Young adult Literature: analyzing some of its topics and characteristics in the urban legend “Golden hand” by S.E. Schlosser.

by Cristian Matas

“He tried to scream, but it was cut off suddenly by a terrible pressure against his throat, cutting off his breath. The world went black.”

Young Adult Literature (YAL) comprehends those texts (novels, short stories, urban legends etc.) appreciated by adolescents and whose topics are usually not preferred by the adult public: like “cars, sports and romance novels” (Small, 1992). Young readers may enjoy reading if the material chosen reflects the interests and problems they might have. Small also points out that in order to catch the attention of this massive group of readers, YAL has gradually developed some original characteristics, for instance, having a young protagonist, a limited number of characters, a teenage dilemma (such as fear) a compressed time span and a catchy and simple plot. According to Small, YAL should not avoid controversial topics that are related to teenagers such as sexuality, substance abuse, identity and death so as to establish a better connection between the reader and the story. Herz & Gallo (1996) connect the topic of personal identity to “a wide range of social issues as for instance family life, ethical decisions, violence and urban conflicts” among others.

During the last decades this literature has developed into many different styles and characters, taking into account the needs and interests of the young adult readers (Herz & Gallo, 1996) and creating peculiar genders combination of humour, horror, warning, embarrassment, morality or appeal to empathy (Koelling, 2004). One of the many genders included in YAL is surely represented by urban legends, since they fulfill many of the YAL characteristics and this kind of stories deal with certain topics usually found in this kind of literature. These features have a strong presence in the story written by S. E. Schlosser. This paper will analyze those characteristics and topics in the urban legend “Golden Hand” by S. E. Schlosser in order to use them as tools to engage young adults in reading. 

Many people may ask what an urban legend is about. The phrase "urban legend" entered the popular lexicon in the early 1980s with the publication of folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand's first book on the subject, “The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings” (Norton, 1981). David Emery (2010) explains urban legends as a type of folklore, beliefs and stories of ordinary people ("the folk"). One way to differentiate them from other narrative forms (like popular fiction, TV dramas or novels) is to compare where they come from and how they are propagated. Norton states that urban legends are primarily transmitted from individual to individual, and only in atypical cases via mass media or other institutional means. Urban legends are the essence of storytelling since they can have as many variants as there are tellers of a tale (Emery, 2010). This pleasure to tell stories heard by someone, or happened to a friend of a friend leads directly to the world of young readers previously mentioned. YAL is embedded with the nature of beliefs (Lord, 2011). In fact, young adult catchy elements in urban legends are surely represented by the source of these myths: “they seem to come from nowhere” and by the presence of the unexpected “a twist in the story that is outlandish but just plausible enough to be taken as truth” (Kayne, 2011).

In the urban legend “Golden hand”, it is evident from the beginning that the source of the story is unknown and the aspect of a spooky story is enclosed in each part of the narration. The atmosphere of a city block myth surrounds “Golden hand”, where a woman with a golden hand is murdered by a neighbour. The main character plans a lot of stratagems in order to seduce and kill a woman he has discovered having a golden hand. He succeeds in his plan and finally murders the woman and gets the valuable hand from the body. Nobody suspects him of murder but, one night he receives the visit of the dead lady coming to find her stolen hand back. Scared to death for the apparition of the murdered lady, he cowered backs against his sheets but the unnatural strength of the golden hand presses his face against the pillow and suffocates him. The next morning the housemaid finds him dead with the golden hand clutched around his throat.

