Women in Young Adult Books

Books have always been revolutionary because they expand the reader’s mind and allow them to imagine new worlds of endless possibilities. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives one" according to novelist George R. R. Martin. Books give us a new way of perceiving people’s personalities and exploring their actions.  Some authors create stereotypes and tropes though it partly depends upon whether a man or woman is holding the pen. Another component in how a novel turns out is the author’s view of the world they have created.  It also matters in the case of women writers whether they have bought into the media stream during their own lifetime, which may determine what actions women can portray in their novels. If they have been overexposed to how the media sees and compartmentalizes women they might not allow their female protagonist to fight their own battles. Most writers cannot avoid being affected by the media’s images so it does affect how their main characters negotiate their world even if that world is a fantasy or a dystopia. I will be examining three famous young adult works of fiction to see how their female authors have used female characters in different capacities and how these novels affect young women. All are now series of books that have been made into movies.

Bella Swan, from the infamous Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer, is the protagonist in Twilight. She is viewed as a role model to young women. They want to be her and want to have that perfect relationship, despite the fact that Bella Swan stays in a mentally abusive relationship with a vampire boyfriend named Edward Cullen and she makes awful choices about her life.  Edward has made cruel and condescending remarks to Bella such as, “Bella, you are utterly absurd”and of course “Are you referring to the fact that you can't walk across a flat, stable surface without finding something to trip over”. In this perfect relationship Edward has threatened to commit suicide more than once.

Astonishingly, stalking is not taken seriously in the book when Edward enters Bella’s home and watches her while she sleeps without her knowledge. These are strong warning signs of an unstable controlling man who no one should be involved with. In the real world a woman would not put up with this behavior. Bella Swan eventually chooses a marriage to her abusive boyfriend over an education and her relationship with her family and friends. Without Edward, her character lacks the drive to persevere in the world. She is extremely codependent and is an overwrought weak character without much depth to her. Her perception of the world revolves around not only one man, Edward, but also a second man named Jacob. Notice there are no women in her life. Her mother is off in Florida with a second husband unaware of her daughter’s plight.

When author Stephenie Meyer was asked her reaction to the accusations of sexism in her novels she said,” When I hear or read theories about Bella being an anti-feminist character those theories are usually predicated on her choices” The problem is Meyer did not give Bella any other choices. She relies on the men in her life to keep her safe. She has no hobbies or outside interests. Her boyfriend heaps derogatory comments on her and when he leaves her in a later book New Moon she jumps off a cliff barely surviving.

            True, everyone loves a love story, but this is not a love story. You would think a contemporary writer would at least have her character realize she has many other choices in life. Meyer could have changed Bella’s responses by making her a stronger more independent character who is more modern in her outlook on life. She has created a Victorian character that has no business being set in the present. There are other vampire novels that are more like Twilight but they date back to 1897 when the original Dracula was written

J.K. Rowling, the female writer, who penned the Harry Potter saga, used her initials on her book because her publisher feared that boys would not want to read her book if they thought it was written by a woman. This might have been one of the reasons she did not make Hermoine Granger the main character in her books. Hermoine might have been Harry’s sidekick if Ron was not there. She was not “The Chosen One” but she was smarter and better than Harry Potter at almost everything. She always knew the answers in class. She knew more spells and saved Harry and Ron countless times. It is sad to know that J.K. Rowling took away that smart girl attribute from Hermione Granger by writing that Hermione was using the time turner to study more so the reason why she did so great on the tests was not because Hermione studied harder. Later when the books were adapted to the screen the portrayal of Hermione began to change drastically from the book. Originally she had been a young book loving loudmouth with mousy colored hair but she became an older blonde who was more pleasing to the male audience.  During the production of the Half Blood Prince, Warner Brothers’ president, Jeff Robinov, said, “We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead.”  The change in Hermione’s character began to be slowly more noticeable. In the Deathly Hallows, they mention she wore perfume while camping, which would be the last thing anyone would bring if they were on the run and fearful of being detected by Scabior the snatcher

Hermoine Granger was a great role model for young women because she was fearless and always helped her friends. She did everything Harry and Ron tried and believed she could do anything. Rowling created a strong female character who was never afraid to be herself even if she was a little outspoken.
Katniss Everdeen the protagonist from the Hunger Games series of books by Suzanne Collins breaks the mold of the lead character being male. Katniss was raised in a poor coal-mining district in one of twelve districts in North America in the bleak future.  When her father dies Katniss is left in charge of her family because her mother could not provide for her family. She is a gender bending character because she takes on the role of a head of household by providing food for the family by hunting for it illegally, Katniss is not like Bella Swan who acts like a southern belle stereotype who waits to be saved by a white knight in shining armor. Katniss saves her family and herself by using the knowledge given to her by her father to hunt for survival

Katniss is quite unusual for the typical young adult female character because her personality is extremely stoic and cold.  Her cat does not even like her. Katniss is the exact opposite of her younger sister, Primrose, because she does not have a problem killing and can be extremely unlikable at times. However, she isn’t the cliché bad girl. Katniss shows she is willing to sacrifice herself to save Prim when her sister is selected for the Hunger Games. She takes her sister’s place in the yearly hunger games, where two children from each district fight to the death in a televised combat by lottery. The media follows the action of the games with surveillance cameras. The media coverage changes the tone of the novel, which remakes the female characters into typical stereotypes. They transform Katniss for her television appearances from a disheveled tomboy into a beautiful, well dressed media star. The media also invents a love story between Katniss and Peeta to gain the interest of the people.  Peeta eventually becomes obsessed with her. This is a role reversal of what usually happens. The girl usually gets obsessed with the boy. This book is peculiar in itself for showing a romance but not making it the centerpiece of the young adult novel

The media even in this futuristic novel does not want to see Katniss, winner of the games, as a strong, capable, ferocious female who has survived under extreme duress. The public is being forced by the media to see Katniss as a weak girl who happened to win because her boyfriend Peeta sacrificed his health to help her win the games. The Hunger Games does not orbit around true love and soul mates but centers around how to survive under terrible circumstances and how not to lose your humanity in a war. The plot is more serious and dark for a young adult novel. How the media impacts the plot is very interesting. They control how people think by showing them images the Capitol controls that have no relation to reality and they stream these images on television. They do not show the reality that women are as strong as men

After examining three of the most popular young adult series of our time I think Suzanne Collins and J.K. Rowling have done a great job creating strong role models for young women. I think Stephenie Meyer needs to look a little closer at young women today before she writes any more novels. Reading her novels makes me feel like I am reading ancient codices. I do not understand the motivation of her female characters.  We are lucky many female novelists have a good sense of self and are writing for a new generation of women who embrace their independence. Women should not cling to men in the hope that they will protect them from everything they fear.