Would you change the ending of the story in any way? Tell your ending.
Why would you change it?
One issue I found with the end of the novel was that there is an almost-preachy avoidance of going "too violent" with the characters. The final "war" scene has the perpetration of violence being found principally outside the main characters. I find this interesting for several reasons.
One, one of the most powerful themes in Lord of the Flies is that evil is found within us, not outside of us. In Golding's novel (written for adults), children are evil and cruel; does Ward's reticence in this area shed light on YA literature as a whole, or just Ward's personal boundaries? YA is typically perceived as having no boundaries--incest, violence, murder, rape--all have been addressed in YA literature, and Ward creates some characters who seem to delight in cruelty and evil; yet he reigns these features in for the novel's climax. Why?
Two: Can a novel's characterization suffer from this kind of authorial choice? Should a novel have a different focus or redemptive purpose if it's written to be read by children? How much "real" is too real? I think this novel offers an interesting space for discussing the role, purpose, and use of violence in children's literature.
I love that you liked this book because my DJJ student also loved it! He finished it in one week! I completely agree with you on the ending because as I read it with him I thought that the ending was too nice and tidy when it comes to setting up the second book. I just felt that I could tell to early and easily that the book was going to leave us hanging for the second book, which kind of annoys me because I feel like it is a marketing ploy from the author, editors, and publishers. I like it when YA lit shows the violence that children are capable of, similar to Lord of the Flies; however, my DJJ student didn't seem to mind how the characters did not go off the deep end in terms of evil/cruelty. I think there is definitely a conscious decision by author, editors, and publishers as to how they develop their characters especially being in the YA genre. I hope you get to have this discussion with students because it would be really interesting for them to analyze the YA genre in terms of character role and purpose.
ReplyDeleteYou say authorial choice, but I wonder if it was editorial choice? YA is big business these days--and my YA author-friends admit to making editorial decisions based on marketing feedback. Have you read the Divergent series? In the last novel, she didn't cave--that's all I'll say--so as not to spoil. I love that you are thinking now of synergetic texts--how one text can offset another and be linked by theme--
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