“Golden hand” is filled with elements that could easily catch the attention of young adults, whether sitting by the camp fire or listening to a story before going to bed. The author creates a perfect “Halloween atmosphere” in the introduction by saying, “It was a dark night. Clouds covered the moon, and the wind was whistling down the chimney and rattling the shutters of the town house”. “Golden hand” is a creepy story and has the ingredients of an urban legend that has passed from mouth to mouth and that can eventually be modified by other tellers. At this point, it is essential to clarify ‘what kind of adolescents’ would be interested in this story. If we consider the definition of the Young Adult Library Services (YALSA) of the American Library Association (ALA) that consider a young adult "someone between the ages of 12 and 18", then, this urban legend would be appealing for teens who particularly like mystery which implies an intellectual challenge (Bucher & Manning, 2006). In other words, while young adults can escape from reality, mysteries are, in a sense, a simulated reality that these readers can control. Bushman (1997) agrees that when the readers solve a mystery, they may feel a renewed sense of esteem and confidence that they may not have had in their life where things are beyond their control. Bucher & Manning emphasize that a mystery often presents a problem, (most specifically a crime or a specific ill against a character or community) at the beginning and then offers clues that the readers can put together in order to hypothesize about a resolution. This story would also be attractive for adolescents who may enjoy reading a short, simple and catchy plot so as not to get bored. For instance, the narration of the events can fill young readers’ expectation because they can feel represented by the main character who nurtures curiosity towards the mysterious lady as much as the incredible discovery he has made: the golden hand. Despite the common like situation that is portrayed in the story, which could take place in any neighbour, nobody seems to be aware of what is going on. The elements of the unexpected, so typical to urban legend in order to catch the young readers’ attention, are spread all over the story, since the glimpse of the main character’s eyes when he realized the hand of the lady is gold made. It looks like the spontaneous surprise of a teenager who finds something that anybody else has. The engine of the story is represented by greed which is also the sparks of the twists in the plot (“He never paid much attention to the neighbours living on his city block”). The lust to possess the golden arm moves all the actions and it is like the connection line between the elements of surprise and the elements of fear that closes this tale as a ring when the phantom appears: “The glowing phantom moved closer to him, her once-lovely face twisted into a hideous green mask”. 

A fear can be less likely to disrupt a person's everyday life, and one can either learn to avoid the uncomfortable situations or learn how to relax and master them (Becker, 1973). Becker comments that young adult readers may feel attracted by scary stories due to the anxiety that fear generates and all these feelings can encourage the reader to continue reading till the end of the story. As for fear, it is impossible not to mention death as one important topic in “Golden hand” because the main character dies at the end victim of greed. The author describes this death by saying: “He tried to scream, but it was cut off suddenly by a terrible pressure against his throat, cutting off his breath. The world went black”. A young adult's reactions to death and its aftermath may be similar to that of an adult but "with fewer resources and abilities and less maturity to deal with them" (Glass, 1990, p. 160). In some cases, young adults may withdraw, but at the same time be aware of the need to form intimate relationships and to care for others (Erikson, 1968), which also contributes to identity formation (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). Gail Radley (1999) states that death -that "unmentionable" subject of contemporary culture- is portrayed for dramatic effect and often without accompanying the reactions that an adolescent may experience. As Small states, it is relevant for YAL to deal with such a controversial topic since death is part of life and, in some way including that theme can show credibility in a story. 

Another central topic that can be found in “Golden hand” is loneliness. The author describes the main character as a single lonely man who does not care about other people: “He never paid much attention to the neighbours living on his city block”. At the beginning, it seems that the main character is a lonely man but it is not clear why, which turns to be part of the mystery in the story. He shows interest for the woman only because of the golden hand. In other words, it appears that he has some problems to socialize with people. A study carried out by Cassidy & Asher (2008) indicates that feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction can be reliably assessed with young adults, and that adolescents who are socially rejected by their peers are significantly lonelier than other teens. They also affirm that teenagers get through a constant search during their adolescence in order to find out where they belong to. In connection to that, Herz & Gallo consider that young adult literature has always included between its themes human alienation and identity (“Who am I?”, “Where do I fit in?”). Then, it is significant that “Golden hand” contains those themes in order to establish a connection with young readers and also to fulfil certain elements to be considered young adult literature (Small, 1992).

Teenagers particularly love mystery and creepy stories because they feed their imagination. The young adult literature writer Brittany Lord (2011) believes that any historical fiction in the young adult book section contains something based off an urban legend since even pure fantasy books have their own urban legends. For example, Lord considers that all sorts of reproduction of urban legends can be found in the “Harry Potter” series, especially about the ghosts and how they died. It is also true the assumption that when speaking of tales, the character of fear is always connected with the transition to the adulthood (Hearne, 2000). In fact, according to a previous research in Argentina, horror stories are one of the most appreciated genders of literature among young readers (Matas, 2011). In “Golden hand”, adolescents can find some of the folktale elements that can stimulate their minds and make them enjoy when reading. 

