Adolescent Fiction: Both Utopic and Dystopic

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Both Utopic and Dystopic

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is very engaging. It kept my interest and begged me to continue reading. Happy Jack Harvest Camp, the place unwinding is described, is located in beautiful Happy Jack, Arizona. It is a very scenic location described as nestled on a pine-covered ridge. The book elaborates, “the sedating forest views give way to the breathtaking red mountains of Sedona to the west”. The campgrounds are maintained as well as a resort, including the soothing bright pastel colors found throughout the camp. The staff even dresses as if they are on vacation sporting Hawaiian shirts. Every part of the camp atmosphere chosen by the staff is happy and perfect, making Happy Jack Harvest Camp Utopic.

Throughout Roland being harvested, he is making “happy” comments. For example, he describes the medical staff’s scrubs as the color of happy faces instead of bright yellow. In his last thoughts he describes the surgeons as flower petals closing in around him, as if he is a flower. When he describes the mass amount of memories he is having he says the memories ‘bloom’. All of theses examples are mixed in with the comments of Roland telling the nurse “I want you all to go to hell” and “I’m scared”. Plus details of the unwinding process including, the surgeons getting closer and closer to his head as pieces of the table continue to be rolled away and unneeded. Surgeons come and go from the room signifying their ‘part’ is harvested. This is very dystopic and quite disturbing.

As we discussed in class, it is very creepy to think about how real parts of this situation could be. We have tables that break apart and roll away and nurses are hired to tell you everything will be okay when you go under for an operation. Both seem much scarier after reading this book. In the publics’ eyes, the nice nurse is there to keep my anxiety level down and comfort me. But this book tells me I should question his/her motives and make sure I know why I am going under the knife.

Harvesting kids has become daily life portrayed in a happy manner. To these surgeons it is just another day at the office where they are doing their jobs and have apparently been brain washed to believe it is just a job and nothing more. The scenes described at Happy Jack Harvest Camp are both utopic and dystopic because of the nature they are described. When arguing pro-life or pro-choice it is best to understand one another’s point of views and especially think before making irrational laws. Shusterman does a good job of getting readers thinking about the capabilities we have and how we, as a society, need to be careful in the choices we make as science advances.

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Post #9 Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (due MONDAY, 4/30 by class time)

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup explores a number of themes, among them grief, identity, coming of age (Bildungsroman), friendship, love, and others. Kevin, our adolescent narrator, shares his story with us as a poetic narrative which includes poems written in conventional forms and free-form poems. Choose one theme which the book develops, and show its development through the text. As you do so, be sure to consider and articulate how the book's structure (as poems) affects whatever theme you discuss.

Post #7 Warriors Don't Cry (due Sunday 4/15 by 8 pm)

Choices for responses:

1. The title of this text refers to warriors. How are the characters warriors? Are you comfortable with that depiction? Why or why not? Be sure to offer specific description as you explore characterization.

2. While it could certainly be argued that the author of our last novel does place himself in the text, that book is fiction. This text is not; rather, it's a memoir. How does knowing that the book is non-fiction shape your reading of it? Does it cause you to respond differently? If so, how? If not, why not? Consider characters, events, and the historical context carefully as you respond.

Post #6 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (due Sunday, 3/25 by 8 pm)

Post #5 Annie on My Mind (part 2) due Sun 3/11 by 8 pm

You have several different options for your response:

1. How is social transgression framed and treated in the novel? Do you as a reader find that the characters are affirmed or punished for stepping outside of social conventions?

2. We've talked a bit about parallel spaces in texts, spaces in which characters encounter very different experiences. After reading this novel, can we argue that those parallel spaces never intersect? What function might those separate (or not so separate) spaces serve?

3. The story is written in the epistolary (letter writing) tradition. How does that framing affect your reading? Your interaction with characters? Your response?

Post #3 Due by Monday's class (2/20)

For this post, you have three options:

1. Respond to some theme you identify in the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the book.

2. Apply the article's claims to the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the article and the book.

3. Examine the novel as science fiction. How is it both utopic and dystopic in its function? What might it be warning us as a society against? Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the text.

Post #1 Due by Thursday's class (1/26)

Ellen Raskin's novel The Westing Game is a detective novel, yes, but we can tease out many themes as we examine the text. A few we introduced and explored briefly in class today:

the Cinderella effect

the roles of women

identity construction

gaming and strategy

trust (as it relates to other themes or on its own)

oppressive/repressive (think Trites) parents

Choose from a theme on this list or choose a theme you've noted in the text, and write about the way the theme is introduced and developed through the novel. As you show how the theme works throughout the book, be sure to offer specific examples to support your ideas.