Hope Pierce- Research Topic

By -
My research topic is along the lines adolescents adapting to their environments in order to survive their circumstances. At the moment I'll probably be focusing on three to four books, but more than likely four. In most of the books that we have read this semester, the main characters are forced into positions that require them to sustain themselves. They have to hold on in order to make it through their situations, and for some of them it is life or death while others is about empowering themselves.

My essential question is how do adolescents survive their environments? What factors are vital when trying to survive? Do they have a support system? Do they have positive friends to guide them? What roles do their parents play in their lives? Do they have some skill or something that they can use as an outlet? To answer these questions i'll be looking at The Hunger Games, Perks, Prisoner, and Diary. I may also look at The Skin I'm In in my research.

I selected this topic because it interested me. This whole semester the strength of the young characters when they are faced with impossible odds and circumstances that force them to basically fight for their lives has intrigued me. I plan on using most of the library database sources such as JSTOR, Project Muse, MLA Bibliography, and of course the novels themselves.

Adolescents have no choice but to survive if they want to make it to adulthood. Kids are extremely adaptable and resilient, and they have an easier time reconciling what has happened to them and being able to move on.

My biggest challenges will probably be finding enough research as well as research that explicitly correlates with my topic, so I may have to make changes to my original topic, which would be a pain.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 21, 2016 at 10:25 AM

    I really like your topic, I don't think I ever heard of a reaseach on how adolescents survive their environments. I think your on a good start and hopefully you find a lot of sources for it. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Speak and the Symbolism of Nature

By Anonymous -
   Laurie Halse Anderson's,  Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice.    Melinda st
Read more