"Darkness Too Visible"

"Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon is about banned books. The author supports her claim that young adult books are too dark for teenagers by providing many different examples of books that have been banned, and by explaining the gruesome details in young adult literature. 

The author uses many different craft moves to make you feel a certain way, and to express her opinion. One example of writers craft Gurdon uses is loaded words. Words like "thwarted," "gruesome," "sadistic" and a variety of many other negative words are used in her writing to show her opinion on how she feels about young adult books being too dark for teenagers. Another example of writers craft that Gurdon applied to her article is using synonyms to show effects of certain contents that are shown in the books have on the readers. Additionally, she uses quotes from parents, "nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff." This also helps Megan Cox Gurdon create an audience for her article. Inevitably, she uses counter claims to her advantage. Gurdon states that reading these books with "dark" content can influence the readers, and open them up to ideas of different things. "If you think it matters what is inside a young person's mind, surely it is a consequence of what he reads." In addition, Cox Gurdon uses words or explicit contents as examples from books to help prove her point. Megan Cox Gurdon provided a lot of evidence and used many different techniques to support her claim that young adult books are too dark for teenagers. 

In response to the article, I disagree with the authors claim. "...Giving voice to tortured adolescents who would otherwise be voiceless...reading about another teen in the same straits will be comforting." Megan Cox Gurdon counterclaims this by saying, "...books following pathologies help normalize them." Although I do agree that sometimes reading about pathologies might help normalize them, it also does help adolescents feel more comforting, and it brings more attention to the voiceless teenagers who may be going through the same situations as the characters in the books. Even though, Gurdon argues that reading books about "dark" contents might suggest ideas to the young readers, I think that it may also be beneficial in some ways. It will help teenagers to learn and be more aware of the different situations that people the same age as them may be suffering through. Not only would it help them have more knowledge on the topic, but might also help them know what to do if they are put into the same situations. To conclude, I think that teenagers should be allowed to read young adult books, and it can be beneficial in more ways than harmful.