REFERENCES 

• Emery, D. “What is Urban legend?” Accessed October 2011 from http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/urbanlegends/f/urbanlegends1.htm
• Bean, T. W. “Using Young adult literature to enhance comprehension in the content area”.  North Regional Educational Laboratory 2003. Accessed October 2011 from
http://www.learningpt.org/pdfs/literacy/young.pdf
• Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death . New York: Free Press, 1973. Accessed October 2011 from http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Anxiety-and-Fear.html
• Bucher, B.  & Manning, M. L. “Young Adult Literature and the School Curriculum 2”. Pearson 2010. Accessed October 2011 from
http://www.education.com/reference/article/young-adult-literature-school-curriculum/?page=2
• Bushman, J. Young Adult Literature in the Classroom-Or Is It? English Journal. March, 1997. P. 40-45. Accessed October 2011 from http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Content/Academic_Resources/Literature/Canon/Bushman-YA%20Lit.pdf
• De Vos, G. “Storytelling for Young Adults. A Guide to Tales for Teens”.  Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003.
• DeMinco, S. “Young adult reactions to death in literature and in life”. Accessed October 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n117_v30/ai_20870822/
• Cassidy, J. and Asher, S. R. (1992),” Loneliness and Peer Relations in Young Children”. Child Development.  Accessed October 2011 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1992.tb01632.x/abstract
• Fabb, N. & Durant, A. “How to Write Essays, Dissertations and These in Literary Studies.” Longman. New York, 1993.
• Herz, S. & Gallo, D. “From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature And The Classics”. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
• Koelling, H. “Classic Connections: Turning Teens on to Great Literature”. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004.
• Kayne, R. What are urban legends, L.S. Wynn, 2003-2011 from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-urban-legends.htm
• Lord, B. Pursuing the Muse. Accessed October 2011 from
http://brittanylord.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/urban-legends-and-young-adult-fiction/
• Matas, C. “Young adult literature: Exploration of some of its themes in the horror short story “Dead like me”. Buenos Aires, 2011
• Rackley, B. What is Young Adult Literature? 2010. Accessed October 2011 from
http://www.columbiatribune.com/weblogs/great-books-teen-readers/2011/jul/07/what-is-young-adult-literature/
• Radley, G.” Coping with Death in Young Adult Literature”. Accessed October 2011 from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall99/radley.html
• Schlosser, S. E. “Golden hand”. Accessed October 2011 from  http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2009/10/the_golden_hand.html

The importance of text reading material at school. Do teenagers read less?

by Cristian Matas

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Ray Bradbury

The purpose of this essay is to analyze some issues connected with the thought that nowadays teenagers may not read as much as in the past. Many school teachers have the feeling that their students find difficulties when approaching reading. This fact could be connected to the general lack of interest towards the traditional text material. When we refer to traditional text materials, we usually think about classical literature like poetry or novels, forgetting somehow that the reading experience among young people has been substantially changing through the last decades. The format of text reading material is a very wider concept nowadays and it comprehends not only poetry or novels but also comics, magazines, short stories, blogs, etc. Probably it is just a perception that teenagers do not read or read less than adults. In fact, a recent survey by the National Center for Educational Statistics in the United States, Services and Resources for Children and Young Adults (U.S. Department of Education, 2007) concludes that almost 25% of public library users are teenagers; this means that one out of every four persons entering a public library is between the ages of 12 and 18. This data shows that teens are still a very large group of readers and that maybe the problem that teachers have when dealing with this audience, is not really that teens do not like reading but the right choice of the material they would like to read. 

