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Steven Bowman
CHL 455
MW 2pm
Wannamaker
3/30/11
The Importance of Multicultural Adolescent Literature in the Classroom
Adolescent literature that deals with multicultural issues such as race, gender, and
social class; needs to be included in the classroom curriculum throughout the United States.
The adolescent of the 21st century experiences a plethora of different cultures every day of
their lives. If adolescents are exposed to literature that is written for them and that focuses
on characters that deal with multicultural issues such as being a minority adolescent, a
male/female adolescent, or experiencing poverty, then adolescent students will take an
interest in these texts. Once the text has the interest of the adolescent, it can teach them
how to live amongst different cultures peacefully. Some adolescent texts that focus on
multicultural issues are: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie,
American Born Chinese by Gene Yang, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. All of these texts
focus on a range of issues such as race, and social class. Several critics such as Michael
Pearlman, Min Hyoung Song, and Tina Chen have written about the representation of
multicultural issues within adolescent literature, and teaching texts centered on
multiethnic issues. Texts such as Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
expose adolescents to the challenges that someone from a minority race, or lower social
class faces as young adults themselves. Adolescent works of literature that focus on
multicultural issues, are cultural artifacts that can help us and our young adults recognize
and respect other cultural backgrounds than our own.
The curriculum in American schools needs to incorporate more multicultural
adolescent literature, and in some part of the country are trying beginning to include such
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works. In the essay, “Toward a Multicultural Pedagogy: Literary and Nonliterary
Traditions,” Laurie Grobman writes:
Over the last two decades, coincident with the broadening of the literary canon,
multicultural scholars have produced a vast amount of critical and pedagogical
literature. Despite these advances, though, and despite a broad consensus about the
moral and political goals of our work in and out of the classroom--that we have, as
Doris Davenport suggests, a "moral imperative" (66) to teach it--we lack a coherent
pedagogy (1).
Several scholars are making the effort to include multicultural literature into their current
curriculum, however, there is difficulty figuring out how to teach it because it generally
deals with more complex issues such as race and social class. Few scholars of multicultural
literature believe traditional categories of understanding, evaluating, and/or teaching
literature are sufficient. It is also more difficult to incorporate multicultural texts into the
pedagogy that exists in the various curriculums around the United States because the texts
that the pedagogy is based on do not deal with the same differentiated content that
multicultural literature does. Multicultural adolescent literature pushes for our educational
system to make its boundaries more malleable, and stretch outside of its traditional
boundaries in order to present it to students in the right context.
Instead of practicing the traditional way of interpreting literature through the lens
of the majority culture, scholars look at multicultural literature within and against the
traditions of the culture that the text is focusing on and the majority culture. Grobman
states that, “joining literary traditions with their cultural, social, and political contexts, this
pedagogy broadens the traditional notion of "literary tradition" in terms of a work's formal
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and aesthetic relationship with preceding and succeeding ones” (8). By combining
traditional pedagogy with a more modern pedagogy that is driven by the texts themselves,
then scholars can successfully apply multicultural literature to their curriculum.
In her essay, “Ethics of Knowledge,” Tina Chen discusses how teaching multicultural
literature in the classroom can expose students to cultural differences perhaps for the first
time in their lives. “Teaching about issues of race and cultural difference can be, perhaps
even should be, fraught with anxiety and discomfort” (170). Many teachers feel
uncomfortable with teaching multicultural texts because they are not “familiar” with the
values of any certain culture that a given text might address. Chen focuses on how teaching
multiethnic texts can open up more opportunities in the classroom for discussion between
students, and teachers with:
“Responsibility addresses a constellation of issues regarding the relationships that
structure the pedagogical exchange (for example, the relationships that teachers
have to students and students have to each other) as well as those by which reading
subjects engage with the texts themselves” (170-71).
By introducing multicultural narratives to students, it makes the classroom a more
productive environment. Addressing multiethnic issues in the open with students help
them understand these issues and creates for a less restricted, and more, well rounded, and
cultured class environment.
Race has been one of the most controversial topics in American society for at least
two hundred years. It is ironic that racism has been prevalent in American culture because
immigrants founded the country. The racial stereotypes that are made within the American
culture have changed over the years. With historical landmarks such as the end of slavery
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with the Emancipation Proclamation, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam,
and the September 11th Attacks on the United States, American society has gone through
dramatic changes within its cultural structure. With each of the events mentioned,
Americans have developed a variety of stances toward racism, and how we respond to the
topic of race. While our culture changes, and continues to emerge with other ethnic
backgrounds, America’s education system needs to as well, and multicultural adolescent
literature contributes to the change.
