By Alvarez, Gilda and Giribaldi, Mariela
A long time ago, adolescents were not considered a target audience when authors wrote stories or different types of books. It was difficult to find a single piece of literature that was specially designed for them. Nowadays, this paradigm has changed for a better one and many narratives, among other styles are written considering adolescents as the intended audience. Furthermore, the concept of Young Adult Literature has started to be used to define the literature specifically design for adolescents. This paper will look at one particular short story that portrays some of the characteristics and behaviours of this particular stage of life. Dead like me, written by the American author Adam Troy Castro, describes a man trying to survive in a world occupied by dead people. In this new earth, the protagonist makes an effort to “fit” in the world of the Living Dead, as he calls them, because he is still alive and doesn’t want them to realize about it. The problematic situations that he will have to face will prove to be appealing for young adults and may help them, through identification of certain behaviours and attitudes, in their way to adulthood.
Several important elements will be explored in this paper that includes not only different aspects to take into account when pointing out to adolescence, but also the elements in the story that make it suitable for this type of audience; an audience that is considered to be reluctant and hard-to-catch when reference to literature is made. So, taking all these factors into consideration, this paper will try to explain the connections between Dead like me and Young Adult Literature.
According to the definition stated on the website Psychology Today,
“Adolescence describes the teenage years between 13 and 19 and can be considered the transitional stage from childhood to adulthood. However, the physical and psychological changes that occur in adolescence can start earlier, during the preteen or "teen" years (ages 9-12). Adolescence can be a time of both disorientation and discovery. The transitional period can bring up issues of independence and self-identity. Sometimes adolescents may be experimenting with drugs and alcohol or sexuality. During adolescence, peer groups and external appearance tend to increase in importance.”
When we mention the term adolescence, we are referring to a critical period in life in which we face several conflictive changes, not only psychological but also physical.
But adolescents are not the only ones who experiment changes. Literature for young adults has also change and its characteristics have undergone a considerable transformation. According to Small (Herz and Gallo, 1996), the characteristics of Young Adult novels are the following:
●The main character is a teenager
●Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers
●The main character is the centre of the plot
●Dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang
●The point of view presents an adolescent’s interpretation of events and people
●The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, and independent
●The novel is short, rarely more than 200 pages
●The actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of the conflict
In Dead like me, even though we assume that the main character is not an adolescent since he has a wife and two children, the events and problems in the plot are related to young adults. There is a clear connection between an adolescent’s conduct and the protagonist’s behaviour. The later imitates the zombie’s attitudes to fit in the Living Dead world. Imitation is a typical characteristic of young adults. Through this strategy, they achieve an important purpose of this stage of life: being accepted within a group. We find within the story, clear instances in which the main character experiences situations related to sexual relationships, identity and acceptation in a peer group through imitation of conducts.
Sexual relationships are an important matter for young adults since the first sexual encounters tend to appear in adolescence. The discovery of sex is associated to impulsivity in male adolescents and to romanticism in female adolescents (Marta Vega and others, 2007). For women sex is making love, while for men sex is just having sex. So, as this is a new aspect of explore, it is completely normal that young adults do not know how to handle and properly enjoy their sex lives. Our unnamed protagonist is not the exception to the rule. He has a lover or at least “the closest thing to a lover in the new world”, as he says. Her name is Suzie and he does not consider her a “real” lover in the emotional sense of the word, but a lover you can “fuck” to. Because zombies do not make love, they just satisfy a physical necessity. There is “no affection, no pleasure, and certainly, no joy”
Another problem related to adolescents is portrayed in the story: identity. The central character is still a human being; he is alive in a world infested by zombies. However, he cannot behave as a normal person, he has to pretend that he is a zombie and he will have to find out if he is human or if unconsciously, as a consequence of acting decades as a Living Dead, he actually became one of them. It is possible to notice that there is a battle going on within this person; the part of him which is prepared to do anything to survive and the part which wants to admit his own humanity. This conflict is evidenced in several parts of the story. For instance, at the beginning of the tale when the character points out that the zombies are never referred to as zombies, but simply as 'those Bastards'. However, half way through the story, having described a particularly nasty bus explosion, he states ‘you’d feel that the Living were silly bastards’ which seems to indicate the character feels the same about the zombies as he does about the living. Close to the end, he again refers to the zombies as 'Bastards'. As we can notice, there is a constant conflict in him.
During adolescence, sociability becomes an important matter. As Winnicot (idem) suggested, a characteristic of early adolescence is the insertion within a certain group. In the story, the protagonist has to imitate zombies and behave in the same manner to be accepted among them. He cannot be himself, i.e. a real human being, otherwise he would be killed. In real life, young adults surely will not be killed, but if they do not fit within a certain group, they would probably be excluded. The sense of belonging is highly important for them.
