YA fiction argument essay

            Young adult fiction has been the center of a large debate over the past years, and cases of schools or libraries banning or removing books keep popping up. For example, a school in Stockton banned the controversial book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, because of themes such as sexual abuse and because “the book would create controversy in the classroom.” Even though YA fiction can be dark or offensive to some, inspiring books help suffering teens and teaches other ones about what the world is really like. Teens should have the choice of what they read, and their access to books should not be limited.

            “Dark” YA fiction doesn’t scare or hurt teens, because they are aware of these dark subjects. Many teens have been victim to or seen cases of domestic violence, and according to the U.S. Department of Justice, 1.8 million teens in the U.S. have been victims of sexual assault (2014). Teens are not as innocent and ignorant as many adults may think they are, and trying to shield them from what the real world is like, even if it can be a dark place, is a futile approach to the matter. Sherman Alexie, the author of the aforementioned young adult book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, says in a Wall Street article of his, “[would-be saviors] wanted to protect me from sex when I had already been raped. They wanted to protect me from evil though a future serial killer had already abused me.” This quote shows that shielding teens from horrible things they are already experiencing is pointless, and that adults should stop trying to protect teens from the real world.

            These YA books not only don't harm most teens, they actually help many and inspire them. Teens that have suffered hardships, from drug abuse to anorexia, can relate to characters experiencing the same things. Sherman Alexie once again tells of teens he met who had suffered various hardships and told him that his book was the only one they had read entirely. This book that many adults had deemed threatening to teens helped teens who went through the same controversial topics in the book! Mr Alexie himself said that he would have loved to read his own book when he was suffering as a child, because he could have related to it and it would have helped him face the monsters of his world.

            Those opposing YA fiction say it shocks and hurts readers, and causes them to lose their innocence to horrible things too early in their life. Meghan Cox Gurdon says in her article Darkness Too Visible, "If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a fall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously portrayals of what life is." Although young adult books can indeed give a very dark and sometimes depressing view on life, it is not a distorted view on the world. These dark topics may not always occur in everyday life, and some may be fictional, but many are very real to millions of people. These books are not meant to show what life is for every normal person on the Earth, they instead show the individual struggles of some teens.

            Although many may disagree, YA fiction helps teens more than it hurts them. Banning books only has negative effects xXZS as it stops teens from observing a view on the world they should be informed about, if they aren’t already. Sometimes adults do more horrible things to teens than books ever will, and such was the case of a boy from an Ivy League school Sherman Alexie met, who explained to him that his father was forcing him to join the army instead of letting him follow his dream of being a writer. Even the most privileged teens go through horrible things, and as Mr. Alexie says, “he was old enough to die and kill for his country. And old enough to experience the infinite horrors of war,” but according to some adults, he was too young to read disturbing material? Young adult books are meant to be read by young adults, and adults need to stop trying to change that.