The book Charlotte Temple, explores the ups and downs of a teenager wanting her independence. Every teen believe they're on top of the world, every teen thinks their invincible. But in actuality, they're no. Charlotte Temple displays this in more then one way. Wether it be from going against her parents and leaving to go overseas with a man she hardly knows, to becoming a teenager mother. Teens think they're invincible, but their not.
With in this work of literature it shows this too teens. They can relate to it because it shows a teenage girl going through the same struggles as teens go through nowadays. Life, independence, love, and finding yourself are all different topics that teens have been dealing with since forever, such as in Charlotte Temple which is set in the early 19th century, and where these topics show throughout the book.
Which brings me to the reason for this blog post, I think Charlotte Temple would be a fine book to teach to future sophomore classes. The book gives the students something they can relate to, it's not like other books involving characters and plot lines that generally just do not occur in real life. This book gives a pretty accurate description of what a life could turn into if you choose to make naive choices. Even though much of the book does involve melodramatic scenes, much of it isn't as far fetched as it may seem. Teen pregnancy statistics are soaring in the society were living in today. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 1/3 of teenagers will get pregnant some point within their lifetime. As saddening as that may be, its the harsh reality. And there are great consequences for the choices you make, bad and naive ones included.
Charlotte temple shows these consequences, granted some may be exaggerated, but there nothing that couldn't possibly happen to everyone. Charlotte temple is a relatable book for all teenagers, thats why I feel it should be taught to the future classes.
Grace, I think you make a very interesting and valid point that many teenagers believe they are invincible these days, yet in reality they can also be very naive. Although this story is relatable for many young people, i feel like the values from the story don't speak to readers in the way they were intended to. I have also heard alot of news about teen pregnancy in news, school, and magazines and the the percentage of teen moms is exceptionally high now a days. Do you think that reading Charlotte Temple could help steer young people from making bad decisions and help to avoid consequences such as unplanned pregnancy?
ReplyDeleteGrace - I also agree that bringing up teen pregnancies was an interesting point in your blog post.
ReplyDeleteHere are a few suggestions: include some textual support in your post and proofread more carefully -- there are a few typos in the first section of your post.