In "How Good it is to be a Monkey": Comics, Racial Formation, and American
Born Chinese,” Min Hyoung Song says, “more than any other racial minority in the United
States, Asian Americans have found their status as a racial minority complicated by claims
of their many apparent economic successes” (1). Song is touching on both racial and
socioeconomic prejudices that Asian Americans have to face. Asian Americans are
constantly being ridiculed based on racial stereotypes toward them. Those tend to include:
the way they look, their wealth, extreme intelligence, and their speech. Gene Yang’s
American Born Chinese tries to break the misconceptions that the majority of American’s
have toward Asian Americans. With American Born Chinese, Yang illustrates the way Asian
Americans are currently viewed or have been viewed in the past. Song explains, “as a
result, readers are encouraged to ponder how much race thinking has changed, in what
ways, and where this change might be leading” (73). By choosing a comic medium, Yang
can also use visuals to show his audience the progression of stereotypes that Asian
Americans have faced. Yang uses the character Chin-Kee as the stereotypical Asian
American. Chin-Kee is the way that Asian Americans are sadly depicted throughout
American media. Jin Wang is the centerpiece for the novel, which serves as the accurate
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version of an Asian American, and the Monkey King is used to educate the reader to an
ancient Chinese fable. In American Born Chinese, the Monkey King tries to get into a party of
the Gods. When he tries to get in the guard tells him, “You may be a king--you may even be
a deity--but you are still a monkey" (15). The Monkey King is probably the most important
character within the novel because his story focuses on the fact that you cannot change
who you are, and to embrace your culture, or where you come from is a beautiful concept.
Yang uses Chin-Kee and Jin Wang as a contrast to what Asian American stereotypes are and
who Asian Americans actually are. Later on in the novel, Jin Wang tries to disassociate
himself with his Chinese heritage by changing the way his hair looks, and denying his true
identity. At this point Jin is transformed into a Caucasian teenager. Song states that, “Yang's
American Born Chinese directly addresses this problem when it prompts its readers to
consider how much such transformations in racial formation occur just beyond the eye's
ability to perceive” (82). Yang is using Jin’s physical transformation to really illustrate the
ways in which someone of a certain culture will cut themselves off from their culture and
sometimes give into another culture to fit in.
The illustrations of the graphic novel can have a larger effect on the reader by
showing how an Asian American author views the stereotypes against his culture. With
American Born Chinese, scholars can reach a wider range of adolescents because of it being
a graphic novel. Adolescent students in the 21st century are reading less and less. They
either have zero interest in reading, or they have not been exposed to something that
catches their attention. With their colorful illustrations, graphic novels appeal to a wider
range of adolescents because is generally a more entertaining read. Some graphic novels
can and should be taught in the classroom as long as it serves a purpose relevant to the
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standards of the curriculum. American Born Chinese serves the purpose of breaking racial
stereotypes in America, and that alone give it an excuse to be taught in the classroom
setting.
Adolescents are greatly affected by their family’s socioeconomic status. Luckily a
variety of multicultural adolescent literature deals with this topic. In his essay, “The Role of
Socioeconomic Status in Adolescent Literature,” Michael Pearlman states that, “Central to
this idea is the presumption that SES plays an important role in the lives of adolescents,
that the awareness of differing levels of SES strongly influences adolescents' selfperceptions as well as their perceptions of the external world” (223). He then explains,
“According to Rosenberg and Pearlin (1978), ‘Both children and adults learn their worth, in
part, by comparing themselves with others ... both children's and adult's self-attitudes are
influenced to a large degree by the attitudes of others towards themselves’ (72)” (223).
There was a study done in 1988 that was used to measure students’ level of selfesteem by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Pearlman describe the findings of
this study:
‘In this study, a "consistent pattern" emerged at all three grade levels. It was found
that "self-esteem increased as SES level increased for students attending low SES as
well as high SES schools. In fact, SES accounted for the highest percentage of
variance in student levels of self-esteem’ (pp. 477-9)” (224).
