Darkness Too Visible

      The article "Darkness Too Visible," by Megan Cox Gurdon published on The Wall Street Journal talks around the issue about challenged and banned books. The author expresses her ideas through the eyes of a 46 year old mother of three named Amy Freeman who stood recently in the young adult section of her local Barnes and Nobles, in Bethesda, Md. She said, "Hundreds of Lurid and dramatic covers stood on the racks before her, she felt 'nothing' not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter?" So how dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Gurdon believes that contemporary fiction should be banned and restricted to adolescences.
       Gurdon uses imagery as a type of craft to visualize contemporary fiction. She states, "teen fiction can be like a hall of fun house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what is life." This depicts the imagery of fiction being horrendous and gives the idea of fiction portraying negative and dark topics on what life is. This example provides the expressively negative impact of fiction to teens. The statement introduces the negative point of view on fiction, but secludes the positive view of fiction on teens such as, preparing them for life because life isn't easy and these fiction books being ridiculed by many, actually help to prepare a teen to conquer any obstacle that gets in their way later on in their adult hood.
        Overall, personally I disagree with the bias being presented by Megan Cox Gurdon on books being banned based on their language and content. I think that teens shouldn't be restricted on what they can't and cannot read because overall what matters is that they have a great time enjoying the book they're reading. I realized that certain books that are challenged are based on different criteria they each contain such as content, language, and imagery. There was a statement that stood out to me and that was, "There are a course of expectations, but a careless young reader-or one who seeks out to depravity-will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds." The reason this stood out to me was because they don't state the positive message being presented here such as preparing teens on obstacles they will be presented on later in life. So how dark is contemporary fiction? It's up to you to decide.