Addiction In YA Literature

Addiction is a condition where a person continues to do an action repeatedly which can disrupt responsibilities the person might have. In Daniel Woodrell's novel, Winter's Bone, many of the characters in the Ozark community have an addiction to some kind of drugs. The protagonist, Ree Dolly lives in a world of addiction in an attempt to bring back her father and will ultimately save her house. People are not only addicted to drugs. Some characters in the novel are addicted to smoking, drugs/medication, and drinking.

Chapter 1 starts with the initial beginning of the students jump from drug user to distributor. This chapter initially begins talking about the definition of being cool in high school, how drugs made you cool when you were either using or sharing them (7), how the dealers could initially get high for free if they would just buy in bulk and sell off just enough to gain profit or make a profit in general (10-13), along with gaining mass popularity amongst peers.

If cocaine were legal, what would the little packages be called? Sweet N' High! Unfortunately, this is an example of what is commonly known as a “crack joke.” Drugs are increasingly being misused and abused. Yet, today’s youth in its ignorance takes drugs as a light matter. It is a different story altogether from someone who has actually used drugs. In Beautiful Boy, journalist David Sheff recounts his own and his son, Nic’s journey of drug abuse. Sheff’s memoir is a haunting experience filled with tears, brawls, and ample amounts of crystal meth. In Beautiful Boy, Sheff, while applying a casual and conversational style, effectively uses rhetoric to share his experience with an addicted teen.

According to DrugAbuse.gov, long-term studies of drug use patterns show that most high school students who use other illegal drugs have tried marijuana first. Teens are often peer pressured into doing drugs; they get to comfortable with them they inevitably reframe to harder and more potent drugs. In Cole Meyer’s short story, “Addiction” the narrator is a struggling teen addict and his addiction continues to worsen as he ages. Meyer uses setting, character and conflict to illustrate the devastating effects of addiction on the individual.

The word addiction has a strong, negative connotation and defined as the states of being enslaved to a habit or action. In the novel, The Glass Castle, Rex is addicted to alcohol. He is dependent on alcohol, constantly craving it and spend money on it despite the family’s financial situation.The text describes him, on many occasions, making his way down to the Green Lantern, the bar, with a drink already in his hand. Rex also takes money from the family to buy booze instead allowing the children to spend it on food to eat. For example, he would always demand for a part of Rosemary’s paycheck, refusing to take “no” as an answer. Additionally, Maureen is addicted to alcohol as well as smoking. Just like Rex, her actions suggest that she abuses

Nic Sheff was 18 and collage bound when he discovered crystal meth. At first his father had no idea. Then came a call from his school, the late nights, the lying, the ghoulish pallor and the wasting away. David’s life became an eternity of waiting, for the phone to ring, the door to open, or

Stories such as Farinick’s are not uncommon. Recent U.S. government reports have shown the increasing amount of teen deaths as a result of drug overdoses. Horrifyingly, teen’s perceptions about drugs have been changing. In the Monitoring the Future survey, a survey run by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Lloyd D. Johnston, the principal reporter for this survey reported that only 36% of 12th graders said that they thought that smoking pot is harmful (Johnston).

I was reading Ellen Hopkins’, Fallout, the third and final book of the Crank series. Although the first book Crank was my favorite of the series, Fallout held up its own for a solid finish. Hopkins took a chance by changing the main character narratives to relate to her children instead of Kristina Snow. This allowed for a noteworthy story by itself. The title could not be more appropriate for this book, considering the state of the characters’ lives. This widely successful series takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride of the harsh reality that is addiction to crystal meth and how it obliterates Kristina’s life. Fallout takes a different route from the previous books, Crank and Glass. Instead of telling the story in the view of Kristina Snow, star of before mentioned books and user of crystal meth, it is in the point of view in her three oldest kids Hunter, Autumn, and Summer.

Kristina faces many, many different conflicts throughout the book. The most obvious one is her struggle with her addiction. “We used to do coke, till "Just Say No" put the stuff out of reach. Now it's crank. Meth.

Starting off in part one of Lit by Mary Karr, we meet a girl named Mary. It is evident right off of the bat that Mary struggles not only with a drug and alcohol addiction, but that a lot of the characteristics that she possesses were acquired from her rough childhood and early adulthood. Mary seems to have a very close bond to her father, one that her and her mother have never had the privilege of having. Although it is apparent that her father thinks very highly of her and loves her, he left her and her mother when she was a teenager and never returned home. As readers, we can tell that this has greatly affected Mary and her ability to connect to other people.

The study that I will critique and review in this paper is called “Adolescent Ecstasy Use: A Test of Social Bonds and Social Learning Theory” and it was published by an associate professor, Jason A. Ford, and a professor, Laurent B. Ford in the department of sociology in University of Central Florida in 2014. It is a research paper that focuses of the relationship between two social theories, social control theory and social learning theory, and ecstasy usage among adolescents. The theoretical perspective that this study chose to examine separated this specific study among the other in its field of study because it fill a missing point in understanding why ecstasy usage among adolescents increased. In the following paper, I will be reviewing different strengths and weaknesses of this study while using a descriptive language. In general this is astudy that

Once this girl started with the drugs, she could not stop. As soon as she tried the first drug, it lead to all of the other drugs and things that she did. Her first time doing the drug was an accident, and she did not know, but she made the wrong choice in continuing to do them. She said it gave her a feeling of belonging and love that she had never felt before. If her parents or her close friends had paid more attention to her, then some of the events that happened would not have happened. Her heavy drug use lead to her runaway from home to the streets, involvement in crime, her prostitution, and her visit to the insane asylum. She found a "best friend" (Chris) - one that would give her drugs - and they decided to runaway and leave their family and friends to start their own shop in San Francisco. They thought they could not handle their parents telling them what is right and what is wrong, but that is what they needed to hear. They were naive in thinking they could live their lives alone without any rules or any authority.

Australia banned and censored a book, E for Ecstasy. I support the censorship of this book because it could contain information that may encourage the use of Ecstasy. The book might inform readers that people feel better or good when they take this illegal drug. Moreover, censoring this book is good for the public because the book could influence poor life choices like taking Ecstasy. If young teenagers and adults get their hands on this book, the outcome could end up disastrous with young people experimenting with Ecstasy or passing along information to others telling them to try Ecstasy. The book may also romanticize the idea of taking Ecstasy. For example, the author describes to the readers feeling stronger and happier when you take Ecstasy.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a book of haunting poems, but don’t be mistaken this is not your typical collection of poetry. Each poem flows into the next to create a story that will stick in your mind for years to come. Kristina Georgia Snow is the golden child her mother always wanted, she has a great home life, she’s doing well in school and she’s very well behaved. Until a court orders her to spend three weeks in Albuquerque with the man who fathered her but didn’t raise her. This is the beginning of a lot of firsts for Kristina, she meets Bree, Adam and of course, the monster: crank. She goes home a totally different person as she tries to balance her old life and her new habits. This book successfully portrays the ugliness of drug addiction

In Bret Aston Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction, drug and alcohol abuse runs rampant throughout the novel. The main characters of the novel, Sean Bateman, Lauren Hynde, and Paul Denton, heavily use drugs and alcohol throughout the novel. Moreover, as the author portrays, drug and alcohol use are heavily integrated into the college campus culture, as nearly every character is using a wide assortment of drugs or alcohol readily available in the 1980s. Even though awareness of this problem is spreading, drug and alcohol use is still a big concern decades later. First, the problem of alcohol use and abuse will be explained. An analysis will reveal that Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction is an accurate portrayal of the drug culture on college