Most authors of adolescent literature seem to be aware of the correlation between
adolescent self-esteem and socioeconomic status. Through the texts by these authors
students can develop a sense of what socioeconomic status really is and relate to the issues
that the characters in the novels that they are reading deal with. With the importance of
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socioeconomic status to adolescents and a multitude of YA novels that deal with the
concept of socioeconomic status there is no reason why one of them shouldn’t be taught in
the classroom. There are only a select few YA novels dealing with socioeconomic status
that are accepted into the literary canon. One of those accepted is The Outsiders by S.E.
Hinton.
In The Outsiders, Hinton highlights the differences among adolescents of different
socioeconomic backgrounds. The poor kids are Greasers, and the wealthy kids are Socs.
Throughout the novel, Ponyboy and his Greaser friends display that it is acceptable to not
have money. Despite their SES the Greasers overcome death, violence, and social dismay.
The Socs in the novel are even highlighted as the “bad guys.” She also makes it clear that it
is not because of their SES that they are the bad guys but because they do horrible things to
people, and act irresponsibly. Hinton uses her novel as a platform to let young adolescents
know that you can still achieve great things even if you are poor. There is a strong
statement within The Outsiders that lets adolescents know that socioeconomic status
doesn’t define you as an individual.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie also concentrates
on socioeconomic status and the way it ties into certain cultures such as the Native
American culture, and how it can affect those cultures. In The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian, Junior is a Native American high school freshman that lives on an Indian
reservation in Spokane, WA. Junior overcomes his socioeconomic status as a poor
reservation Indian after his teacher, Mr. P, tells him:
“You’ve been fighting since you were born… You fought off the brain surgery. You
fought off those seizures. You fought off all of the drunks and drug addicts. You kept
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your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other
people have hope” (43).
Junior asks him where “hope” is, and Mr. P tells him the “farther you walk away from this
sad, sad, sad reservation” (43). This passage gives the reader the idea that everyone is
given a chance as long as they are willing to take it.
Alexie doesn’t focus solely on the effects of socioeconomic status but he focuses on
the effects that SES have on cultural communities. Throughout Diary, Alexie illustrates for
his reader the effects that poverty has on the Spokane reservation. When Junior starts to
attend Reardan, the middle class, mostly white school, his best friend, Rowdy dismisses
him as his friend, and the entire reservation makes him an outcast. However, Alexie shows
adolescents that they can overcome trivial matters such as this, and make new friends that
don’t care about where you come from as long as you are a good person.
Alexie also focuses on more serious subjects that adolescents might deal with and the
effects that those subjects can have on a culture. Junior’s family are drunks, and he
experiences a number of deaths throughout the novel that are related to alcoholism such as
that of his father’s best friend getting shot in the face during a drunken argument, and his
grandmother’s death caused by a drunk driver. While addressing these sensitive subjects,
Alexie is exposing adolescents to the downfalls of alcoholism and the effects it has on a
community.
Multicultural adolescent literature can have an overwhelming impact on the young
adults that they are geared toward. They deal with serious issues among different cultures,
that students need to be educated about in order to be productive, and peaceful members
of society. Multicultural literature helps build social and cultural capital in the classroom. It
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can break down cultural barriers that students that are uneducated on certain cultures
might have. Authors such as Alexie, Yang, and Hinton have made great strides toward
developing our youth to be educated on the world around them. Multicultural adolescent
literature relates to the young adult lifestyle, while educating them on cultures other than
their own and this can have a long-lasting impact on the manner in which they carry out
their lives.
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Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown
and Company, 2009. Print.
Chen, Tina. "Towards an Ethics of Knowledge." MELUS 30.2 (Summer 2005): 157-173.
Literary Criticism. Vol. 262. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18
Mar. 2011.
Grobman, Laurie. "Toward a Multicultural Pedagogy: Literary and Nonliterary Traditions."
MELUS 26.1 (Spring 2001): 221-240. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Tom
Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 189. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resource
Center. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.
Hinton, SE. The Outsiders. New York; Puffin, 2006. Print.
Pearlman, Michael. "The Role of Socioeconomic Status in Adolescent Literature." Children's
Literature Review 30.117 (1995): 223. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Feb.
2011.
Song, Min Hyoung. "'How Good it is to be a Monkey': Comics, Racial Formation, and
American Born Chinese." Mosaic [Winnipeg] 43.1 (2010): 73+. Literature Resource
Center. Web. 18 Mar. 2011.
Yang, Gene. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. Print.