Literature Addressing Themes of Death and Dying and Focusing on Conflict Resolution Strategies to Deal with Such Tragedies

VICTORIA N. REYNAGA

Literature is a great means of allowing young adults to not only examine their world, but to also cope with their environments. It is one of the most meaningful, and best tools for teaching students. It is through books geared for young adults, that young teens learn of the enormous population of young people who are facing the same problems as they are. In fact, in choosing young adult novels for their classroom, instructors may find that the best novels strive to do just that: help children cope with problems, in addition to understanding their feelings and emotions relative to specific problems. In addition to just introducing children to an array of themes and values from the books, teachers can also use literature as a means of helping young adults finding possible solutions to their problems. Through the teaching process of exploring these stories, discussing them within the classroom, and reflecting on personal experience, young adults might be able to use literature as a way to make sense of the world in which they live in.

�People in all times and places need to cope with problems about birth, separation, illness, and death. Children cannot
escape from these problems. Through literature, children can perceive how others have encountered and resolved
problems that cause sadness, stress, fear, and uncertainty. More importantly, children learn how to use conflict resolution
strategies to deal with these problems� (Tu, 1999).

In any day and age, situations involving the issues of death and dying tend to be uncomfortable to tackle, most especially when young adults are involved. However, it is a clear fact of life that sometimes young adults must face the concept of death; and in today�s age where our entertainment environment is consumed with media rich reports portraying a dangerous world through their coverage of national tragedies and horrific accidents, it is important to find the best means to educate young adults on how to deal with such tragedies. As said before, young adult literature can do this when applied appropriately. Of the few studies done on the matter, some warn that young adult literature is somewhat unrealistic because of the mere fact that situations involving death are often placed in books for a �dramatic effect and often without accompanying actions that children may experience� (Radley 1999). I disagree, however. I believe that young adult literature, as a sole means for teaching such an issue, involves incredible realism and immediacy. As a result of such writing techniques, I believe young adults can learn from these important models for coping with death.

Death is the part of the life process that may be the hardest for young adults to grasp because of the idea that they themselves are too young to even realize the value of their own lives. Perhaps because so many young adults carry the mentality that �it could never happen to them,� dealing with death, something so irreversible becomes extremely hard and almost unapproachable. In addition, the idea that many young adults seek privacy and independence from older counterparts presents a problem in itself. Their feelings gained from a personal might also seek a bit of privacy and the bottling up of emotions may only add more fuel to the fire. Literature is means for young adults to vent, if you will. It can be a mask to explore their own feelings on a topic relevant to what they are experiencing on their own.

The book list below are suggestions when it comes to having to teach children on the concept of death. These books cover many possible situations from the death of a friend, family member, or neighbor through illness, accident or suicide. In addition, there are two relatively recent novels that tackle two events that not only are new to young adults, but to their world as well: school shootings and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE SELECTIONS

Death is not always an issue that teachers may feel comfortable teaching directly, especially if it relates to a personal tragedy that a specific student may be dealing with. But, in a genre such as Contemporary Realistic Fiction, sometimes one cannot avoid such an issue. It is when choosing these books that a teacher should pay service to choosing those that carry a story with realism, one whose story can transport feelings and emotions on to the readers themselves, and in turn make the reader reflect positively. Teachers should ask themselves �does a book have the potential to touch readers deeply so that, in struggle with it, they begin to see and to shape themselves?� (Donelson, Nilsen 115).

Works Cited

Donelsen, Kenneth L. and Alleen Pace Nilsen. Literature for Today�s Young Adults. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc, 2001. 2005.

Tu, Wei. �Using Literature to Help Children Cope With Problems.� ERICDIGESTS.org December. 1999 #D148. 27 Nov. 2004 .

Radley, Gail. �Coping with Death in Young Adult Literature.� The ALAN Review Volume 27: Number 1 (1999): 14-16.

Lowry, Lois. (1981). A Summer to Die. Random House Children�s Books.

Fields, Terri. (2002). After the Death of Anna Gonzalez. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.

Mazer, Norma Fox. (1987). After the Rain. William Morrow & Company.

Myers, Walter Dean. (2004). Shooter. HarpersCollinsPublishers.

Draper, Sharon Mills. (1996). Tears of a Tiger. Simon & Schuster Children's

Hesse, Karen. (1995). Phoenix Rising. Puffin Publishing.

Philbrick, R. (1993). Freak the Mighty. New York: Scholastic Books.

Hurwin, Davida Willis. (1997). A Time For Dancing. Puffin Publishing.

Thoms, Annie, Taresh Batra, and Anna Belc. (2002). With Their Eyes: September 11th--

The View From a High School At Ground Zero. HaperCollins Publishers. Maynard, Joyce. (2003). The Usual Rule. St. Martin�s Press.