Julia Abb

Dr. Mary Warner

English 112B, W 4:30

2 December 2009

Beyond the Surface: The Truth Behind the Taboo

Life is filled with many stages and the time of adolescence is known to be one of the most difficult and challenging. Within this stage, young adults are faced with the crossroads of transitioning from a child and into the world of adulthood. Adolescents are stuck in a gray area where their past of childhood is locked away, yet they are not quite completely part of the adult world. Inside this gray area, adolescents struggle to not only develop as an individual and discover who they are, but they struggle to deal with everything consuming and possibly damaging taking place in their outside world.

Much of what teens and young adults encounter in their young lives revolve around issues that are seen and depicted as being taboo. Topics such as sexuality, teen pregnancy, death, suicide, drug addiction and rape are only a handful of touchy taboo issues that teenagers experience. The majority of parents and teachers find these issues to be so problematic and forbidden to be approached because of social prohibitions. Since these issues hold such a heavy weight, adults choose to push the problematic topics aside out of fear for possible discussion. The reoccurring problem with adults choosing not to speak about these heavy-hitting issues and inform their children about them is that teens go about their struggling few years of adolescence not be enlightened and left to fend for themselves in the dark.

All of these topics, including teen pregnancy and drug abuse, are very real and reoccurring issues for young adults. It is inevitable to avoid such issues because they are real and an unfortunate part of life. Since parents and teachers frequently choose not to educate and inform their teens about these very real issues, it is essential to have novels, that take on these challenging topics, accessible to teens. Novels have the ability to take on these challenging topics in such a realistic and true manner that the literature is able to present the issues to teens in a way in which they can understand and become educated.

My annotated bibliography contains books that deal with a wide variety of taboo topics that are involved in a young adult�s life. Since it is quite common for teens to experience several of these issues within the course of their young adult life, it is important that they are exposed to them even though their parents and teachers do not know or do not wish to talk about the taboo subjects. By being able to read about these critical and life-changing issues, students have the opportunity to discuss, become informed and educated. By having a young protagonist in each book that experiences these issues, readers are not only able to have a chance to identify with the main character, but the reader is able to gain a great deal of sensitivity over an issue that is so heavy, yet rarely spoken about. The works within this bibliography deal with a variety of human issues that have been negatively labeled as taboo, while they also help to establish these issues as being real and completely relatable for young adults.

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York: Doubleday, 1997.

Author Mitch Albom searches for understanding and the truth to many of the major questions of life and finds his answers with the help of his aging and dying mentor, Morrie Schwartz. Although years have passed since Mitch has last seen Morrie, every Tuesday Mitch meets with Morrie just like it was another day at the university years ago. Although Mitch�s story of Morrie�s life and accomplishments does not deal with a struggling adolescent, it deals with the struggle of coming to terms with death, dying and letting go. Throughout the course of the visits to Morrie, Mitch identifies how life is such a precious thing and given the chance, an old man can teach a great deal about how to live and thrive. Even though this novel does not come from the perspective of a young adult, teen readers can still learn a great deal from this book since it is suitable for every age. Often times teens visualize death as being a traumatic and disabling experience, but this book shows the reader that death and living life is much more: a spiritual experience. (Information from my own reading of the book)

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Penguin Group, 1999.

Melinda�s emotional and spiritual freedom was stolen from her the night Andy Evans raped her at the party. Stuck in a typical high school setting Melinda has only her art and closets to escape to—there no one can hurt or damage her because she is safe. This novel is a great fit for this annotated bibliography based around topics that are taboo since rape happens so often to young females and males, yet is rarely spoken about as a crucial issue. The book illustrates Melinda as an average teenage girl and therefore becomes a real character that readers can identify with; through this realness, readers have the chance to realize that, this could be me and rape is an unacceptable situation that must come to a stop. (Information from my own reading of the book)

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

Hannah Baker leaves a box of cassette tapes on the porch of one of her classmates, Clay. Inside the thirteen tapes, Hannah leaves thirteen reasons behind for why she chose to commit suicide. This novel fits perfectly into the taboo subject category. Teen suicide occurs somewhere everyday and occurs all too frequently. The suicide of young Hannah is such a realistic one that the book opens up once closed doors for discussion and understanding at home and even inside the classroom. (Barnes & Noble online)

Efaw, Amy. After. New York: Viking, 2009.