Theoretical framework

Today’s teens may be reading just as much as in the past, but their methods and formats of reading and interests are different from the older generations. To go deep in the solution of the problem it should also be considered what the main interests between adolescents when they are asked about reading are. This is one of the main objects that move the commitment of the Argentinean Ministry of Education that is involved in wide campaigns to reinforce reading habits among young students. In fact, as the famous Italian pedagogue Leo Tonucci (2010) states, it is remarkable that Argentina believes that the importance of a society relies on the value of a reading culture. Tonucci also says that monitoring the reading interests of a society, starting from the wide public of adolescents, represents the best way to move on after a historical and economical crisis such as the one suffered in Argentina. In this context this survey represents a small contribution to the outline of the major tendencies in our country that work in the direction of a reinforcement of the reading habits among young adults, especially in public schools which represent the main ground where future generations can develop critical thoughts and  personal opinions. As Cook, Parker & Pettijohn (2005) state, reading is important because it is not just about communication or learning. It is an all in one package where you learn interesting and capturing facts and ideas from people all across time and space. Along with that, readers can develop their concentration and attention giving skills as well as their vocabulary. It can be said that adolescents go through important changes during this period in life together with their interests, requests and the way teens get what they want to read. According to a study published in the report Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8 to 18 Year Olds (2004) it has been found that youth have a ceiling of approximately six to six and a half hours per day to devote to media, including internet as a media communication. 

Internet is making teenagers read more and more nowadays. Teenagers nowadays spend a lot of time on the computer, chatting with friends online or surfing the internet. Time is also spent on watching television shows, as well as text messaging (Eunice, 2004). The preference of internet instead of the old-fashioned book tends to show that the majority of young people experience a “disconnection” between home and schools (Wilhelm and Smith, 2001).

Methods and materials of the research

This paper focuses on what adolescents are interested in when reading. The results are taken from a survey made on three secondary public schools (E.S.B. nº10, E.S.B. nº50 and E.E.M. nº17) in Merlo (Buenos Aires, Argentina). The data comes out from an investigation of 69 students aged between thirteen years old and sixteen years old who belong to working class. The students were asked: what they would like to read at school, what kind of texts they usually read, where they get the reading material from and the purpose of reading for the students. The students had the possibility to choose more than one option to answer each question. The results were divided into gender: 31 of the students were female and 38 were male. The gender division in this survey reflects a study made by Northwestern University (2008) which states that boys are more visual readers and girls are more abstract readers. The researchers found that girls showed significantly greater activation in language areas of the brain than boys. This was mainly to understand the different teenager’s preferences in reading in order to be able to catch their attention when choosing text materials. 

Results of the investigation

The first question they were asked (see table 1.1) was about their favorite kind of reading. As a result of that question, it appears that the interests vary among genders. For instance, girls preferred short stories (26%), magazines or newspapers (42%) but boys preferred comics (36%). As for topics (see table 1.2), it is possible to say that girls were more interested in romantic (20%) and comedies topics (17%) while the majority of boys liked horror (25%) and adventure stories (23%). A major research study of the interests of more than 24,000 students (Stauffer, 2007) demonstrated that gender was a significant factor in reading interests; that girls enjoyed many boys' books, but boys refused to read most girls' books; that romantic love was attractive to girls but not to boys, while violence attracted boys but not girls; and that both boys and girls enjoyed mystery, stories of dogs and horses, and biography told as an adventure story. This data can be connected to the question whether they read for pleasure or obligation (see table 1.4). While girls tend to stay, among the years, onto the same percentage line of reading for pleasure and entertainment (with a slight oscillation of 3% during the years), boys, seemed to lose gradually the joy of reading for fun during this range of years (with a drastic fall from 44% to 6%). It could be easy to state that, in general girls read more than boys, approaching much more variety in reading texts. An important data that seemed to bring together the interests of boys and girls is that both of them get text material from the internet (36% of girls and 46% of boys). Although books and photocopies are largely used by teens (see table 1.3), it is true that the internet has become widely used by boys or girls (even if boys feel much more confident with this mean of communication). This data was relevant in the way that it showed how teens tend to choose new text reading formats in comparison with the traditional text material that are known as books. Books seem to be considered old-fashioned and represent the less chosen type of material when talking about reading (24%) largely surpassed by photocopies (32%).  

