Lengua y Expresión Escrita IV
Blas Bigatti Barros Paola, Gulin Rocío
Sparks Fly Upward: An analysis of a Young Adult Text. Zombies have become a very popular topic, especially among adolescents. During the last years, zombies have made their way throughout literature and screen. “Sparks fly upward” by Lisa Morton (2006) is a zombie story written in a diary format and narrated in first person. The story is centered on a girl, Sarah, who lives in a community which tries to survive after a Zombie apocalypse. She becomes pregnant and is forced to have an abortion since the community can not afford another mouth to feed. In order to have the abortion, she, her boyfriend Tom and the community doctor Dale go to a clinic. Unfortunately, zombies, who when alive protested about abortions, await them outside the clinic. Young Adult Literature (YAL) is a term used to define texts that are appealing to teenagers. Taking into account the characteristics of the story, the characteristics of YAL described by Robert C. Small Jr., and the themes and archetypes described by Hertz and Gallo (1996), “Sparks fly upward” can be taken as an instance of YAL. Trying to explain Young Adult Literature is difficult, because many people think that only teen romances, mysteries and horror series belong to YAL. However, other texts can be considered a case of YAL because of their characteristics. Small offers some characteristics that are unique to Young Adult novels: The main character is a teenager; events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers; the main character is the center of the plot; dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang; the point of view presents an adolescent’s interpretation of events and people; the teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, and independent; the novel is short, rarely more than 200 pages; the actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of the conflict. Additionally, Hertz and Gallo mention certain universal themes and archetypes that characterize young adult literature, such as the eternal question “Who am I?” and “Where do I fit in?”, divorce, family conflicts, dealing with death, teenage pregnancy and political injustice. What is more, they mention two archetypes that are recognized in many stories, situational archetypes and character archetypes. They point out situational archetypes like the journey or quest of the hero, birth/death/rebirth and the search for self, and character archetypes such as the hero, the wise old man/woman, the matriarch/patriarch and the innocent child. The text about adolescence written by Koelling (2004) mentions certain characteristics that adolescents possess according to their age. In general, teenager’s bodies and minds change. The same happens to their interests in reading. Intellectually, their vocabulary increases rapidly, they have a basic understanding of literary techniques and use them in their own writing. Also, they can differentiate between fact and opinion. Writing in a journal can help teens sort through their feelings and make wiser life choices when they have to face challenging situations. Besides, while their bodies change they get interested in relationships, especially romantic, and sex is common at around the age of sixteen. Coinciding with Small’s characterization of YAL, the main character of the story, Sarah, is the center of the plot. Although she is not a teenager, she possesses certain teenage characteristics. For example, she keeps a diary in which she writes all 1