Darkness Too Visible Response

  On June 4, 2001, The Wall Street Journal published an article called, "Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon. In the article, she argues that young adult books are far too dark and inappropriate. She does this by bringing up other books that have been considered too dark, such as Go Ask Alice, and The Marbury Lens. She also quotes other authors and parents who think the same way as her.

  Gurdon often uses other perspectives, such as when she quoted a 46 year old mother who found a lot of books at Barnes and Nobles in the Young Adult section very dark and disturbing. She also quoted author called, Chris Lynch, who's against the censorship that's against Young Adult books. Gordon includes a wide variety of perspectives, but I've noticed throughout her article, she has left out a very important point of view. She left out the point of the actual Teens, the teens these books are targeted at. Getting the view of the teens who are actually targeted at, would give your side much more credibility.


  Personally, I completely disagree with Gordon's stance on Young Adults Literature. While I do agree that these books have certainly grown darker, there's no denying that. But, the reason why they are getting darker is because these types of situations are actually happening much more frequently. Gordon references Go Ask Alice, which is a diary about a girl who delves into drug abuse. Nowadays, more teenagers, unfortunately, are abusing more drugs than most adults back then when they were children. Rape, drug abuse, bullying, suicide, and self harming, etc are much more common situations that teenagers are in. The media can't just ignore these situations, so they end up making  stories and writing. These stories could also help others who are or were in the same situations and possibly inform others of these situations. In short, I disagree with her poit and could actually help others instead.