The half a dozen books above, are just a few examples of the rise in the popularity of extremely violent YA books. It's not that I don't enjoy an exciting book where the stakes are high, and the hero has a lot to lose, I do, just like anyone else. I have actually read all of these, and enjoyed about half of them, but what struck me most was the amount of violence throughout them all. All you have to do is browse through the YA section in the library or book store, and you'll see a startling amount of dark themes on the shelves. Violence, I believe is the most popular, but there are others: abuse, demons, mind control, zombies, depression, vampires, addiction, witches, and suicide, just to name a few.
It kind of makes you wonder if there's something wrong with our society. If these are the kind of books that are flying off the shelves, then what does that say about the people who fill their minds with this stuff? If you enjoy these books, I'm not judging you, I'm just wondering if this overexposure to violence correlates with the significant rise in crime over that past few years. It's not just books, it's television, movies, and video games. Are we being desensitized to violence, so that we won't think its that big of a deal anymore? If we are constantly bombarded with brutality in our entertainment, then will we have the courage to stand up against it if the time comes? Or will our moral compasses be too corroded and corrupted to alert us to the fact that something is wrong? I'm not telling you that you should stop reading YA books, or that you should sell your TV in a garage sale. All I want you to remember is that what you fill your mind with is what you become.
"For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7
"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think." -Buddha
I've only read 3 of them (Hunger games, Divergent, and Legend), and I didn't find those three all that violent at all (especially the last two), but violence has never bothered me much. I will 100% agree with you when you said that YA has a lot of dark themes though. SO many dark themes. It's become a concern for me, because I don't know why all the books seem to involve some kind of tortured soul of one kind of another. And they're usually wrote so we gravitate to the darkness.
ReplyDeleteYes, It does make you wonder why there are so many dark themes, but I'm guessing that it might be because stories are not interesting unless they are full of conflict. I wonder if the authors maybe take it a step too far and end up with a character who is a very dark and tortured soul perhaps? Just a thought.
DeleteI agree, I think the need for conflict is a big part, and of course no one wants to read a cardboard character, so there has to be some depth to them, but some authors definitely take it way to far.
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