Response to 'Darkness Too Visible'

           The article, ‘Darkness Too Visible’, by Meghan Cox Gurdon is about how young adult books can affect negatively on young adults. She shows that young adult books can be very inappropriate and reading them will surround innocent young readers with damage and losses. For example, she states, ‘No family is obliged to acquiesce when publishers use the vehicle of fundamental free expression principles to try to bulldoze coarseness or misery into their children’s lives.’ Clearly, she is trying to prove to parents and guardians that no families would want their children to read books about the dark things that exist in the world. She depicts that a child’s and tenderness of heart is very important but reading young adult books can ruin that.

Meghan Cox Gurdon used many craft moves to make the readers feel a certain way. For example, she uses many loaded words to describe young adult literature. She describes them as ‘grueling material’. Her description of the books aim to make readers feel horrible about today’s young adult books. This was also an example of the author’s bias and how she is against these types of books. Moreover, describing it so negatively gives the readers a visual image of the material and how it can bring misery into a child’s life. To strongly support her claim she includes a mother’s perspective in the article. After a mother was looking for a good book to gift her daughter in Barnes and Nobles she said, ‘nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self- mutilation, this dark, dark stuff.’ The author provides this quote to make the readers realize that young adult books are unfavorable to parents. Meghan Cox Gurdan wants the readers to see how gruesome today’s young adult books are in the perspective of a caring and loving mother. However, getting a perspective only from a mother doesn't show that much opinion on young adult literature as a whole. She never mentioned the perspective of a young teenager on young adult books, which would most likely oppose to the author’s claim. After all, who would know better about a harmful affect caused by reading young adult books? Of course the majority of people who actually read those types of books, which are teenagers.

Although, Meghan Cox Gurdon strongly supports her claim with supportive evidence, I disagree with her. Letting young teens read books about the things that might happen in real life will prepare them for the worst. Reading young adult literature does not only teach teens about horrible things that could happen in life but also teaches them to valiantly act upon it. If readers do not get exposed to the dark and horrible things then facing them on firsthand would be a fearful experience. Therefore, learning negative things before they actually happen will help young teens to deal with the problems that they might be facing in the future.

Insurgent By Veronica Roth

“Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love.” - Morihei Ueshiba

If someone close to you was about to die and you had the chance to save that person, what would you do? Would you risk your life in order to save theirs? Would you care so much to die for them? Many people would not but some people would go to any extent of bravery and sacrifice themselves for their loved ones. ‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth is an inquisitive and amazing book to read. She showed the condition of people when someone close to them dies. I never experienced a death of a close person of mine, but Veronica Roth showed me how it feels in that particular situation. She portrayed that arduous people who act as if someone’s death is a burden do not help their physical and emotional state of being. They actually mentally weaken themselves which negatively affects upon the decisions that they make in life.

While reading ‘Insurgent’ it is easy at first to notice and understand the characters’ responses to their difficulties. The story is about a dystopian society in Chicago where everyone is divided into five factions, each with their own qualities and lifestyle in which they live upon. When someone turns sixteen they take an aptitude test to determine their faction, Beatrice Prior (Tris), however, had a result of Divergent. This meant she fit into more than one faction which is considered dangerous since a Divergent mind cannot be controlled or made to adapt to one certain way of thinking. The faction leaders of Erudite are terrified as to what Divergent people are capable of and wants to kill any of them in sight. Throughout this book, several characters demonstrate how their thoughts and actions convey bravery and love, which shows readers how to deal with problems in life.

As Tris gets used to being a Dauntless, she notices that most people from other factions criticize the Dauntless faction and often sees them as abrasive. In the faction the Dauntless have to go through many tests to show their abilities of getting through any kind of obstacles that come in their way. Knowingly, Tris realized that the Dauntless initiation teaches everyone an important lesson -how to keep going. This realization is very important for readers to understand because it shows that having a fear is not wrong, but being brave can help someone face the fear. Alternatively, moving on from something someone loves may be strenuous and overwhelming. It requires great strength. However, people who grieve over something do not solve their problems but they only worsen it by making themselves insecure and weaker the next time they face a problem. Tris shows that every time someone experiences or goes through something horrid, the situation only strengthens that person to be more confident the next time they face a similar obstacle. It is almost like an emotional stage of bravery of letting things go and having enough courage to move on without that person or thing.

Some people are used to departing from things they love. In fact, they are immune to it. In other words, their emotional feelings show self-control and the capability of letting things go which I, personally, think shows maturity.

