed from her tradition and what was expected of her until she became who she truly was. Each teaches an important lesson that not only helped Trice in the story but kept her alive. All the objects symbolize a lesson that helped the book progress and advance in it story. They add more to the story and are needed through out the book to help show the change Beatrice prior goes through.