Teen Angst? Naaah...

            I am currently reading an interesting book named "Teen Angst? Naaah..." by Ned Vizzini. This book is actually an autobiography about Ned Vizzini and his times at Stuyvesant High school. This book doesn't really have a plot, it just follows a timeline of events in Ned Vizzinis life. however, i still somehow managed to pick up a few themes in Ned Vizzini's life. In it he basically talks about the average american teenagers life. He talks about the weeks leading up to the SHSAT, the excitement he felt when he got in, and his time there. His life is kind of basically what you would expect: worrying about getting good grades, worrying about college, getting a girlfriend, being popular, (etc.).
            While i was reading this book, i kind of started thinking of stereotypes. this is because Ned Vizzini's life seemed almost stereotypical, just an average life. Specifically, i was thinking about who came up with the american life stereotype. I mean, someone had to come up with what the average life is supposed to be like, right? In my mind, an average Hollywood stereotype of the american life is a suburban neighborhood, tall, usually white teens wearing hoodies  listening to ipods. Is this really how the public views us? so what is the definition of "Normal", or "average"?
 

lord of the flies by william golding

            I am currently reading a very interesting book called “Lord of the flies” by William Golding. I am not too far into the book because I have just started but here is what I do know: this book is basically (so far) about a group of boys on a plane during a fictional war, who crash onto a deserted island. One boy, Ralph, is elected as a group leader, while another boy, jack, is elected leader of the hunters of the group. However, it is obvious that jack wanted to be the leader. The first boy, Ralph is the kinder one, and he found a pink conch shell that is used to summon the other boys during meetings and such. The other boy, jack is much more harsh, and a little evil, and devious.

While I was reading the first parts of this amazing book, what caught my mind, was not the plot, but the role of the conch shell. It was used by Ralph to summon the boys to meetings, but it also had another role. During the meetings, whoever held the conch shell had the right to speak, and everyone else had to be quiet and listen. More and more, this conch shell kind of struck me as a symbol of order, power, and organization. It represented order and organization because it prevented anyone from speaking out of turn during meetings. However, it also represented power because Ralph is the one who blew on it to summon everyone, and he was the king.

All this made me think “is order necessary on a deserted island?” I would think so, because without order, there would anarchy, and chaos. However, if I was speaking form the other side, who may think that you don’t need order on a deserted island, you are a group of teenage boys after all, who are far away from civilization. I mean, the first thing that would’ve popped into my head wouldn’t have been “let’s make a constitution, and organize daily rations”. It would’ve been “Lets party!”.  

twisted by laurie anderson

            I have just finished reading a great book called Twisted by Laurie Anderson. This great book is about a high school teenager named Tyler Miller whose life is basically ruined. He was tired of being the one who was always ignored, and being shoved into the toilet, so in tenth grade, he wanted to make himself noticed. In tenth grade, Tyler took six cans of spray paint and wrote devious messages on the school wall. However, Tyler was careless, and left his wallet, containing his I.D. He was caught by the police after an investigation.

            Throughout this whole book, I was always thinking about peer pressure, because it seemed to be a major theme in this book. Even though Tyler wasn’t directly being pressured by the jocks and most of the student body into spray painting the school, he was being indirectly pressured to do so. The jocks and some other people were the ones who made Tyler feel like he needed to make himself noticed, and so he spray painted the school. I guess now that I think about it, it all comes down to popularity.

            Tyler wanted to be popular just like the other kids, so he did all that stuff, but what if there was no such thing as popularity or social rank? Everyone would feel a lot more secure, confident, and equal. It is because of this invisible force that the student body has to be divided. But should it be? Or is ranking someone based on social status wrong? I honestly don’t know…