"Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon: Response

In the article “Darkness too Visible” by Megan Cox Gurdon discusses her opinion  about young adult literature.  Megan Cox Gurdon Strongly believes that young adult literature is too dark for teemagers.  She uses specific craft moves to convince the reader that she is right.  The author supports her claim by explaining “terrible” plots in multiple young adult novels.  Gurdon states “A purported diary published anonymously in 1971, Go Ask Alice, recounts a girls spiral into drug addiction, rape, prostitution and a fatal overdose.”  Gurdon portrays this book as too harmful for young adults.

The author uses moves like narrative, loaded words and imagery to make readers feel a certain way.  At the beginning of the article, Gurdon uses imagery to explain the story of a mother in Bethesda, Md.  She explains that a mother was trying to buy her 13 year old daughter a book, but was having trouble.  She claimed that all the books for young adults were about “vampires and suicide and self-mutilation,this dark dark stuff.”  The mother didn’t want her daughter reading about those topics.  She was surprised to find that many of the books intended for young adults were about “dark” topics.  The author then uses narrative to make the reader feel a certain ways.  Gurdon states “How dark is contemporary fiction for teens?  Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels”.  Here, the author “speaks” to the reader to convince them.  She answers the question in a negative way.  She tells the reader that young adult novels are darker then when they were a child.  Lastly, the author uses loaded words to make the reader feel a certain way.  Gurdon uses words like hideous and distorted.  She states “If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideous distorted portrayals of what life is.”  She tries to convince readers that young adult novels misrepresent life.  She believes that the novels portray life even worse than it truly is.

I do not agree with Megan Cox Gurdon.  I don’t believe that young adult literature is too dark for teenagers.  She claims that young adult novels portray life untruthfully.  But unfortunately she is wrong.  People do experience terrible things.  Some people do get raped.  Some people do feel the need to self-mutilate.  In fact, I believe that young adult novels teach teenagers about life.  They teach us that life isn’t perfect.  They teach us that problems can be solved.  They teach us the consequences of our decisions.  Young adult literature is not too dark for teenagers.