Theme Of Death In Young Adult Literature

Much of the Young Adult Literature written today, especially in the fantasy genre, involves death which is frequently used as a way to push the plot line further and motivate the protagonist, whether it’s the death of a loved one that they need to avenge or a villain they seek to kill. Often times, death is also used as a way to identify the villains in the story. It is something that is also used as a way to emotionally relate to its demographic. However, does a dangerous pattern emerge from the way death is portrayed in young adult fantasy? Death is a common theme in fantasy books for young adults. Often the protagonists experience the loss of a loved one, which serves as a point of motivation for the character. Sometimes the loss is dealt …show more content…
The typical reader has probably had prior experience with death, usually through the loss of a loved one. This can be a tough thing for people to deal with, especially teens, and their literature reflects it. In orchestrating the death of a beloved character, the author presents the reader with the chance to make emotional parallels with any loss in their own life. Death in teen literature serves as a coping strategy for the reader by working through the emotions that come with grief in a fictional atmosphere. In the article “Death Is But the Next Great Adventure: Representations of Death and the Afterlife in Fantastic Literature for Children and Young Adults” Karin Kokorski states that “The mode of the fantastic highly benefits the aim of the readers’ confrontation with death and their subsequent consolation, as it is able to go beyond ‘normal’ boundaries and soothe anxieties” (355). It also gives the reader the opportunity to work through the idea of mortality. Teens struggle to come to terms with the idea of their own mortality therefore making the realms of fantasy a great place to work through such