Good morning and welcome to my lecture! Today we will be comparing and contrasting two great examples of modern Young Adult literature.
All writers have a distinctive literary style and use of descriptive language. This can allow them to manipulate their audiences and associate emotions to their characters. This can influence a reader to feel sympathy, hatred, or anything else the author desires, therefore creating a more vivid and enjoyable tale.
This essay will explore this by comparing and contrasting two Young Adult literature pieces; “The Fifth Wave”, by Rick Yancey, and “The Maze Runner”, by James Dashner.
“The Fifth Wave” is set in a world in which an alien species known as the ‘Others’ came to Earth with the intent to wipe them out through 5 phases, with the final still to come. The story begins with a survivor of the first four waves, Cassie, being separated from her family and going on an adventure with the mysterious Evan. Meanwhile, Ben, another survivor, finds himself enrolled in a military program to defend the Earth against the Others under the squad name Zombie. But when he realises that his aim is to set to friendly survivors rather than aliens, as he’s been told, and his military superiors are in fact not what they seem, he and his troop go rogue and seek answers. James Dashner’s “The Maze Runner” tells the story of Thomas, who awakens with no
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He has written 15 novels and 1 memoir. His novel “The Fifth Wave” was one of the most awarded books of 2015, being a New York Times bestseller, winning the Red House children’s book award, and being voted best book for teens and Young Adults by Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Slate and the Washington Post among other notable awards. James Dashner is from Austell, Georgia, and is a graduate of Brigham Young University in Utah. He has written 19 novels, winning awards such as the 2008 Whitney award, 2011 ALA Best fiction for Young Adults, and 2012 Young Reader’s choice
By choosing strong and well-thought out words, it allows the readers to better pay attention to detail and recollect more material. Influential diction causes the readers to become reeled in and intrigued in the novel. The narrator writes, “You’d fine the high school phenoms running circles around the overweight has-beens, guys who’d effortlessly played above-the-rim years ago now trying to catch their breath and salvage what was left of their once-stylish games” (Moore 44). Using words like ‘phenoms’ and ‘has-beens’ causes the author and the reader to relate. The narrator creates a connection between himself and his audience by using words his readers can understand and empathize with. Wes says, “You’d find the drug dealers there...smelling like a fresh haircut and with gear on that was too fine for sweating in” (Moore 44). Moore uses imagery and tugs at our senses to allow his audience to better picture the situation he is explaining and describing. Imagery, along with strong diction, generates a more engaging novel. The storyteller’s sentence structure varies from short to long. This allows the reader to stay interested and keeps the author’s sentences flowing easily. Wes Moore, the narrator, is guilty of inspiring and influential diction and
Why do the words that authors use in their writing help set the overall atmosphere of the story? In the story, "What Do Fish Have to Do With Anything," a young boy named Willie and his cautious mother, who were abandoned by their father, come across a beggar, and Willie grows curious of his character, thus leading him to question him. After a series of encounters, Willie learns that the homeless man was not what he seemed, but a man of wisdom. In the story, “Dark They Were, And Golden Eyed” by Ray Bradbury, a party of humans arrive in Mars and try to build their new lives there after an apocalypse on the Earth. One of the humans, Harry Bittering, is skeptical about Mars and how living there may not be the best idea. In both “Dark They Were,
The writer of a fiction text uses plot, setting and characters to create imagery and influence the reader's response to how the author wishes the reader to perceive a situation. This can be done through many methods, which include detailed descriptions of any settings, detail of weather, characters stereotypical of society and colour association.
She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.
In her speech, and the article, titled “The Case for Good Taste in Children’s Books,” Meghan Cox Gurdon addresses the controversy on Young Adult Literature. Throughout her speech at Hillsdale College she labels this current category of fiction as gaudy, inappropriate, and sacrilegious. Gurdon’s claim on the content of YA, for Young Adult, books obtains effectiveness through her ability to incorporate real world examples, the claim made by the opposing view, and a moral push.
Young adult fiction is a unique area in its own way, and one that incorporates forms of lives not common in society. The book, Maze Runner is a typical example of adult fiction in which the author presents scenarios involving various forms of life, which readers can learn from and apply to their own, as well. To begin with, by reading this book in class, students will not only learn about magic and terror, but also about sorrow, bravery, friendship as well as suffering in attempts to find redemption. Everything about this book is fictional but subsequent events from previous ones make things even more real. In the beginning, fiction is achieved when the main character, Thomas,
Craig Silveys remarkable novel Jasper Jones succeeds in its intention to address real issues facing young readers today. To a certain extent, significant life topics including the hardships adolescents face through a coming of age, the deep rooted fear of prejudice and the dark, struggle that is fear and courage are all expressed around the central protagonist Charlie and the small country town of Corrigan. In this essay I will give and insight to these issues, discussing how it involves and affects today youths.
Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of- age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspects of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial
Every author has a different writing style in comparison. They convey their messages in multiple ways; using different tones to evoke certain moods on their readers. Some authors use a few different ways to catch their audiences attention; persuading them using logic, ethics and emotion.
The way the writer communicates is through their style. It appeals to the audiences emotions, it can make the message more artistic and memorable.
Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure out who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of-age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspect of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial book
It seems natural to think about novels in terms of dreams or psychoanalytical realities. Like dreams, novels are fictions, inventions of the mind that, though based on reality, are by definition not exactly and literally true. Conversely, dreams may have some truth to tell but like novels their truth must be interpreted before it can be grasped. Such is the case with John Green's young adult novel, Looking for Alaska. It holds many truths that are relevant to young adults, but to extract those lessons, one must first view the plot and characters through a lens of psychoanalytical theory.
A young adult novel’s audience often desires relatable characters and a meaningful plot that helps them to find resolutions to their own uncertainties concerning life. Many authors employ the literary technique realism to satiate these cravings. Today, there are some popular novels that attempt to imitate this, such as the coveted The Fault in Our Stars or Divergent. These selections, while widespread in the hands of young adult readers today, will not stand the test of time in the way that The Outsiders has, written by S. E. Hinton in 1967, has. This novel, both produced by and intended for teenagers, instead is a better candidate of realistic young adult fiction. Other selections, from Hinton’s era and from today, do not radiate the same
The famous book The Maze Runner by James Smith Dashner, is the famous story about a young man named Thomas who wakes up in the middle of a metallic box that serves as an elevator with no memory of his past, the box opens up to a place called “the Glade” with 60 other boys staring back at him as he tries to run away pass them. Every thirty days a new boy or supplies arrive from the box and for three years they have lived together trying to find clues through the maze that surrounds them; but as they start losing hope it all changes when something unprecedented happens and a girl along with a note arrive through the box. The book along with amazing imagery and relevance to today’s world manages to attract more than just teenagers but anybody that is up for the challenge of the maze, and that is just the purpose of this paper to demonstrate multiple reason of why this book not only deserves to be read but it should hold a place in the literary canon.
We’re in the 21st century, and right now there is such a huge variety of contemporary literature that encourages young adults to look beyond Australian stereotypes. In this speech I will discuss why I agree with contemporary literature encouraging young readers to look beyond