Almost everyone tells Tris is to be brave. She does many horrifying and courageous things in the book. Unfortunately, when war arises between factions, Tris is forced to make hard decisions and has to choose sides. However, she proves to be a great companion by making considerate decisions and coping through many challenges. She looked for a future event that would help keep her motivated. With her selfless mind and body she makes many sacrifices. For example, she turned herself in to save people from Jeanine Matthew's simulation, a system that controls people to do certain things, on people to commit suicide. Jeanine wanted Tris because of her aptitude results which were three results, something that rarely ever happened. Tris wanted Jeanine to stop killing the innocent people, who did not do anything, just because of her. Her friends told her not to go to Jeanine, however, she did. She was the only one brave enough to step forward and stop what was happening. Clearly, Tris was heroic and valiant enough to make such a decision which almost cost her life. Her brilliant attitude can show readers to stand up for what they feel is right. It shows us that caring for who or what we love has value and if we do not act upon it, who will? Moreover, Tris shows that we can do something about cruel and injustice situations. We can help things get better by finding the solutions to problems. We can create the acts of defiance even for the smallest things. We have the bravery inside of us but it is only us who can make the decision to use it during the right time.

Along with bravery and making sacrifices, determination about love comes in easily. Even when so many people were dying and so many things were going on, love was still visible. People sacrificed for other people for the sake of love. For instance, Tobias Eaton, Tris’s boyfriend, is very overprotective about Tris and would do anything for her. When Tris offered to go to the Erudite headquarters and stop Jeanine from killing innocent people Tobias told  her not to go. He was worried that something severe would happen to her and did not want her to get hurt in any way. In the conversation between Tobias and Tris it was very clear and compelling of how much he loves her. It also shows how bold and daring Tris was.     ‘ “I’m not important. Everyone will do just fine without me,” I say. “Who cares about everyone? What about me?” ’ (page 311) Right when Tris was about to take one of the biggest risk yet, Tobias tried to stop her. As can be seen, Tobias cares very much about Tris and would never want any danger to come near her. If something happened to her, he would get downhearted and would have a hard time trying to live happily. Furthermore, no matter how unrealistic the situation may be, it always has it’s own way in which it connects back to real life. Many people can connect to what Tobias said to Tris before she was about to risk her life. People who are caring and loving would tell someone not to do something if it would affect them negatively. Even though the situations presented in the book are not as severe in real life, little things, such as stopping them from doing dangerous things shows acts of love and care.

All in all, it is very clear that gallantry and affection is shown throughout the book many times. The author showcased these themes by stating many details, actions, thoughts, and dialogue. At the beginning of the book, Tris starts out as a shy and delicate person. However, by the end of the book, many people would’ve died without her valiant sacrifices. Many people can connect to this because loving someone can lead to making huge sacrifices for them, which was the basic idea of the book. This might be a person who we really love the most such as our mother, father, sibling, or friend. At some point in our lives, we have made some little or big sacrifices for the people we love. It is important for us to be brave and do what we feel is right no matter how frightening it is. Furthermore, most of the situations in this book symbolize things in life or represent hardships. The author gives us positive consequences and negative consequences to problems just to show readers that awful things can happen in life. Realistically, problems do not always have a solution or a good solution to it, which was what Veronica Roth depicted in ‘Insurgent’.

The Hunger Games

          "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins is an adventurous and amazing book to read. It's about the ruins of North America which lies on Panem, the Capitol.  Everyone is divided into twelve districts with very strict rules. The Capitol is very cruel and harsh to the people. They send one boy and one girl from each district between ages twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games on live. It is very torturous and depressing for participants to go through. People have to kill each other until only one person is alive. Overall, a major theme this book depicts is bravery. It is shown through out the book in many characters by their actions and thoughts. Without bravery no one would have survived the Hunger Games with audacity. The feeling of boldness takes over all the other emotions which was something many people had to do in this book. "The Hunger Games" also tells you a lot about love and  attachment. It can teach you that giving up something for someone you love will always be worth it and that you will never regret it. Loving someone also means that you care for them and would do anything for their safety, which is something many characters do in this book even in the Games. 

          One example is that, during the reaping day sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen decides to volunteer for her sister Primrose in the Games. Although she shows her love and care for her sister she also shows her determination and bravery. The Games is a very scary place to be in and killing people also takes a lot of courage especially when you have to kill people with no experience. Knowing this, Katniss still let her bravery take over her fear and made a decision to be part of the Hunger Games. This can teach you that even if life gives you some obstacles to go through, putting an act of determination can always help you go through them. It would have been very hard for Katniss to see her young innocent sister in the Games and I understand that. Even so, through out the book she made it very clear that she would take her own life for her sister's. Furthermore, "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins is a book people can read and think about how brave they have been for their own family whenever they were in troubled times.