Monster by Myers was an easy-to-read, very enjoyable novel about a young, African-American man's struggle fighting racial prejudices and the American justice system. The format of this novel (written as a screenplay) would be an excellent addition to any young adult literature curriculum. Aside from its multicultural content, the text format is sure to be a different and very nice break for students, who are most likely immersed in deep, intense, traditionally-written novels. The screenplay format lends itself to all kinds of unique activities that educators could bring into the classroom. This could include students writing about a significant event in their lives in a screenplay format. It obviously lends itself to a Reader's Theatre format. It could lead the way for other dramas and/or screenplays to be read in the classroom. This is an excellent text to use for interdisciplinary studies--the literature teacher could work with the technology, broadcasting, or computer science teacher in order to help students better understand the specific film terminology in the novel. I believe that the play
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose would be a wonderful literature "pairing" to read with
Monster. Both of these works tell the story of a difficult trial in court, yet they are told from different perspectives.
Monster is written from the defendant's point of view, while
Twelve Angry Men is written from the point of view of the jurors in the courtroom. I could go on and on with different lesson ideas for using
Monster in a literature class for adolescents, but I think you get the picture....
In regards to Daniel Hade's article "Reading Multiculturally," I unfortunately do not have such pleasant things to say as I did about Myers's Monster. I will admit that Hade did not get off to a good start with his article in my opinion.... he began his article by mentioning a discussion that he had with his daughters about Disney's The Lion King in which he mistakenly identifies the lion father character as "Mustafa" when the character's name is actually "Mufasa." Now, you may think that I am being ridiculously picky; but, I have a strong background in journalism and I strongly believe that each and every piece of published work should be fact-checked several times! This obviously did not happen here, and I began my reading of this article quite disappointed.
Aside from this, as I continued reading, I couldn't help but feel that Hade was a reverse-racist with entirely too much white guilt on his mind. He too often complains about racial stereotypes in African American literature, and yet does not seem to mind that the majority of "white" literature is obviously a stereotype as well. His view of the reason for teaching multicultural literature also upset me. I completely agree that we as teachers need to do all that we can to expose our children to multicultural literature that is outside of their day-to-day spectrum. For many students, what they are exposed to in the classroom may be all that they ever see of the world outside of their small towns. Hade, however, suggests that the sole purpose for reading multicultural literature needs to be to spur social change and social justice. I believe that this can be an effect of reading multicultural literature, but not the purpose. The purpose should be awareness of other cultures, religions, beliefs, ideals, etc., outside of one's own.
On another note, I have spent several years studying reading education and children's literature; and Hade made a statement in his article that really did not set well with me at all! On p.240, Hade states: "Viewing reading as an act of comprehension places authority outside the reader. A semiotic view of reading focuses upon interpretation and interpretation is reader-based." As a reading/literature teacher, we absolutely cannot discount comprehension!! The purpose of reading a text is to comprehend it. Yes, interpretation is important, but this is something that is brought to a text to AID in comprehension! Interpretation is based on individual backgrounds and experiences that a reader brings to a text when they are reading it--this assists the reader in comprehending the material that they are reading. Several highly-acclaimed researchers (Louise Rosenblatt, for example) have conducted studies showing that the more background knowledge a student brings to a text, the more they are able to comprehend, thus the more they are able to take away from the text. Comprehension and interpretation work hand-in-hand during the reading process; and I feel that Hade needs to be careful not to separate the two!
