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.