Lucy McElroy - Critical Research Paper Proposal

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Research Question: 
How is adolescent drug use portrayed in young adult novels?

Focus Questions:
- What is family's role in the likelihood of drug abuse in adolescents?
- What is the role of peers in drug abuse in adolescents?
- What are the implications of genetics on the likelihood of drug abuse?
- Why do certain young adults float to the use of certain drugs?
- What are the qualities of the drug-using characters in young adult novels?
- What are the similarities between these characters? Differences?
- How are the qualities of these characters reflective of real-life teen addicts?
- What messages do these YA novels convey about drug use in adolescence?

I've selected adolescent drug use as my topic because I'm obsessed with trying to understand the reasons for addiction. Since I was younger, I've been researching the reasons that people choose drugs. I've had several close family members and friends fall into addiction throughout my life and there are still five who haven't been sober since my childhood. When something is personal to you, you naturally want to understand it as well as you can. A huge reason I chose this topic is that I unintentionally feel guilty for the adolescents in these young adult novels who are affected by drug abuse, whether its themselves who are the users or its their friends and family members. I want to analyze the way that these characters are depicted in the young adult novels and compare them to real-life teen addicts and draw similarities and differences.

In class, we've read several books that discuss the use of drugs. The novels I want to focus on include Crank, The World Made Straight, and Perks of Being A Wallflower. I'm going to outside research as well, looking into essays written about portrayals of adolescent drug addiction in young adult novels that I've listed, as well as some that I may not have read. I also want to use research about "real" teens who are drug users so that I can draw similarities and differences between them and fictional characters. For example, I may analyze the way that genetics can predict the likelihood of drug abuse, or I may look at the way that family relations influence adolescents' choices to use drugs.

From my own experience, the characters presented in these novels are almost identical to people I've known. I think that upon further research, I will find relatively the same result. However, I think that my findings will uncover a lot of things that authors do not capture about addiction that are important to our understanding. I am interested in finding out what those differences are and why they were not included in the novels. I think that it may be challenging to find sufficient research about the way drug use is depicted in novels.

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