Discussion and final considerations

Starting from the results of the survey there might be some points of discussion to consider.

Reading for enjoyment seems to be one of the significant results of the study when talking with thirteen years old students. Then, the joy of reading seems to change into a duty, mostly when considering boys’ answers. This can reflect that the motivation loses its intensity along the school years and dangerously ends up in the lack of interest, as it was expressed at the beginning of this essay. Knowles and Smith (2001) propose three key explanations of why modern teens do not read. They explain that in general teens do not have time for reading and that they set aside this interest for the nearest future and put ahead the category of unmotivated readers. Students learn more from things they understand and want to read, instead of reading something boring to them and in the manner that is far from their perception of the reading process. This aspect should be kept in mind when facing the data that teens prefer home reading than school reading. 

Reading seems to be a question of gender when considering that girls are much more attracted to text materials than boys. The trend also points out that novels and magazines fit much better girls’ interests about reading (Cherland, 1994), while adventure novels or horror stories capture mainly boys’ attention (Millard, 1997). There is a common contention that boys feel that reading is a feminine activity (Martino, 2004). Still, the fact that boys’ trend does not fall completely, making them lose the curiosity in reading, should stimulate teachers in finding innovative approaches, especially for boys (Gilbert & Gilbert, 1999). Undoubtedly, boys and girls have definitely different interests and needs so it is important for teachers to take this into consideration in order to choose the correct material that can attract both genders. 

The use of the internet is important because it joins together both interests of boys and girls of all ages. This might represent the new text reading format that captures teenagers’ attention since adolescents are always looking for new ways of communication outside the alienation of the school literacy (Alloway & Gilbert, 1997). The computer's ability to process and analyze data means that endless variations on reports and other types of documents can be and are generated, thus internet itself is an enormous source of new information and recreation (Wesley, 2009). Other sources such as computers, hand phones and televisions have replaced reading. Internet is much more popular at home than at school. The only problem of using internet lies in the fact that many pages have not a clear source of information or a specified author and this reflects indeed a lack of authenticity and credibility. It is relevant to know who wrote what is found on the internet, otherwise, it would be difficult to trust on the reliability of the information. Now that the Argentinean government has given new netbooks to secondary school students to surf the internet, teenagers should be taught how to use it properly since internet is the biggest and fastest way to find information. If adolescents learn how to reflect upon what they read, they will find easier to choose the most appropriate material according to their interests.

This research shows that it is not true that adolescents read less than what people generally think. It is only that their interests have changed. It is vital to choose the correct material for this stage in life attending students’ preferences in order to motivate them to read more and credible materials. Reading does not have to be a boring activity which many students may dislike. Reading can be fun and creative. Interesting activities can also be organized by teachers in order to promote reading and to find again that spirit of entertainment students ask for. If teachers took the results of this research seriously, they would learn how important is the reading material choice so as to help teens to develop their reading skills. This survey shows clearly that the reading interest loses its intensity along the years. That is why teachers have to monitor constantly the changing interests in their students and according to that, they can have always new data to create their material.       

References

• Buildings, books and bytes: Libraries and communities in the digital age. Published by Benton Foundation. Accessed October 2011 from http://www.benton.org/Library/Kellogg/summary.html 
• Cook, S. J., Parker, R. S., & Pettijohn, C. E. (2005). The public library: An early teen's perspective. Public Libraries, 157-161.
• De Vos, G. “Storytelling for Young Adults. A Guide to Tales for Teens”.  Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003.
• Fabb, N. & Durant, A. “How to Write Essays, Dissertations and These in Literary Studies.” Longman. New York, 1993. 
• Herz, S. & Gallo, D. “From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature And The Classics”. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
• Denise Witmer (2010), Everyday Tactics That Will Encourage Your Teen to Read, from http://parentingteens.about.com/od/education/a/teen_reading.htm 
• Gilbert, P. (1998), Gender and schooling in New Times: The challenge of boys in literacy. Australian Educational Researcher, 15-36.
• Jessica E. Moyer (2008), An Analysis of the Appeal Factors of Teen and Adult Speculative Fiction, from http://jessicaemilymoyer.pbworks.com/f/MoyerTeensReadAdultbooks.doc 
• Northwestern University (2008, March 5). Boys' And Girls' Brains Are Different: Gender Differences In Language Appear Biological. Accessed October 2011 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303120346.htm
• Stauffer, S. M. (2007). Developing children's interest in reading. Accessed October 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1387/is_2_56/ai_n24215751/pg_5/ 

