In Alleen Pace Nilsen’s article “Love and the Teenage Reader,” written in 1976, she discusses the connection an author creates with their target audience through their literature. She specifically writes about “young love”(Nilsen, 90) in young adult novels, and how during her time the young love novels were often “stereotyping and [exaggerating]” events to create the perfect love story. Even though Nilsen does not mention The Fault In Our Stars (because of the time differences), the themes and ideas that she expresses throughout her article are similar to those that pertain to John Green’s Novel. Early in her article, she refers to Judy Blume, the Author of Forever, as an author who writes a book that is not necessarily an “‘adult’ story about young love,”(Nilsen, 90) instead, a story that is very relatable to the audience it is targeting, young women. Nilsen states that there were “thousands of girls who grew to love Judy Blume when she led them through their first menstrual periods”(Nilsen, 90). The experience of going through a menstrual period is something that applies to all women in general, and the first menstrual period applies to young women in particular. By highlighting, focusing, and incorporating in her novel this commonality between all young women, Are You there God? Its Me, Margaret, by Blume engages her target audience by writing about a topic that is relatable. Even though every young woman may not go about their first menstrual period the same way Margaret does in Blume’s Novel, the experience of having one is what is common. John Green does the same thing with finding a commonality within his target audience. By creating a scenario that involves young love, which applies to almost everybody, young, or old, he is able to intrigue his readers. Even though not everybody experiences love the way Hazel and Gus do in his novel, Green does a great job of incorporating emotional experiences that are common among those in love, regardless of whether or not cancer is a factor, because the reality is, not everybody meets their partner through a cancer related situation. For instance, when on the plane to Amsterdam, while speaking to Hazel Augustus says “I’m in love with you,”(Green, 153) and renders Hazel unable to respond in a logical manner, so much that she “couldn’t say anything back.”(Green, 154.) Although not all of us have experienced a situation exactly like this, on a plane to Amsterdam with somebody who has just admitted their love to you, I am fairly certain most, if not all of us have been involved in a situation in which somebody has admitted feelings to us, leaving us unable to respond for whatever reason, be it confusion, shock, or both. In literature, it is moments like these that make the novel so entrapping, and these moments are what form the emotional connection.
Works Cited
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print.
Nilsen, Alleen P. “Books for Young Adults: Love and the Teenage Reader.” The English Journal 3rd ser. 65 (1976): 90-92. JSTOR. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/814848>.
I’m so glad you’re bringing Judy Blume into this discussion (though I imagine she’s much less frequently read than she was when I was young?). Something implicit in what you’re saying, that could be emphasized, is the difference between exceptional circumstances (having cancer, surviving with terminal cancer for years and years) and relatable, common experiences (first period, first love). Judy Blume is not one for the exceptional, but John Green is, obviously. Does he succeed because he tempers those exceptional elements with the common?