This is going to be a book of essays I've written for school I will add them as I go Enjoy :)
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English
02 February 2017
Should kids be Allowed to view Young Adult Content?
Are young adult books too dark for teens? Does it teach or lead kids to be drug addicts, racist towards other people, or think about suicide? I do not believe it does. I believe it helps kids know that they're not alone in their problems. They can relate to characters in the books and know they aren't alone. It may even lead to them fixing their problems.
Reading YA books can help kids cope with their problems and make them feel less alone in their situations. In an article, "Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie, author of many young adults novels, he states,"I write to help people fight their monsters". The reason Alexie writes is not to corrupt the youth with dark thoughts and ideas but to relate to them and show them they are not alone. I have had problems with racism due to me being African American so reading books about racism and unfair treatment helps me and shows me I'm not alone. It doesn't teach me to be racist towards other people or to discriminate against others.
I agree with the fact that teen fiction can be dark and have topics that can be depressing but that does not mean the novel is teaching you how to be depressed or that you should be depressed. I understand that people think teens reading about dark topics is bad for them just want to protect their children from reading about the harsh realities of life. In source #3 titled, ¨Yes Teen Fiction Can Be dark -- but it shows teenagers they aren't alone" by Maureen Johnson. She explains, ¨ Writing about self-harm isn't teaching you how to self-harm ¨ I agree with what Ms. Johnson said. Writing about it isn't going to teach you how to do it. Unless it was a book titled ¨HOW TO SELF HARM¨ or ¨WHY YOU SHOULD SELF HARM¨. Any person with common sense would not write a book to purposefully get you to harm yourself. Authors become inspired by past experiences to write books on topics such as depression and anxiety. They write about the things they have gone through and put them into characters with a story behind it to tell the reader not to act like the characters but to learn from the characters mistakes. Authors do not write YA books to teach teens to do things like drugs but to prevent them from doing them in the future or help stop them from doing it now.
So again, reading young adult fiction does not corrupt the reader or change them for the worst. Sherman Alexie, in the same article from above, argues Meghan Cox Gurdon's argument about ya books being too dark for teens by saying ,¨ Does she [Gurdon] believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell ?¨ Alexie is saying, in my own words, how does a teen reading a YA novel with dark themes affect them when they already know about these things and experience them every day? Everyone who reads YA books has demons in their life but reading about them isn't going to make it any worse than it is.
In conclusion to this argument, I do not believe that just reading YA fiction corrupts people into doing things they shouldn't do. I believe it shows people they are not alone in their internal or external battles and maybe even helps people to quit or stop doing what they are doing.
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I was proud of it so I wanted to post it even though no one will read it.
Comment your position on this topic or how I could make this argumentative essay better