Devon Davenport is the all-around perfect child: a star athlete and an Honor Roll student. �IT� is the baby that shatters her perfect established world. At fifteen years old, Devon becomes another statistic. Another teenage girl who gets pregnant. Another young girl who does not want to be called a mother yet, so she turns her baby into a �dumpster baby�. In this novel of abandonment the consequences of turning teen pregnancy into a taboo subject become clearly illustrated. The character of Devon is not frowned upon for what she did, but rather is looked at empathetically because this situation could have been avoided with the proper sex education and support from parental figures. (Barnes & Noble online)

George, Madeleine. Looks. New York: Penguin Group, 2008.

Meghan Ball is the lone outsider who physically stands out from the rest of the crowd because of her obesity, while anorexic Aimee Zorn disappears into her destructing body. Both girls are completely real and deal with their own struggle based on size. The book illuminates the issue of eating disorders with real identifiable young girls who are dealing with body image issues in their high school consisting of critical observers. This book can be helpful when trying to teach a unit about body image issues and personal identity. (Information from my own reading of the book)

Guest, Judith. Ordinary People. New York: Penguin Group, 1976.

At first the Jarrets might seem like the ideal American family, but they soon develop into a family with a great deal of dysfunction. After the death of the oldest of two sons, the family gradually begins to break apart and the youngest son Conrad blames himself for his brother�s accidental death. The book deals with the Jarret family in a manner that establishes them as ordinary people dealing with common everyday problems and heartache. Within their ordinary world, emerges Conrad�s attempted suicide. The book becomes adaptable because it is so real, yet also delves into the heavy issue of teen suicide and labels it as being taboo. Eventually the book helps to teach that it is important to accept the reality of life rather than to hide from the pain. (Information from my own reading of the book)

Hopkins, Ellen. Tricks. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009.

Five stories emerge from the lives of very different teenagers. In the beginning the stories remain separated by categories of girls and boys, rich versus poor and strong family ties compared to none at all. The five teenagers are followed on their differing paths which all consist of choices, mistakes and downfalls. Eventually the stories come together and become intertwined in the societal problem of teen prostitution. Although prostitution is a very heavy and negative topic, the strength of the book emerges with its ability to merge together the struggle to find one�s self with the struggle of sexuality and wanting to simply be loved. Since the book is based around a very weighty subject and material, it is important to make sure that possible readers are emotionally secure and intellectually mature. (Barnes & Noble online)

Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Bobby is an average urban teenager who finds out at the age of sixteen that his girlfriend, Nia, is pregnant. In this emotional book, Bobby leaves behind his adolescent world of going to parties and hanging out with friends in order to become a father. In a time where the vast majority of novels about teen pregnancy are written more towards the mother�s perspective, it is a breath of fresh air to see a teenage male character finally man up to his responsibilities and actions. Teen pregnancy is such a topic of taboo because teens are frequently depicted as being immature and selfish, but this story provides hope through Bobby�s realistic and true voice. (Information taken from the student Book Talk presentation of Melissa Garcia)

McCormick, Patricia. Cut. New York: PUSH, 2000.

Callie is the fifteen-year-old troubled protagonist who turns to self-mutilation through cutting in order to deal with her own internal pain and troubles. Once her secret gets out to her parents and family she becomes a patient at a local mental hospital. Her confinement and therapy sessions help Callie to understand her need for self-mutilation and the causes that drive her self-destructive behavior. Addiction can come in the form of multiple disguises, including addiction to prescription painkillers, addiction to alcohol and the need to hurt one�s own physical body through means of starvation and disfiguring. Addiction begins as such a quiet nemesis so it is essential to have books like Cut available for teens to discover the reasons and truth behind such dirty little secrets like self-mutilation. (Barnes & Noble online)

Snadowsky, Daria. Anatomy of a Boyfriend. New York: Random House, 2008.

Dominique Baylor is the main protagonist who discovers her sexuality with her new boyfriend Wes. In a life stage where hormones are raging and lust is flowing, Dominique discovers what a man�s body is like for the very first time. Although the author allows the sexuality of the words to flow with free range throughout the book, Daria Snadowsky sheds light upon the taboo subject of sex and sexuality in a young adult�s life. The book sets the characters within very real situations in a time when they are transitioning from innocent childhood and into the very mature adult world. (Barnes & Noble online)