Escaping from reality is something that most humans desire. Some people cannot handle their existence and they revert to drugs or self-destruction as a way to escape for a short time or even permanently. In Smack by Melvin Burgess and Valiant by Holly Black, the main characters try to escape their reality through drugs and self-destruction. Teenagers need an outlet of hope when there is none in an endless sea of darkness. Valiant arguably offers a more hopeful outcome for young adults because of its message, character depth and likeability while Smack offers no hope for its far-fetched characters and oftentimes over-the-top storyline. Melvin Burgess forwardly says in the author’s note of Smack “The book isn’t fact; it isn’t even faction. But it’s all true, every word,” the reader’s first impression is of the book’s authenticity. The claim of truth in “every word” is likely more in the idea of the story, and the fact that yes, someone, somewhere went through this, but not this exact scenario. Teenagers may be able to sympathize with Tar’s reasons for running away, he is in an abusive situation, and has every right to want to get away from it. Gemma, however, is a rebellious teen with overprotective parents. Is this really a reason to run away from home and become addicted to drugs? It seems like a child who decides to protest against a D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) lesson to me. She is a fickle character, until she finds heroin, and then she becomes reasonable. This is backward, and irritating. Tar is a weak character that the reader can sympathize with at times because of his constant struggle with the drug. The reader then loses that sympathy as he fails at his fight to come clean. He begins as a nice, polite boy wh... ... middle of paper ... ... different abusive situations. Each story has a general message to teenagers that it seems to get across well; life is rough. I think that Tar should have been given a better chance at survival in Smack, but I think he should have had to work for it. I also think that Val should have had to work a little harder for her life to get back to normal in Valiant. She was able to come right back into her life like nothing really happened, when so much did. These books depict real problems and Val is rewarded and given hope for her good deeds, while Tar suffers for his bad decisions and given no hope at all. When dealing with situations such as these, teens should be shown a way out of the black hole. Works Cited Black, Holly. Valiant: A Modern Faerie Tale. New York : Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2005. Print. Burgess, Melvin. Smack. New York: Avon Books, Inc., 1999. Print.
...lliams wrote in The Cocaine Kids was accurate. Instead of just writing more facts and statistics about these teenagers and cocaine, he told a story. He wrote something that more individuals can read and relate too. I believe the Williams successfully brings value and importance to these drug dealers lives. Williams shows drug dealing in the inner city in a very humane way. Their lives are closed to almost all outsiders because of the fact they are involved with illegal drugs. But after reading this book it showed me that even though they live a very difficult and dangerous way of life, they are not as different to us outsiders then we think. They too, have to continuously make tough and valuable decision to live and be successful within society. These dealers are just kids who had little time to be young and are trying to survive in a violent and corrupt world.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto 1. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. vol. 1.
Throughout “Chasing the Scream” many intriguing stories are told from individuals involved in the drug war, those on the outside of the drug war, and stories about those who got abused by the drug war. Addiction has many social causes that address drug use and the different effects that it has on different people. In our previous history we would see a tremendous amount of individuals able to work and live satisfying lives after consuming a drug. After the Harrison Act, drugs were abolished all at once, but it lead to human desperation so instead of improving our society, we are often the reason to the problem. We constantly look at addicts as the bad guys when other individuals are often the reasons and influences to someone’s decision in
Jewett, Sarah Orne. "A White Heron." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 131-139.
Phillips, James E. "Renaissance Concepts of Justice and the Structure of The Faerie Queen, Book V," HLQ, (Feb. 1970), 33, 103-120.
...ilies’. Michael Wamsley and Janelle Hornsby were almost killed themselves because they driven on the highway after addicting meth; moreover, they were still high many hours, the police came and rescued them. Janelle’s mother thought the behavior that her daughter did is such a waste of time. If Wamsley and Janelle haven't addict to meth in the party, they will never face the accident; still, their family will never lose hope on their child.
...n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. It is a progression on one hand in its use of modern language, setting, and style but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on the thematic level. In addition, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author marks it out as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes of myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have been endlessly changing themselves throughout history and, by some strange transforming or enchanting power endlessly staying the same.”
Drugs is one of the themes in this story that shows the impact of both the user and their loved ones. There is no doubt that heroin destroys lives and families, but it offers a momentary escape from the characters ' oppressive environment and serves as a coping mechanism to help deal with the human suffering that is all around him. Suffering is seen as a contributing factor of his drug addiction and the suffering is linked to the narrator’s daughter loss of Grace. The story opens with the narrator feeling ice in his veins when he read about Sonny’s arrest for possession of heroin. The two brothers are able to patch things up and knowing that his younger brother has an addiction. He still buys him an alcoholic drink at the end of the story because, he has accepted his brother for who he really is.
A recent young adult novel has stirred up a lot of controversy in the world of writing literature. The issue is that current young adult literature is too dark for teen readers, or is merely more realistic than previous works for teens. In early June 2011, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial written by book critic Meghan Cox Gurdon says how dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from ages of 12 to 18. As I write rhetorically about this argument meaning the understanding of or approach to human interaction or based on their purpose and motivation.
Warner, Marina. From the Beast to the Blond on Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. New York: Chatto & Windus, 1994. Print.
Some people argue that the drug users aren’t the heroin victims. One writer notes, 'The parents of the user who steals from them, abuses them, physically, emotionally and mentally, the siblings who suffer the loss of care and love but who also get abused and used by the user, the kids of the user who learn that the parent's desire for smack is greater than the desire to be a parent,' are the real heroin victims (Fitzgerald, 2000). This problem therefore effects not only the user but the society living around them as well.
Beautiful Boy was released in 2008 and approximately at the same time another book Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines was published. The second book is written by Nic Sheff, the addicted son who gives reader different perspective on the same events that were described by his father. These two books are unique in their own way, since they give two different perspectives on the same, very widespread and so difficult issue - the struggle with substance abuse.
Williams, Terry. 1989. The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring. New York: Da Capo Press.
“The Raven.” The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill 2009. Print
Schulze, Ivan L. "Notes on Elizabethan Chivalry and "The Faerie Queene"" Studies in Philology 30.2 (1933): 148. JSTOR. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.