Only death can pay for life - The role of the protagonist’s death in young adult literature

Abstract

Everybody will eventually die. This is a certainty from the moment we are born. Young adult readers are used to experiencing death in their encounters with young adult literature. The parent, the friend, the helper, all of these literary character types may die. But what about when the protagonist dies? This master thesis is about the role of the protagonist’s death in young adult literature. In this thesis, I present a close reading of six young adult novels with the following research question in mind: “What is the role of the protagonist’s death in young adult literature?” In order to answer this question, I have focused on death as a theme and death as a narrative technique. Hakola and Kivistö argue that death is a narrative force which affects both plot and characters (2014, p. x). Its function is to further the plot in a given direction, yet death is also arguably the most universal of themes, because all things that come into existence, all life, must eventually end. Since the 70’s children’s and young adult literature has seen an increase in the frequency of death’s appearance (James, 2009, p 2). The death of the protagonist is not something young adult literature tries to shy away from. Death is an inevitable part of life and should be recognized as such. By allowing the young adult reader to experience death and dying in a safe environment and from the safe position as the reader, death becomes less threatening and thereby easier to talk about. Based on Freud Kundu states that it is impossible to imagine one’s own death because we still perceive ourselves as spectators (Kundu, 2015, p. 12) and therefore we are safe. The death of the protagonist in young adult literature helps the reader contemplate on their mortality and thus can help them imagine what it might be like to die. The selected reading material for this master thesis may prepare the reader for their own death by allowing the protagonist to die. A core message from these texts is the realization that death should not stand in the way of living. These texts show that growing up is about living, and living is about going experiences. What one wants to live for and experience is up to the reader to figure out. But the truth is simple, as George R. R. Martin writes it, “[o]nly death can pay for life” (Martin, 2011, p. 779).