As it was already mentioned, Small (idem) pointed out that one of the characteristics of YAL is that “dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang”. But what is the meaning of this word? The Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (2007) defines the term slang as “very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language, especially used by a particular group of people”. According to this definition, the vocabulary young adults use can be considered as slang. Adolescents usually speak in a very informal manner that includes insults as well. Several times, some of these words are used in a really disapproving way. Evidently, their vocabulary is not the same adults use. What’s more, in many cases it is extremely difficult to really understand the message they are conveying. This is due to the fact that young adults have a tendency to adapt existing terms to new contexts and situations. This is reflected in the story since the main character makes use of slang several times; he uses the word bastard to refer to zombies, and fuck to the act of having sex. Damned is also used as a swear word to show that the character is extremely annoyed or frustrated. These words are always used in a disapproving way and they highlight the feelings of the protagonist through different situations. Even though the instances were slang can be found are really few, it is possible to notice that the words and expressions the protagonist uses are truly informal.
In psychology, maturity is “the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive, and is not determined by one’s age” (website Wikipedia) Even though adolescents have abandoned childhood, they are still on the path to maturity. Being mature is a psychological state you develop, you do not born with it. So, it is expected to find immaturity in young adult’s behaviour. As many parents probably know, young adults are more likely to show a lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility than adults. Besides, they are more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. That is why several times they do not understand or analyze the consequences of their actions. The protagonist of Dead like me is an adult. However, it is possible to find in his behaviour some instances where he acts immaturely, similarly to adolescents. The protagonist mocks his own brother because he is already dead. His brother was the clever one, “brave, heroic, defiant, a total leader” while he defines himself as “anything special, a follower, a kiss ass”. This immature rivalry between brothers is really common in young adults. In the story, we can notice that the clever brother was not so clever after all.
But the fact that adolescents sometimes have an immature behaviour does not indicate that they are not able to perform and make decisions responsibly. The central character of Dead like me is actually forced to think and behave maturely for the essential reason that, if he does not do so, he will be killed by zombies. He is not a young adult. However, he is perceptive, sensitive, intelligent and independent. These qualities are perceived on him through different situations. He is perceptive because he is capable of recognizing and comprehending the zombie’s attitudes and reality. And based on these, he is able to develop his own survival strategies. Being sensitive is another characteristic of him. Although he has acted as a Living Dead for a long period of time, he still remembers his family and his first and only love. Nevertheless, he represses these memories and feelings since zombies have not emotions at all. No doubt he is intelligent and independent enough to survive on his own in a world invaded by zombies.
Stories designed for young adults tend to have no more than 200 pages. A clear example of this is the book Zombies Encounter with the Hungry Dead edited by John Clipp. This book compiles thirty two stories about zombies from different authors into two parts (Zombies of the old school and Post emancipation). Each story has a length of no more than fifteen pages. Dead like me is included in the book and we observe this characteristic since this story is a short one of no more than five or four pages depending on the impression font size.
As regards the actions and decisions of the main character, these are the only ones that take place and are important all through the development of the story, leading to its outcome: staying alive. In the story, the central character pretends to be a zombie in order to stay alive so, he behaves as one: he does not dream, think or remember, he walks the way zombies walk, dragging his right foot, hanging his head.
As it was previously exposed, Dead like me not only deals with several issues concerning problems young adults may face, but also it portrays some characteristics of Young Adult Literature. It is important to understand that adolescence is a conflictive period in life. A period in which human beings change not only physically but also psychologically. A period for discovering who you are and your place in the world. A period of transition into the complexity of adulthood. Most human beings had experienced adolescence. If we remember this period, we will discover how we felt and what it meant in our lives. Reading stories that reflect some feelings, problems, conflicts and characteristics of young adults, is an interesting way to show them that they are not alone. Adolescents have problems in real life as well as in the literary world.
REFERENCES
●Castro, A. T. (2000) Zombies: Encounters with the hungry dead, Dead like me
●Skipp, J. (2009) Zombies: Encounters with the hungry dead
●Hornby, A. S. Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English (2007) Oxford University Press
●Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/adolescence Adolescence, (accessed on June, 27th)
●Sarah Herz and Gallo, D. (1996) ‘From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics’, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
●Vega y otros, M. (2007) ‘Escritos Psicoanalíticos sobre adolescencia’ Bs As Ed. Eudeba
●Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maturity_(psychology) Maturity (psychological), (accessed on July, 8th)
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