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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-1981 The effect of death awareness on the protagonists of selected adolescent novels Mary Lord Beasley University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Beasley, Mary Lord, "The effect of death awareness on the protagonists of selected adolescent novels. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1981. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/6101 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Mary Lord Beasley entitled "The effect of death awareness on the protagonists of selected adolescent novels." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Education, with a major in Curriculum and Instruction. Mark Christiansen, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Mary Lord Beasley entitled "The Effect of Death Awareness on the Protagonists of Selected Adolescent Novels." I recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education, with a major in Curriculum and Instruction. We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Ro:!&±= l+tu. ro"-1. Accepted for the Council: V1 ce Chance 11 or Graduate Studies and Research THE EFFECT OF DEATH AWARENESS ON THE PROTAGONISTS OF SELECTED ADOLESCENT NOVELS A.Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Education Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Mary Lord ·seasley August 1981 DEDICATION This study is lovingly dedicated to the memory of my father, Allen Edward Lord, whose untimely death in 1971 created a need in my own life for a better under­ standing of the topic of this study. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express appreciation, first of all, to the members of my doctoral conmittee: to Dr. Mark Christiansen, chairman, for allowing me to work on a subject of personal interest in a meaningful way and for making my doctoral work a joyful experience; to Dr. Bain Stewart for his much needed critical suggestions for manuscript revision and for his general patience and goodwill; to Dr. Anand Malik for always asking the right questions; and to Dr. Robert Howard for his personal warmth and support. I am also very grateful for the varied help my family has given me, grateful to my mother for her support and encouragement, to Wally who has patiently read and cried with me, to Celeste who still bubbles over with goodwill, and to Jody who lived through too many days of an ill-tempered mother, yet g_ave back love. Finally, I wish to express appreciation to my co-workers at the reading center whose friendship and good spirits helped sustain me during the writing of this dissertation. iii ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was twofold: to determine if contemporary novels of adolescence were depicting death in realistic rather than romantic or idealistic terms and to determine the role that death played in the maturation process of the adolescent protagonists in these works. The purpose of this study rested on three assumptions: (1) that a realistic acceptance of death is a necessary step in the adolescent's maturation process; (2) that adolescent novels which portray death realistically can serve as useful models for adolescent readers; (3) that a study of such adolescent works would help teachers and researchers in this field by providing them with specific insights into the psychology of death and dying in relationship to adolescent maturation. Based on lists suggested by experts on adolescent fiction, the following works were analyzed in terms of their treatment of the death and dying theine: Paul Annixter's Swiftwater, Paul Zindel's Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball, James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier's My Brother Sam Is Dead, Richard E. Peck's Something for Joey, Lois Lawry's A Sumner to Die, Judith Guest's Ordinary People, John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud, Doris Lund's Eric, Norma Klein's Sunshine, and Gunnel Beckman's Admission to the Feast. For purpose of analysis, these works were divided into three categories: books dealing with the death of a parent, the death of a brother or sister, and the death of the adolescent protagonist himself. iv V As background preparation for t_his analysis, the author researched and presented a broad overview of the following areas: {1) adolescent literature as a genre, {2) the general subject of death, {3) adolescent novels with a death theme, and (4) death education for adolescents in the school. From the analysis of the ten works of adolescent fiction, the following observations were made: {1) there seemed to exist a definite correlation between death acceptance and personal growth on the part of the adolescent protagonists; (2) repressed fears of death and dying tended to surface in other ways; (3) religious or philosophical support systems could help in some families; (4) support was given through extended families; (5) training in altered states of consciousness and symbolic confrontations with death helped some of the protagonists deal with the death experience; (6) many characters were able to share the death experience with the dying. Adolescents in these novels faced quite an array of problems. In some cases, for example, the death of a brother or sister caused feelings of guilt over past rivalry or over surviving. In other cases the strain of the day-to-day witnessing of the dying process and final death of a family member was devastating for the survivors. Adolescents, who themselves were dying, faced a multitude of problems such as the lack of co111T1unication with family, friends, or medical staff. The conclusion was reached ,that the death experience is being handled openly and honestly in works of interest to adolescents, as witnessed in the ten accounts analyzed in this study. The suggestion was made that since adolescents need vicarious experiences and are vi intellectually and emotionally, for the most part, ready to have these experiences, death education should be a part of the English curriculum. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION l II. A REVIEW PF RELATED LITERATURE 6 III. THE DEATH OF A PARENT ..... 39 IV. DEATH OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS .. 74 V. DEATH OF THE PROTAGONIST 104 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 134 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 139 APPENDIX .. .146 VITA • . 151 vu CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION William Hugh Agee, in his dissertation on the adolescent initiation theme, observed that in modern Western ~ociety there is no formal and satisfactory initiation rite through which adolescents can safely pass into adulthood and maturity. One purpose of adolescent novels has been to provide, although vicariously, a variety of identity crisis situations from which the adolescent reader can draw insights that might help him in his own struggle for growth and identity. In trying to pin down specific factors indigenous to the maturation process of adolescents, Robert Havighurst listed the following eight conditions: discovery and adjustment to culturally acceptable sex roles, development of new and satisfactory relationships with peer groups, achieving an easy relationship with member of opposite sex, acceptance of physical change in the body, changing relationship with parents, earning money, finding their life's work, and becoming aware of their own values. Richard Abrahamson has added to this list the exposure to and acceptance of death as being of extreme importance to the adolescent's struggle for adult maturity. Today more than ever, psychologists are arguing that a realistic coming to grips with death and dying is an essential element of mental health, not only for adolescents, but for all of us. All too often, the subject of death has been swept under the carpet, but repression of the subject does not really do away with the problem. Psychologists have pointed out how our repressed fear of death may surface in other ways and how the repression leaves us unprepared for the reality of death that faces all l 2 of us sooner or later ;none form or another-the death of a fr;end or a relat;ve or the prospect of our own death when we become ser;ously ;11. Psycholog;sts such as Kubler-~oss have argued that a more mature att;tude toward death ;s ;ncumbent upon those of us who w;sh, above all else, to 1;ve a full and reward;ng 1;fe. For the adolescent, fo a death struggle of Ms own, a kfod of struggle fo whkh the chfld wHMn ;s dy;ng even as the .adult struggles to emerge-to such an adolescent, an understand;ng and an acceptance of death are absolutely essent;a1 ;f he ;s to become a self-fulf;11ed and mentally healthy human be;ng capable of tak;ng on the tasks of adult respons;b;1;ty ;n today's complex and challeng;ng soc;ety. Therefore, wr;ters of adolescent f;ction should be ;nclud;ng ;n the;r work a realistic treatment of this all-important subject of death. The present study proposes to examine the role of death in the maturat;on process of certa;n contemporary adolescent protagon;sts.

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