Bitter Ground (review)

Written by Neil Gaiman

(Review by Cristian Matas)

“Bitter ground” is a short story written by Neil Gaiman who is probably best known for his works as an author of comic books and science fiction novels. The author’s peculiar and multiple interests are somehow reflected on this short story, which is surely peculiar and never normal at all from its first lines, leading the reader to ask himself continuously where the author is taking us and what the point is in the narration. It appears to be a weird story where the narrator, who is also the main character, puts himself into a series of accidental events. He looks like a person who has lost his identity and who is wandering along without any point at all in life. He is denying himself for the failure of a relationship, and he feels like he has no reason to live in this world anymore. This is the beginning of the story and also the leitmotiv of it and the gradual loss of life and identity.

Bourbon Street is the perfect scenario for narrator’s thoughts. His encounter with Macumba, the endemic occultism of the city, is simple and decisive. “Bitter Grounds” explores the fragile ties that secure us to our own individuality. Although there are some moments in which the readers have to be totally involved in the story in order to understand it, they can’t miss it at all.

TT Show (TV show proposal)

Dear Sir / Madam,

We are pleased to write you in order to put under your consideration our new project, entitled “TT Show”. It has been developed taking into account teenager’s needs and interests.

The format of the show is based on a contest. The contestants will be casted several times according to their skills in different artistic categories. The prize will consist in a full scholarship to the best institution for artists. The assessment will be carried out by famous teenagers. The participants chosen by the jury will be exposed to the decision of the audience, who will cast their vote via mobile phones.

We are convinced that the combination of a stimulating competition for young people and the participation of the audience as a central figure in the destiny of the contestants will appeal to teenagers. “T.T Show” is a solid project which can be attractive for teenagers and young adults who want to express themselves artistically. We, as a group of young producers, see the necessity in the Argentinean television network to have an space to share our young people‘s artistic abilities. Therefore, we consider the best way for that to happen is by carrying T.T Show out.

With the purpose of providing you with detailed information about this project, we would like to have the opportunity to arrange a meeting.

At your disposal for further explanation and looking forward to favourable  response.

Yours faithfully.

O Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman
(Review by Cristian Matas)

The poem O Captain! My Captain! written by Walt Whitman in 1865 describes the feelings and emotions connected with the loss of a friend. The poem deals with the death of Whitman’s deep friend, president  Abraham Lincoln, after the civil war in the USA.  The author expresses  his refusal to accept that his friend is not longer alive and, actually, in the second stanza he attemps to believe this is just a nightmare.  It is an interesting story in which the author shows what Lincoln represents in his country because he is“the captain” and “the father” in the story. The readers can learn about love, war, friendship and loss along this very well-written poem and it can be very usefull to teach some important values in life.  

The new beginning (Laura Dambolena and Cristian Matas)

It was a rainy night. It was barely possible to see the surroundings. It was raining so heavily that the entrance of the ant-hill was flooded.

It was such a disaster that the ants had to run away in order to escape from the water coming. The water invaded the place all over. There was a dense feeling of desolation, so the only motivation for them to move away was the basic instinct of survival. Then, the leader, the red ant, guided the group to a new cave that was not finished yet.

It was an enormous place. Other colonies of ants were gathering there. Although at the beginning the little red ant had thought that all the colonies would fit in the new cave, she realized that they could not. The groups organized themselves in order to finish the construction of the “new home”. Soon, they figured out that they would have to build up new rooms. The ants asked the red ant for the reason why she was doing those kind of reforms. “What’s wrong with that?” said the little red ant. “It makes room for new people”.

Finally, they could make this place big enough for all the community and now they live as only one colony.