Response to Darkness Too Visible by Megan Cox Gordon

Response to Darkness Too Visible by Megan Cox Gordon

I believe that Megan Cox Gordon, the author of Darkness Invisible, from the Wall Street Journal wants me to know that young adult literature has turned into dark, gruesome and twisted stories that are extremely inappropriate for young adults.  Some themes of this article include, contemporary fiction, bitterness, persuasion and some manipulation.  One example of how she believes that young adult literature is now dark, gruesome and inappropriate is how she talks about the mom looking for a book for a kid.  She was very descriptive of harsh words, such as lurid, to talk about all the books that were in the YA seciton when the mom was shopping.   Another example is how she uses manipulation.  She manipulates text from the books that she describes as inappropriate by taking the specific parts of the text that were inappropriate, when all the other parts of the book could've been fine.

In the article, Cox Gordon tries things like loaded words and imagery to make me imagine what books are like and how it affects young adults.  She uses this as a craft to make me picture myself in that description.  An example of when she does this is when she says, "teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is."

I personally agree with Gordon, because I believe that young adult books should be inspiring and a story that teaches teens to do only good in their life.  The exact opposite of this is portrayed in most of these books that are filled with violence, rape, drugs, etc..  I realized in this article that some kids are being influenced by these books in a bad way, where they should be influenced in a good way. 

No Man’s Land # 2

Have you ever been so exhaustingly worried in your life that you don’t know whether to tell the truth, or just leave it a secret? In the book, No Man’s Land, by ST Underdahl, Dov struggles with the fight between truth and secrecy. In his life, this causes a big issue.

For example, in the story, Dov won’t tell anyone about his brother, Brian, who just got back from Afghanistan and is ill.  This allows his illness to rise to a larger level because he can’t get any help for it. This is important because without any help from a professional, Brian’s illness will just keep getting worse, which is exactly what you should try to avoid. Later on in the book, WARNING: SPOILER ALERT, Brian has an episode in the car causing Dov to crash into a man and his son almost killing them both and him, and Brian then almost shoots, the dad with the pistol he hides in his bag that Dov knows about but won’t tell anyone about. That secret about the gun affects him by Brian almost shooting that dads brains out. This is why secrets should never be kept.

Another example is, in the story, Dov won’t tell anyone, not even Scarlet, who he tells everything to, about his true feelings he has for her. This secrecy affects Miranda because she likes Dov, but he doesn’t know that Miranda wants to be more than friends,  causing their friendship to go downhill. As you can see, secrecy also affects relationships and not only yourself, but other people as well.

  A last example is how, in the story, Dov’s pet lizard, Leo, who Brian got before he left, dies and Dov tells no one about it. This affects no one but Dov himself, because by not talking about it to any of his friends, when they can make him feel better, he thinks about it all the time and makes himself sadder and sadder. The reason for this is because I believe that the lizard represents Dov and Brians friendship, and how ever since Brian came back, it had died.

In conclusion, the problems in this story that Dov has with keeping secrets and telling the truth affects him in multiple ways, none of which are good. I believe the author is trying to tell readers that if you lie/ keep secrets, or don’t tell the truth, it will not benefit you in any way, and will only hurt you and those around you.  I feel like this was an important theme in the book.