Research Proposal

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For my final research paper, I am going to look at the role of parents in adolescent novels. My research question is, "How does the teen-parent relationship affect the main character's ambition in adolescent novels?". I want to look at how the actions, or inactivity, among parents affects the characters in Part-Time Indian, Speak, Curious Incident, The Hate U Give, and 13 Reasons Why.

I already know that teen-parent relationships can play a big role in adolescent development. I'm interested to read some academic journal articles on that topic and then see how those relationships are depicted in the above texts. I chose this topic because it feels evident that authors are trying to say something about parental support in various novels. Parents seem too busy to notice what is going on in their child's lives. I think this is true in all the above novels, except The Hate U Give. The parents are very supportive in that book, so I wanted to use it to show how different the representations are between the books.

I plan to look at academic journal articles about adolescent development and how parent relationships can play a role. I have an article about alcoholism that I think connects to Part-Time Indian. Another article I plan on reading is one from the New York Times that talks about how parents are represented in teen novels in different decades. It signals that there has been a change in the way authors represent parents, so I am interested in looking for that. I'm most worried that I won't find articles that are specific enough to the point I am trying to make. I feel the most challenging part will be narrowing my focus from the broad topic and trying to make a specific argument. I plan to argue that a lack of involvement from parents can lead to negative effects of development in teens. I also want to argue that representations of parents in young adult novels are slightly exaggerated but also pretty realistic. My argument may change depending on what I find throughout my sources.

 Some of my focus questions are:
-What effects can communication have on the teen-parent relationship?
-Is the amount of support given by parents depicted realistically in adolescent novels?
-How have the illustrations of parents in adolescent novels changed over time? Is it becoming more realistic or more far-fetched?
-How often do parents seem involved in their child's lives, as shown in adolescent novels?
-What other factors (alcoholism, divorce, etc.) can have an impact on the teen-parent relationship?
-Is the character's ambition directly affected by the level of support from the parent?



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