Oppressive Regimes in YA Literature

We could all write papers on commonalities shared by the "governments" depicted in these series:

• THE HUNGER GAMES
• DIVERGENT
• LEGEND
• THE GIVER

They all practice deception and manipulation of the populace. They all divide citizens into castes of some type, each receiving entitlements or suffering inhuman burdens. They all exist in the context of some type of post-war or post-apocalyptic earth. They are all, ultimately, something to resist, to decry, to fight.

That's the short-form and I'm sure you could create a longer, more detailed list of similarities. You might also add more series titles, perhaps THE MAZE RUNNER or ENDER'S GAME, to fit into this category. But, what I want to discuss (to wonder) here is...

WHY DOES THE NOTION OF A TEEN EXPOSING AND ESCAPING THE CLUTCHES OF A TOTALITARIAN REGIME STRIKE A CHORD WITH THE YA-READING POPULATION?

Is this phenomenon similar to the "orphan" motif in kidlit? From Oliver Twist to Anne of Green Gables, and from Jane Eyre to Harry Potter, taking away the "security blanket" of parents gives young protagonists both vulnerability and a unique and appealing sense of agency. Is an external oppressor, such as a terrible regime, just a different way to create a similarly disenfranchised yet compellingly independent main character while also letting them have siblings or parents about whom they can care?

Or is the repressive regime an indicator of something else happening in our actual world culture? Like the workhouses and abusive guardians of kidlit yore which, although extreme, might have been somehow feasible to readers of past centuries, perhaps today's YA consumers see elements of totalitarianism all around them. Suzanne Collins cited reality television as one of her inspirations for her stories of Katniss Everdeen. Marie Lu published the first LEGEND title in the wake of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, WikiLeaks, the massive Haitian earthquake of 2010, and the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"--all situations in which the actions of those in power, including their actions with respect to when and how they informed the public, were under constant scrutiny.

We might even stretch this thesis to incorporate the sub-category of government interference in love relationships in series such as Allie Condie's MATCHED, Lauren Oliver's DELIRIUM and Kira Cass's THE SELECTION. Do sites like eHarmony and, actually, Match, make people feel more hopeful or more vulnerable about love and the possibility that it can be explained by algorithm?

Today, as situations like the tragic events in Ferguson and the assassination of two police officers in Brooklyn fill our media feeds, is it any wonder that the literature being read by the Twitter and Instagram generation features a frightening subtext of "who can we trust"? The fictional "near-future" of DIVERGENT seems plausible to them and Tris's questioning of authority feels just and heroic.

I began writing this post after finishing reading Legend and while writing a contemporary YA manuscript which, like my previous books, does not contain dystopian or futuristic elements. I was wondering whether I was being stubborn by refusing to write in the spirit of our current zeitgeist. To this question, I still do not have an answer. Perhaps the truth is that I don't like looking at or world as a place where even democracies hover on the brink of becoming something less free.

Is that what you see?

My Holiday Break Reading Adventures

First, please note that I SKIED DOWN MY FIRST BLACK DIAMOND RUN on January 2nd.  Staring down a snowy cliff side was an amazing rush. I hope to put some of that feeling into fiction work this year. When I wasn't on the ski hill, recovering from skiing, or playing board games with my family, I made my way through three novels. Not all that impressive but, well, two of them were LONG!

I will comment on the short novel, Kate DiCamillo's enchanting FLORA & ULYSES, in another post. Today, some thoughts on the two YA "biggies" (and yes, I'm late to the table with these)...

While one is set in a dystopian future Chicago, and the other in a paranormal 1920s New York, both novels explored a factionalized society. In DIVERGENT, individuals have a choice of belonging to one of five groups, each of which values a different human attribute. In THE DIVINERS, money and ethnicity force people to live in different sorts of homes, live different sorts of lives.

The novels align in the way they depict the rebel-thinker: the person who has qualities that make fitting into one of the boxes defined by his or her society an impossibility. In DIVERGENT, Tris realizes that her nonconformist thought patterns make her both vulnerable and powerful. In THE DIVINERS, Evie struggles to come to terms with her psychic ability (won't tell what it is here), using it both as a social-climbing parlor trick and in a quest for fight true evil. How these evolutions of self-understanding play out counterpoint what is happening in the worlds around Tris and Evie.

Structurally, the novels differ greatly. DIVERGENT is an intense, present narrative presented by the protagonist, Tris. THE DIVINERS is a sprawling, multi-perspective, epic-style tale lightly anchored by Evie but, perhaps more importantly, showing the places and times of many characters, from Diviners to scholars to victims. Both authors are sure-handed in their style focus, adding to the pleasure of reading their work.

Each novel is also faithful to its genre. In the back matter of the DIVERGENT paperback, author Veronica Roth muses that people who like dystopian fiction like to consider "what-if" scenarios in a world populated by people like themselves whereas readers of fantasy/paranormal fiction such as THE DIVINERS prefer exploring challenges in a world where people have different abilities from we "non-fiction humans." I think this is a well-reasoned distinction. However, in the end what I most appreciated about both novels seems to be found in the crossover space between the genres. What I loved most about Roth's book was the edges of utopianism she sketched in the creation of her divided society--her portagonist's struggle to look outside the lines of their factions to see the limits of each.  Meanwhile, I was fascinated by Bray's evil-ridden, dark 1920s America--its own kind of dystopia within which her characters strive to quell evil as her protagonist comes to recognize darkness both within her own soul and outside, in the city.

Fantastic back-to-back reads!

Did you come back from holiday break with any new reading recs?

Waiting on Wednesday: ABANDON by Elana Johnson

Still having fun with BREAKING THE SPINE’s fabulous midweek meme.Here’s this week’s pick…

 

Why?... It's the final installment of Vi, Jag, and Zenn’s breathtaking dystopian journey. Can the rebels defeat the Thinkers at last? Or has the world lost its last chance for freedom? POSSESSION and SURRENDER, the first two books in the series, were breathless, in-the-moment thrill rides of reads.  It’ll be a bitter sweetness to get my hands on this last Possession adventure.

 

Preorder at INDIEBOUND or AMAZON.

What are you waiting on this week?