Sunday, November 16, 2014

Dystopian Parents

While reading The Road I started thinking about the differences between it and the popular genre of dystopian novels we're seeing right now.  Books like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent, and even The Giver (a slightly older book but a recent film) are all either lacking supportive and present parents or are completely devoid of parents/adults.  It strikes me as interesting considering all the recent novels are in the Young Adult genre, whereas The Road is considered a "regular" novel.  Now these books weren't written by teens, but they're tapping into something that speaks to them, and part of that is the lack of parenting.  I think for McCarthy, as an adult writing for adults, the idea (and the hope) is that if something like this were to take place, they as the adults could take some charge if only just to protect their child.  They hope that their added years will provide more insight and intellect to help their family survive.  This may just be my age bias, but I feel like it makes more sense for it to be younger people, not children necessarily but the sharp, adaptable young, those who haven't had the years to get used to this world and who (even if they're wrong) believe that there's got to be more out there than whatever they've grown up in.  The older they are (in a dystopia) the more experience they have seeing the rest of the world is no better.  Parents (good ones anyway) want nothing more than to be able to protect their children from anything, no matter how impossible it is for them to actually do that.  As horrible as the events are that are happening to the father and son, it almost reads like a parent's fantasy (again, not a pleasent one) but that despite everything that's happening, they will and can do whatever it takes to protect their child.  We all know, especially in war zones and places like this setting, that's frequently not possible.

Thoughts?  Do you think the teen hero makes more sense in this setting?  Or does experience trump gumption?  

4 comments:

  1. Eleanor,
    You are right that very often in YA Lit, especially dystopian lit., parents are absent or are part of the dysfunctional system, and I this that this has more to do with the intended audience. Very often children's lit. features absent parents as well. An interesting note about The Road- McCarthy actually credits his son as helping him with the writing of it...whole conversations with his son made it into the book relatively unchanged.
    ~MS

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    1. That is really interesting! The character does feel more realistic than most

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  2. I seen what you're talking about but I think the struggle of the father for his son is realistic. It's a natural love driving him to fight and his son gives him purpose to make the right choices. I think most parents would understand this father's drive. Because even though I'm only an aunt, my nieces are my world. I would do anything for them and I know my sisters have an even stronger love for them so I can only imagine the fight they'd have when faced with survival.

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    1. I also think the teen hero makes sense in enviorments because of the drive of a teenager for independence. They want that freedom so in this setting it tends to be a place that they fight and they struggle to be seen as something more. But honestly sometimes I think the teen perspective is less likely because you've got all these kids that know so little about the world and how it works and end up needing more adult help than they realize. Like Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games, outside of the games she's always clueless, she doesn't understand politics or how adults can control and manipulate things, she needs the help of the leaders of district 13 and the rebels of the capital to run things because she doesn't know how to take care of her own family much less bring a revolution to an entire nation.

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